Case Study: My Friend Sok

MY FRIEND SOK is a media campaign directed and animated by Cornel Hillmann, on the subject of inclusion in Cambodia. With over 6 million views in total, it is currently the most successful NGO animation in Asia.
Inclusive education programs implemented in Cambodia are proving to be a viable channel through which disabled children, often marginalized to the fringes of society, can empower their lives. The NGO Handicap International France (recently renamed Humanity & Inclusion and supported by the European Commission) and the Cambodian Ministry of Education have commissioned the co-production with Meta Art Cambodia  about a boy with bad eye-sight on his first day in school.

Mission & Campaign

The animation film was intended as an educational resource for on-site volunteers and a way to reach out to Cambodian school kids through social media. Even though initially successful, the content truly picked up with the latest wave of smartphones hitting Cambodian teenagers, where it was mostly shared.
The characters and storytelling resonated with the intended audience and resulted in positive engagement. With currently over 6 million views by the targeted audience, the campaign is a tremendous success. Meta-House channel (link): 6,254,942; plus CCOSC channel (link): 479,269. Total: 6,734,211 (April-21, 2022).

Step One: Pre-production & Research

Meta Art helped to set up an appointment at a local school outside of Phnom Penh. The goal was to meet Cambodian school kids at their countryside school, talk to them, and take photos of the class and of buildings, classroom interiors and typical settings. This kind of research is incredibly important in  finding out how your audience feels, and what is important to them, and in picking up details that create important visual anchors in the animation design and storytelling.

Step Two: Animation

The animation was done in the so-called cut-out animation style. This technique made it possible to make changes in production without having to redo everything. For example: Based on research, some characters were originally barefooted, which had to be changed at the sponsors’ request. All voices were previously recorded in a studio in Phnom Penh and then lip-synched with the cartoon characters. Backgrounds and settings were designed based on location references.

Step Three: Post-Production

After the video-editing process, final touches with music and sound effects were added by the sound designer Jan Müller, to give the production an uplifting punch and more emotional depth. Three versions were played out: one with English subtitles, another  with picture-in-picture sign language, and the third is a plain version in Khmer only.

Step Four: Media Outreach 

Once the production is done and delivered, the outreach begins. Most of the time, a video does not become viral overnight, but instead is the result of a consistent outreach strategy. Typically, this involves mailings, listings and associate networks. When the discoverability of the work is optimized, social sharing takes over, if the campaign is successful.