Opinion

The thinking behind BBH’s Cannes Chimera-winning idea Plight Map

Jonathan TanBBH’s China office was among four Asian winners of Cannes Chimera, a competition for agencies to crack a brief for a project that does the world some good.

In this Q&A, BBH China’s engagement planner Jonathan Koh explains the thinking behind ‘Plight Map’, a service that informs air passengers of the trials and tribulations going on in the countries they are flying over.

What was the inspiration for the idea?

I think one of the definitions of a great brief is that it inspires. And it did. The brief: propose an innovative new comms concept—a new tool, platform, product…a brilliant storytelling idea—that inspires Millennials to be part of the generation that eliminates global health and development problems for good.

What would you say to those (including airlines and travel companies) who tell you that, after the shooting down of MH17 over Ukraine, informing passengers of the conflicts beneath them isn’t a very comforting idea?

It’s not necessarily conflicts we want to highlight, but rather human development projects and crises where people need help.

The MH17 event was a terrible tragedy. But it was also a reminder that we live in a reality where we can no longer afford to ignore the in-between places and forgotten people. I’d like to think that airlines and travel companies would be among those that believe the world is getting smaller. One great example of this is that almost all airlines now collect loose change from passengers for UNICEF – to support children’s developmental needs.

How would it work in practice? Would it be an option to watch on the inflight entertainment menu, like a movie or music?

We still have a lot to work out in terms of designing the user experience, and we’re mindful that we’re essentially competing with in-flight entertainment, movies, iPads, sleep, sleeping pills… and whatever people do on long flights. So creating an experience that is not only non-disruptive to passengers, but something that makes the flying experience better, more meaningful – will be key. We’re really looking forward to working together with the all-star Chimera crew that Cannes has put together, and getting their input on crafting the user experience will be… well, awesome.

What data partners (Google, Wikipedia, etc) would you use to make this work, and are they already on board?

Again, this is still in the early stages, but what’s really exciting about this is there are now tons of data sources out there that we could possibly leverage. Not just Google Maps, but organisations like AidData.org, who hosts open data for development projects, Reliefweb.int is building exciting information tools for humanitarian projects (check out their Labs), just to name a few.

We’re not only thinking of data sources, but there are lots of people who have been telling stories that need to be told, think National Geographic, ViceNews, and moreover they are engaging with millenials using channels and behaviors that millenials use. So we can learn a lot from them, and maybe even partner with them.

We’re by no means experts on humanitarian aid, but there’s an interesting principle of aid projects and raising support and awareness for them: aid projects need maps, and data populating those maps. And essentially, that’s what we’re trying to do here. Plight Map will not only leverage existing efforts to plot data and stories on a map, but hopefully it can actually help connect and cross-pollinate data from various maps and efforts.

How can brands get involved?

Initially, it would be great if brands could sponsor individual causes, at specific locations on the map. It’s difficult for individuals to respond to a broad ask by a company or charity, even such as “Help us fight X”, or “Join Cause X”. One thing that the Plight Map idea does really well is it contextualizes the ask, so that the need is visualized, and tangible. Imagine if you knew about a specific village with names and faces, how much easier would it be to give? We still need to work out the details, but in principle, the closer brands can get involved to the ground level, the better.

What are your long term hopes for the project, and what are you plans to make it scalable and sustainable?

What’s great about this idea is that at it’s core is a platform that potentially connects an audience to existing data and stories. And with the right partners it could take on a life of its own, beyond the resources that we put in initially, and even beyond the in-flight screen. We’re so excited and really grateful that Cannes saw the potential in our idea and chose our entry.

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