Senegal Surround Sound

Senegal Surround Sound is an innovative initiative that combines the influence and power of the entertainment industry, media, marketing and political assets to reach individuals and communities with malaria education and activities.

Tags: Senegal

Malaria No More supports the best marketers in Africa to design and execute national campaigns that effectively engage audiences with the right local message.

In Senegal, Malaria No More partnered with Africa's most famous musician and one of the biggest media owners in the country, Youssou NDour. Together, we're engaging local leaders from all sectors of society — faith, government, business and sports — to reach every household in the country. In addition, the Surround Sound program periodically conducts locally-driven, detailed market research to find the best strategies to reach our objectives: change peoples' attitudes and behaviors toward malaria, increase net usage and encourage families to seek effective testing and treatment at the first signs of symptoms.

Since its launch in June 2009, the campaign has reached millions of Senegalese through concerts, NDour's original malaria anthem, numerous TV and radio ads, and the "Xeex Sibbiru" song contest, a music competition modeled after popular open-call reality contests like "American Idol." The song contest culminated on June 9 with a nationally broadcast television finale with a winner named and becoming an advocate for the Xeex Sibbiru campaign for the coming year.

The Surround Sound Approach: Loud and Clear

The Surround Sound Model works to increase mosquito net usage and malaria testing and treatment. It also aims to provide local sustainability by engaging leadership and achieving high-profile commitments from country leaders, and developing the capacity of local partners so that they can maintain and expand programs in the future.

How Malaria No More Does It

The Right Media: Engage the best local marketers across the entertainment, sports, faith and business sectors in order to achieve an outsized impact.

The Right Message: Supplement existing understanding of attitudes and practices with cutting-edge market research and local marketing experience to create effective messaging strategies that will resonate.

Iconic Messengers: We anchor our campaigns with local icons who can mobilize key sectors of society and expand our reach.

The result: We've Got Malaria Surrounded!

See a report-back from Malaria No More Managing Director Kate Campana about the impact of the Surround Sound: Senegal campaign.

Visit Dakar Calling to find out the latest news about the malaria fight in Senegal.