Aya
pan
eco
VODAFONE
The campaign that endangered a language.
The Mexican language Ayapaneco. Only two speakers are still alive. But they stopped talking to each other decades ago. Divided by a fight. In collaboration with Prof. James A. Fox Vodafone rescued their friendship and their language with an integrated campaign. Viva Communication!
Ayapaneco
INSIGHT
Vodafone wanted to prove that no other brand has a deeper passion for communication than they do. In addition, the whole campaign reflects perfectly the brand claim of Vodafone 'Power to You', demonstrating what's possible when Vodafone gives the power to individuals. And finally, the campaign needed to have a strong involvement of the social community, which is mandatory for a communication provider. With Vodafone's mission to rescue a dying language from extinction, the brand involves people from all over the world with a deep love for communication.
"AYAPANECO"
at risk of dying out
THE CASE
The story of the reunion is narrated in the documentary video. It briefly describes the problem of the Ayapaneco language and the sad story of its last two speakers—Manuel Segovia, 78, and Isidro Velazquez, 72. At the project’s launch, they didn’t communicate because of a quarrel that happened long ago for a reason no one really remembered.
Manuel Segovia, 78
Isidro Velazquez, 72
THE MENTOR
With the help of the community, the creative team and Stanford University linguistic anthropologist Professor James A. Fox, the Ayapaneco language started to live a new life—Mr. Velazquez and Mr. Segovia reunited to teach their language to kids and adults who want to know it.
In addition to a physical language school for kids in Tabasco (Mexico), there is a special website launched, where people can “adopt” various words from the Ayapaneco language. The range of words includes some simple ones like KO’O (“goodbye”) or MAA’K (“to fish”). This effort will help create the first social dictionary ever.
THE FUTURE
Bringing a language back to life and preserving it forever cannot be done within a few months. The goal is to build a long term platform to make the digital legacy of Ayapaneco grow day by day. By working with the online community already more than 5000 words have been saved forever. And it is still going on.
PRESS
FAZ
BLOOMBERG
REPUBLICWORLD
LEADERSNET
CNBC
FINANCIALEXPRESS
INDIANEXPRESS
THESOUTHAFRICAN
HORIZONT
I AM NOTHING WITHOUT A GREAT TEAM:
Goetz Ulmer - Chief Creative Officer
Simon Hiebl - Creative Director
Thomas Heyen - Creative Director
Markus Kremer - Creative Director
Match Herceg - Creative Director
Manuel Urbanke - Art Director
Maximilian Hoch - Copywriter
Nico Polzin - Digital Art Director
Alexa Petruch - Designer
Julia Kroemker/René Requardt - Client Service Director
Sophie Stejdir - Account Manager
Christian Hibbeler/Lisa Kriszun - Agency Producer
Song Bureau - Music Production
Neels Feil - Cinematographer
Marco Berger - Director
Olaf Didolff - Composer
