Case Study: Islamic Hotline
Introduction
The Islamic Hotline Phone Service was created in Egypt in the year 2000 with the vision of becoming the world’s foremost source of information for centrist Islamic teachings utilizing the mediums of telephone, and the internet.
lslamic Hotline is a Pay-per-Call service ready to take callers’ queries at any time of the day. Providing authoritative answers by scholars of Cairo’s renowned Al-Azhar University, the Islamic Hotline presents a moderate and tolerant picture of Islam.
Programme Objectives
The Islamic Hotline’s campaign objectives:
- Media management to promote the work of Islamic Hotline and market it to young Muslims
- A community engagement strategy that analyses the socio-cultural makeup of Muslim youth
- Event Management to help launch the Islamic Hotline.
PR Strategy and Tactics
Unitas Communications used a three-pronged strategy to achieve the three different objectives of Islamic Hotline’s campaign, one of which included media positioning and media management. As a brand new project, Islamic Hotline needed the support to reach out to a target and new audience that had not been targeted in the past. This strategy included writing up press releases and distributing them to niche and mainstream media outlets. In addition, Unitas Communication produced a promotional video of credible endorsements for Islamic Hotline.
Unitas Communications worked on a research project as part of the second phase of the general campaign, planning and executing a method to map the socio-cultural and political environment for the Islamic Hotline. This would enable to service to maximise its potential by ensuring that it meets the needs of the target audience and eventually monitoring the service is being is used. The longer term goal of this project was to eventually build partnerships with influential UK Muslim NGO groups who could then assist Islamic Hotline in maintain the needs of its target audience.
The final prong of the campaign was to organise, plan and execute a prestigious kick-off event that would advertise Islamic Hotline across the UK. This involved bringing together thought-leaders and opinion formers as well as representatives from various communities to endorse the project.
Campaign Results
Unitas Communications secured mainstream media coverage of Islamic Hotline from the BBC’s Breakfast Show, The Guardian, Sky News, Times Online and several other media. In addition, Islamic Hotline was covered in various ethnic media such as Al Arabiya, The Nation (UAE), Talk Islam, Euro Islam, Islam Online and Islamic New among others. In addition to significant media coverage, Unitas Communication produced a ten-minute promotional video in which eight credible British Muslim scholars, activists and political figures endorsed the service.
As part of the research project, Unitas Communications Organising and facilitating consultations with key UK Muslim organisations including; the Islamic Society of Britain, City Circle, the Mosques and Imams National Advisory Board (MINAB), Muslim Youth Helpline, Young Muslims UK and Radical Middle Way amongst others. All of these are crucial in their focus on Islamic Hotline’s target audience and will strengthen its outreach.
Unitas Communications closed off the campaign by organising and executing a launch event at The Dorchester, Park Lane. Guest speakers included the Grand Mufti of Damascus Sheikh Abdel Fattah El Bezem, Professor of Jurisprudence at Al Azhar University Dr Rafaat Osman and President of the Liberal Democrats and Advisor to Nick Clegg MP (Leader of the Liberal Democrats) on interfaith issues. In addition to these key players, delegates that attended the event included individuals from The Mosques and Imams National Advisory Board (MINAB), the Muslim College, the Islamic Society of Britain, British Muslim Forum, Muslim Youth Helpline, Islam Channel, Alt Muslim, Radical Middle Way, the Islamic Shariah Council and others.
Evaluation & Next Step
The Islamic Hotline campaign provided the service with the media positioning and coverage that it needed to call the attention of its target audience. More importantly, it established partnerships with key organizations and NGOs that work towards the same cause and could collaborate more closely in the future.