Hamad Mohammed Al Fahida (third right), Chief Operations Officer Qatar Post, with Alberto Manzo, (right) Head of Sales and Marketing; Fatema Al Yousif (second right), Marketing Supervisor Sales and Marketing Department; and other officials at the launch o
As part of Qatar Post’s mission to connect people to what matters to them the most, the national postal service has launched a new campaign, ‘Al Wasl’, that celebrates Arabic language and its role as a social connector.
On the occasion of the International Mother Language Day celebrated by Unesco, Qatar Post’s parcel boxes, postcards and stamps turn into mediums to remind public in Qatar of the importance of connecting to one another, using a special design based on specific Arabic wording that celebrate human values. ‘Al Wasl’ fuses the unique typography of Arabic with the notion of language as a symbol of identity, communication, social integration, education and development.
Commenting at the campaign launch event, Hamad Mohammed Al Fahida, Qatar Post Chief Operations Officer, said: “Connections have always lived at the heart of our Arab culture and is even reflected in our mother language. As we know, isolated letters can form meaningful words only when they come in touch with one another, through the art of connecting called ‘Al Wasl’. This is true of us as individuals, as well. Qatar Post hopes that every day we will be able to connect to find affection, respect, happiness, pride, gratitude and much more, through each of our postal offerings”.
Unlike Western languages where letters are placed next to each other in a linear fashion to create words, Arabic language relies on physically connecting one letter to another to create meaning.
‘Al Wasl’ in Arabic means a ‘link’ or a ‘connection’. In this context, the links used in the Arabic manuscript to form words become the very tool that reminds people of the bonds they share.
Alberto Manzo, Head of Sales and Marketing at Qatar Post, elaborated on the campaign’s offering. “Our campaign aims to inspire our people to connect to each other through their mother language by emphasising how meaningful connections are to their daily lives. A series of powerful Arabic words, such as pride, glory and gratitude, will reach our public soon in the form of beautifully-designed Qatar Post parcels, postcards and stamps, conveying the power of connections”.
The design of the new products has been created using strokes from the Qatar Post logo, whereby lines intersect and connect to form letters and words embodying the essence of Qatar Post’s philosophy.
The perforated ‘peel this’ tag on the box will allow the user to connect the letters themselves to form a word. As the letters connect, the box gets opened, revealing the message: “It is only when individual letters are connected, that they have meaning. The same is true of us as individuals”. The parcel boxes are expected to become a collector's item.
Moreover, the postcard series, comprising a set of 2-4 cards in one envelope, will feature slots to be joined together to reveal the word. As for the stamp series, every first day cover will hold 2-5 stamps depending on its value. The unique experience here is that its only when one tears off the letters and places them next to each other will they form a word that reminds them of connections.
