Four years after the end of Sri Lanka's brutal civil war, the process of reconciliation was still not complete. With the traditional New Year coming up, the one event celebrated by both the communities involved, Ada, a mass-market daily newspaper, wanted us to find a way for it to contribute to the reconciliation process.

Our solution to bridging the gap between two communities who speak completely different languages, was to reach out to both of them by creating Sri Lanka’s first bilingual newspaper.

The campaign started with us working with the editors and journalists of the paper to create content, which included articles that allowed each community to learn the other's perspective. We also helped design a masthead and had input on the front page.

The next step we took was to design a promotional campaign for the bilingual newspaper on social and traditional media which would get people talking, like celebrities and dignitaries, and generate publicity for the 'Unity Paper' on other mainstream outlets like TV news programmes and different newspapers.

The PR campaign was a success with many celebrities and individuals commenting resulting in over 220,000 likes, shares and views, which adds up to 15% of all Sri Lankan Facebook users. Free publicity was given on news programmes and the front covers for four leading dailies. The Ada Unity Paper, on the day of publication, saw a 20% increase in sales which resulted in the paper being sold out.

Our solution to bridging the gap between two communities who speak completely different languages, was to reach out to both of them by creating Sri Lanka’s first bilingual newspaper.

The campaign started with us working with the editors and journalists of the paper to create content, which included articles that allowed each community to learn the other's perspective. We also helped design a masthead and had input on the front page.

The next step was executing a week-long promotional campaign for the bilingual newspaper on social and traditional media which got people talking, like celebrities and dignitaries, and generated publicity for the 'Unity Paper' on other mainstream outlets like TV news programmes and different newspapers.

On Facebook , the two letter symbols we created to promote the 'Unity Paper' were used by people as profile pictures and the campaign got over 220,000 likes, shares and views, which adds up to 15% of all Sri Lankan Facebook users. The Ada Unity Paper, on the day of publication, saw a 20% increase in sales which resulted in the paper being sold out.