In 2019, poverty across Egypt owing to the economic crisis, resulted in a hunger crisis.

Knorr, a food brand from Unilever, wanted to make a positive difference, and help improve the hunger and poverty situation of Egyptians.

A typical food donation campaign wouldn't make a sustained impact. It hadn't.

Instead, we wanted to empower those who were living in poverty by helping them grow their own food.

And in turn, created a new transformational business model, that was sustainable and profitable.

We transformed lives, by transforming the dry, arid landscape of Egypt’s cities into lush rooftop farms full of vegetables.

With the never-ending economic crisis in Egypt, there’s a heightened sense of social responsibility among Egyptians. They've become more inclined to choosing brands that have an impact on the community and are socially responsible.

And so, in an extremely cluttered market where consumers are bombarded with a barrage of offers, messages and promises from food brands, Knorr, a food solution brand from Unilever, was aiming to earn its role in the Egyptian homes by increasing its relevance to the Egyptian community, establishing itself as a brand that was socially responsible too.

Now, for years, Knorr in Egypt, has been tackling the issue of hunger through various food donation initiatives. Yet, no one paid heed to what Knorr was doing beyond those receiving the food donations.

Owing to the economic crisis' debilitating impact, poverty across Egypt hit a new high resulting in a hunger crisis affecting millions, leaving them in dire need for food and income to provide for their families’ most basic human needs.

Unfortunately, just like Knorr’s and other organizations’ donation drives, the underprivileged are always at the mercy of if, when and how much donors are willing donate, leaving them in a constant state of insecurity and instability.

Instead of “Knorr is donating to Egyptians”, we wanted people to think: “Knorr is solving for Egyptians.”

We used an untapped insight in Egypt:

"If you give someone a fish, you feed that person for a day. But, if you teach someone to fish, you feed that person for a lifetime."

If we donated food, we’d feed those who were hungry for a day.

But, if we helped them grow food and make money in doing so, we’d feed them for a lifetime, especially given the resilience of Egyptians to make things happen.

And we built our strategic transformation on shifting from:

"Feed those living in poverty and hunger by giving them food donations, that helped them today."

To:

"Empowering those living in poverty and hunger by enabling them to grow their own food, that will help them today and in the future."

We didn’t want those who were underprivileged to feel small and feel like they were ‘begging’ for charity. We wanted to give them the dignity to earn what they needed, themselves.

And in turn, we wanted to create a new transformational business model for the underprivileged in Egypt, that was sustainable and profitable.

EXECUTION: REINVENTING FOOD DONATIONS BY CREATING INNOVATIVE FOOD-GROWTH SOLUTIONS, ACTIONING KNORR’S PURPOSE.

With Knorr’s Rooftop Farms, we transformed the lives of the underprivileged in Egypt’s cities by creating a new transformational business model for Knorr that was sustainable and profitable for them.

And in turn, we also transformed the dry and arid landscape of Egypt’s cities into lush rooftop farms full of vegetables.

The technology, to do this at scale, at an effective budget, wasn’t readily available in Egypt.

• We connected with German engineers who brought low-budget hydroponic technology.

• This helped create fully sustainable food-generating farms, placed across buildings in Egypt, operated by underprivileged farmers themselves.

• We taught farming techniques through classroom sessions.

• And all the food produced, was purchased by Knorr, giving the rooftop farmers a new sustainable source of income.

SCALE: CREATIVITY, CREDIBILITY AND CAPABILITY.

Murals on buildings that housed the rooftop farms stood out like beacons of hope amidst the dry, arid landscapes. The meaningful art to bring out the meaningful initiative helped the rooftop farms get talked about and earn social media.

We promoted the rooftop farms through Films, Social Media and PR.

Facebook's "Hack for good" gave it more social cred..

With Knorr, we had set out to make a long-term impact and gain sustained success.

The results in 12 months have been a very promising and encouraging indicator for future scale and future success for the Rooftop Farms.

CULTURE:

Uncovering an interest in sustainable farming, it caught the attention of Egypt’s largest NGO, Misr El Kheir. Within a month, Misr El Kheir partnered with Knorr to scale it to a 100 more rooftops.

With the word of mouth, endorsements and partnerships, this topic was discussed in the Egyptian parliament and with the signing of a Presidential Bill, the rooftop farms initiative from Knorr was transformed into a nation wide initiative of its own as part of Egypt’s sustainable development plan.

BRAND:

Leading media channels including those like CNN endorsed and propagated the idea, giving Knorr free earned media worth $3.5 million.

+2.5% uplift in brand awareness.

+33% uplift in brand relevance (KPi: 20%).

BUSINESS:

+42% purchase intent (KPI: 30%).

+ 23.1% in turnover vs. the year prior (KPI: 20%).

+19% growth in volumes vs. the year prior (KPI: 15%).

Knorr in Egypt became the fastest growing food business and the 4th largest food business in Unilever’s portfolio, globally.