Dentsu Aegis Network lends support to M2030 platform

Just imagine that you could borrow cutting edge resources and know-how from world leaders in modern marketing and focus them on positioning and accelerating a new malaria elimination initiative. That's exactly what happened when the Asia Pacific Leaders Malaria Alliance (APLMA) teamed up with the region’s most innovative digital marketing and communications firms.

"Dentsu Aegis Network gave their time to help in the fight against one of the most life-threatening diseases in Asia," said Patrik Silborn, Director of External Relations at APLMA. “We came with a broad idea of what we wanted to achieve – they took that idea and made it real.”

As part of the creative partnership, Dentsu Aegis Network Asia Pacific became one of the main corporate partners in the APLMA-led ‘M2030 - Defeating Malaria Together’, a new platform that mobilizes business leadership and resources to eliminate malaria in Asia by 2030. Dentsu Aegis’ media agency, Vizeum, assumed the role of creative partner to lead the conceptual execution, strategy and brand development for M2030.

"As affluence increases across Asia, we see a decline in malaria being considered an ongoing issue, and yet malaria has caused more deaths than any other disease in Asia,” said Kamil Gottwald, Creative Technology Director at Vizeum APAC. “We're proud to have co-launched M2030 through our creative and strategic services, and to help build a brand created in Asia for tackling malaria in Asia."

Through the resulting creative partnership, a powerful and flexible brand identity was created that acts as a ‘call to arms’ and brings people together around the goal to end the disease by 2030. Inspiration for the brand’s visual identity came from the mosquito net, one of the most effective ways to prevent malaria. This fits so well because the M2030 itself also represents a ‘human net’ among communities and around the region, aimed at defeating the disease.

The M2030 initiative brings together international health organizations, corporations and consumers so that a small part of everyday purchases or actions can make a real contribution to fighting the disease – this allows stakeholders in each part of the buying process to be part of a larger cause.

All resources mobilized by M2030 partners will be channelled to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, where they will be used to support malaria-fighting programmes in the very countries where they are raised.

It is also about business leadership. In Asia, some of the most influential and admired people are CEOs. By turning business leaders into champions for malaria elimination, the impact from the M2030 movement will go well beyond the mobilized money. The largest businesses in Asia are trendsetters and influencers. M2030 partners interact with millions of customers every day. By leveraging corporate platforms, the M2030 movement can educate the public about both the promise of malaria elimination, and the dangers if we fail. The goal is to make the emerging urban middle class in Asia as informed and committed to eliminating malaria as their Heads of States.

“They created a beautiful brand for us, with its own identity,” added Silborn. “It helped us bring on board other world class partners such as the Tahir Foundation, the DT Families Foundation, the Global Fund, Shoppee and Yoma, and more are joining by the month.”

If you are travelling to the first Malaria World Congress in Melbourne in July 2018, you will see first-hand some of the results of the ongoing partnership. The arrivals hall of Tullamarine Airport will be adorned with M2030 and APLMA posters, and billboards will line the route into the city. To help spread the message about the M2030 initiative to arriving delegates and the people of Melbourne, Dentsu Aegis Network Asia Pacific donated the advertising space and Vizeum made the designs.

Dentsu Aegis Network is Innovating the Way Brands Are Built for its clients through its best-in-class expertise and capabilities in media, digital and creative communications services. Offering a distinctive and innovative range of products and services, Dentsu Aegis Network operates in 145 countries worldwide with more than 40,000 dedicated specialists. Vizeum is Dentsu Aegis Network’s media agency. Through blending data, media and technology together, Vizeum specializes in accelerating business growth through media.