At a time when healthcare workers are rightly being celebrated as national heroes, ADA Sri Lanka had a slightly different take on how Sri Lankans should honor the front-line warriors. The integrated digital marketing company – having raised a private donation of LKR 0.5 million via employee contributions – adopted an innovative approach to make the most impact by engaging Sri Lankan youth through their most consumed content medium - videos.

“As a team we were determined to support the healthcare workers in the fight against COVID-19 in our own capacity. We established an internal fund under ADAFORGOOD that had very soon amassed LKR 0.5 million,” commented Rozy Laxana, Managing Director of ADA Sri Lanka. “We simply wanted to ensure this donation created the impact it was intended to. We wanted to do what we do best – connect with people across multiple digital platforms – so that we could make this donation more meaningful, collaborative, and highly impactful.”

Upon careful consideration and evaluation, ADA selected the Colombo East Base Hospital (CEBH) Mulleriyawa for the donation; the hospital is one of the six main hospitals treating COVID patients in Sri Lanka, including most of the patients diagnosed within the Navy cluster. The hospital reported its rapidly increasing need for a range of medical supplies including facemasks, gloves and goggles – basic personal protective equipment (PPE) that are essential for the safety of all first responders during the pandemic.

“We know the power and reach of digital platforms, and as a leader in our field, we took the responsibility of spreading a message of encouragement and empowerment to our front-liners,” explained Sanjini Munaweera, Director – Client Leadership at ADA Sri Lanka. “We brought in our digital, data and creative experts together to identify how to best utilize these online platforms that had become the most consumed medium during the pandemic. That’s where our message had to be.”

ADA’s insights showed that online videos and music streaming led in terms of media consumption. Adding the company’s unrivalled data and advanced analytics expertise to this equation, ADA launched ‘DIRIYA’, a musical tribute to front-line heroes. Lyrics to the song, written by Malini Liyanage and Lucky Lakmina, were brought to life by talented young artists Hirushi Jayasena, Piyath Rajapakse and Tehani Imara. The music video production was carried out in collaboration with Dice Lanka (Pvt) Ltd and Digital Content (Pvt) Ltd, with the support of Pasan Liyanage of Redfox Productions.

“It was important that the content was appealing to the young masses of Sri Lanka who are our largest demographic online,” Fahmee Oowise, Co-founder/Director, Dice Lanka (Pvt) Ltd commented. “We brought together a team of young talent for the production of the song, and by understanding the variables in the equation thanks to ADA’s digital capabilities, we reached a much wider target audience than first anticipated.”

Next came the engagement.  ADA invited Sri Lankans to do their own rendition of the song and upload it on their channels tagging #ADAFORGOOD. In return, ADA pledged to donate LKR 5,000/= of its private fund under the participants name. In a matter of days, the song surpassed 100 cover renditions, equaling the LKR 0.5 million pledge by the company. The covers were uploaded across YouTube, Facebook and TikTok, resulting in over 500K+ campaign views and counting. Close to 30 more young artists supported the campaign alongside the ADA team members.

“Connecting with the right audience, across the right medium and the right platform resulted in the huge success of the DIRIYA campaign. I want to congratulate everyone that volunteered their talent and time to support us in this effort. We utilized our own resources to make a significant impact during a time where people are looking for inspiration. We sincerely hope that is what we provided through the DIRIYA campaign,” Laxana stated.

To conclude the successful campaign in appreciation of all talented Sri Lankans who sang their hearts out in gratitude to the healthcare workers, ADA has produced a final mash-up video with all uploaded cover videos, now available for viewing and sharing on the @adaasia.lk Instagram page.