JWT aids Venezuela's goods shortage crisis with Social Market
Venezuela is in an economic crisis which has made for shortages on food and basic products that leaves Venezuelans scrambling for daily necessities. The black market and barter solutions popping up around the country are rife with fraud.
J. Walter Thompson has worked with Baruta County in the capital city of Caracas to launch #MercadoSocial (#SocialMarket in English), using Twitter and designed to formalize a barter system where people can safely exchange essential goods in a secure zone.
The country announced the initiative last month, inviting Venezuelans to tweet about a product they are willing to trade and a product they need with the #MercadoSocial hashtag. The mayor’s office helped match the barter requests and all exchanges took place at secure zones and exchange points throughout the county.
In less than 24 hours #MercadoSocial became a trending topic on Twitter in Venezuela. In just one week, this initiative generated over 26m impressions on Twitter and more than 1,100 posts using #MercadoSocial. 1,300-plus products were exchanged. Given #MercadoSocial’s early success, other counties may aim to repeat the initiative.
JWT Venezuela created a video of the program in order to promote its success on a larger scale and encourage the rest of the country to create more levels of support. It shows the frustration, panic and violence that has taken place because of the mass shortages (one man was killed for a tube of toothpaste), then shows how well the #SocialMarket worked. It’s a powerful, yet simple message to show how easy it can be to temporarily alleviate the chaos of the economic crisis.
“Social Market is an initiative to offer a tool to Venezuelans to support each other in this food shortage crisis that our country is undergoing. Twitter became the perfect mean for bringing a solution to the needs of many citizens,” said Javier De Bourg, creative director at J. Walter Thompson Venezuela.
Credits:
Agency: J. Walter Thompson Venezuela
Advertiser: Alcaldía de Baruta
CEO: Roberto Pol
Creative Director: Javier De Bourg
Art Director: Javier De Bourg, Agustin Gonzalez, Luis Rojas
Copywriter: Jesús Franco, Verónika Reyes
Planing Director: Néstor Rivero
Digital Planner: Gustavo Behrens
General Account Director: Tatiana Ferro
Account Executive: Jacqueline Hayek
Account Executive: Andreina Plaza
Social Media Manager: Daniela Noya
Production company: Whiskey Films.
Director: Evans Briceño
Executive producer: Laureano Frontado
Postproduction director: Evans Briceño
Editor: Luis Guerrero
Colour: Evans Briceño
Animation: Yeison Rodriguez
Music Director: Luis Miguel Emmanuelli