How do you bring back to life a legendary airline that died two decades ago? By telling its story in an original way. To resurrect the “Pan-African Carrier”, we had to tell the story of what happened to it.
Indeed, ‘Air Afrique’ was a unique carrier that brought together 11 West African countries to form one of continent’s biggest airlines.
It was a powerful symbol of african liberation. A pride dear to the hearts of pan-Africanists, for whom the company represented a hope of unity and integration.
Unfortunately, after a four-decade run, their dream was shattered when the airline went bankrupt.
So the idea started with a question: Who killed ‘Air Afrique’?
From there, began in February 2023. meticulous research and interviews to find out the truth.
The objective was to reveal the real causes of Air Afrique’s bankruptcy, to recount the unknown parts of the history of this legendary airline and to tell the story of the shattered dream of an entire generation of Africans. What the team thought would be another story on post-independence Africa, ended-up creating a trend and rekindling emotions and debate around an African icon buried in the oblivion of history.
To bring the project to life, the narrator, Rémy Nsabimana, used a particular style of narration that combines ‘later narration’ (which allows the story to be told as it happened in the more or less distant past) and ‘earlier narration’ (which allows the narrator to tell the story in anticipation of what is going to happen as the historical events unfold and follow one another in the narrative).
The team added also an educational value tapping on historical context or insights into significant events.
The story Rémy, graphic and post-production teams built created then an emotional connection with audience and spiked emotions like empathy, curiosity, reflection which led viewers to engage (Like, comment, share, save, follow...).
This whole captured the audience’s attention. Starting from the hook until the end, the audience remained interested in the narration.
Our story, “Who killed ‘Air Afrique’?” had a huge impact across platforms.
It created unexpected audience reach and engagement. AJ+ français account on TikTok gained organically 29K followers from this video only.
On YouTube:
650.7K Views
56.6K Watch time (hours)
8.6K Subscribers
Average view duration: 5:13
Average percentage viewed: 44.0%
On TikTok version:
711K plays
58K Likes
973 Comments
5.2K Shares
8.5K Saves
Reached 88% non-followers
29K New followers
High production quality which includes remarkable, clear and creative narration, engaging visuals enhanced our viewers experience. ‘Air Afrique’ was a symbol of African unity and aspirations. Aj+ français shared its story with the viewers who were interested in African identity and pan-Africanism.
As result, this video was shared by other media outlets and public figures.
