IMDA X BLKJ:

LOVE, TRANSLATED

As Singapore's 300,000 migrant workers went into Covid-19 quarantine, we wanted to show them that although they were in isolation, they were not alone.

So, working with IMDA and numerous other partners, including Facebook, Mediacorp, StarHub and Mother Tongue, we created a WhatsApp hotline to collect messages of encouragement from Singaporeans islandwide – and translated the messages into the native languages of the workers: Bengali, Tamil, Hindi, Mandarin and Burmese. 

The translated messages were forwarded daily to the workers via IMDA's official WhatsApp updates and Facebook’s language-based ad targeting. Love, Translated was featured widely in the media; our launch video ran (for free) on cable TV for 2 weeks and we were given free full-page ad spaces in all of Singapore Press Holdings' major newspapers: The Straits Times, Lianhe Zaobao, Berita Harian and Tamil Murasu. 

Most importantly, the initiative moved many Singaporeans to send in their messages and share the love. Even Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong got in the act by sharing our launch video with his followers.