Advertising agencies create advertisements every day in the fields of food, cars and fashion, but terrorism or war are probably not the first things that come to mind when you think about them.
Immediately after the October 7 Gaza massacre, however, Gitam BBDO group started to operate a war room of information that is responsible for the #MomToo project already found worldwide, trying to touch the community of mothers and keep the issue of the kidnapped people in mind. This is something that has become even more difficult in the last few weeks, when more and more waves of antisemitism have appeared in different places all over the world.
The operation war room produces many videos, some of which are made together with celebrities and global opinion leaders, including Emmy-winning actress Mayim Bialik, and more.
"The operation war room produces 30 to 40 videos a day," says Ido Har-Tov, CEO of Gitam BBDO group. "These are short, meaningful informational videos with memorable messages that we produce in different languages and can be shared on social networks. This is a very important tool for Israel's legitimacy in fighting Hamas."
Har-Tov said that it's been more than two months since the events of October 7th and a lot of organizations and private individuals have joined hands with the goal of creating awareness for Israel.
“This need has arrived because the State of Israel, unlike the private entities, has very weak capabilities in this field,” he says, emphasizing that “this is in complete contrast to the information capabilities of the IDF spokesperson and the intelligence department of the security agencies, who do an excellent job."
The method chosen by Gitam BBDO to expose their videos as quickly and as widely as possible is via social networks, aiming for them to become viral.
"The way to do this was to appeal to influencers,” Har-Tov says. “In the first stage, we approached Israeli influencers such as Noa Kirel and Moran Atias. We asked them to read the WhatsApp conversations of the kidnapped and murdered people. These are difficult texts for any ear, and only by reading them were we able to generate a lot of emotion and exposure.
“In the second stage, we approached actress Mayim Bialik (The Big Bang) who also read a conversation. Within an hour it reached a million views, two hours later two million, then it quickly passed the 10 million views."
Identification with Israeli mothers all over the world
The #MomToo movement addresses women and especially mothers, as its goal was to create a deep emotional connection between mothers from around the world and mothers in Israel. The insight on which the movement is based is that mothers can truly understand and empathize with other mothers, regardless of religion, culture or geographic location.
Also, people have a hard time watching graphic horror videos. Therefore, videos in which mothers are seen bringing their personal story, about their son or daughter who was kidnapped, will lead to a better connection with the viewers.
Har-Tov says that these videos appeal to the maternal instinct that allowed women to connect with the victims’ stories in a strong emotional way.
"Women, and especially mothers, play a significant role in shaping the public discourse, so as soon as they are exposed to it, they will talk about it and share it,” he says. “Also, it is the mothers who are found at the forefront of the campaign, not Israel, which can also remove a barrier in identifying with it."
The solution in this case was the rapid production of the videos, which could be shared immediately on social networks. The leading motif in the campaign is the hashtag combined with a QR code to scan leading to a dedicated website where all the films are shown.
At the time, the campaign was advertised in the international press and on billboards worldwide, and was shared almost immediately by dozens of opinion leaders as well as recognized and influential journalists around the world.
"As part of the campaign, we collected and produced dozens of films telling about the October 7th events through the eyes of the mothers,” Har-Tov says.
“We invested a lot of money in advertising the campaign in the world’s largest media outlets: The New York Times, Washington Post and Daily News, alongside outdoor signage in Times Square,” the Gitam BBDO group CEO says.
“In this way, we succeeded to increase exposure and create more identification with Israel, something that is not always easy to do, especially since antisemitism is increasingly being celebrated in the world today."
Since it went live, the videos on the site have garnered millions of views and shares, Har-Tov says.
“There are very high costs for targeted advertising in the most important and largest media in the world. We want to continue to develop the campaign and expose it for as long as possible and in more places, until all the abductees return home and our messages, as Israel, get through well."