Title	CAMPAIGN AGAINST ILLEGAL FIREWORKS
Brand	DUTCH CONSUMER SAFETY INSTITUTE
Product/Service	CONSUMER SAFETY INSTITUTE
Category	A07. USE OF SOCIAL IN A MEDIA CAMPAIGN
Entrant Company	TBWA\NEBOKO Amsterdam, THE NETHERLANDS
Advertising Agency	TBWA\NEBOKO Amsterdam, THE NETHERLANDS

Name	Company	Position
Matthijs Schoo	TBWA/NEBOKO	Copywriter
Rogier Verbeek	TBWA/NEBOKO	Art Director
Bob Hartsink	TBWA/NEBOKO	Intern
Martijn Pots	TBWA/NEBOKO	Account Manager
Valerie Dekeuwer	TBWA/NEBOKO	Client Services Director
Bente Van Der Ark	Eg/Worldwide	Producer
Mario Piepenbrink	TBWA/NEBOKO	Technical Director
Paul Theunis	TBWA/NEBOKO	Photographer
Desmont De Kousemaeker	TBWA/NEBOKO	Designer
Jan Jesse Bakker	TBWA/NEBOKO	Designer

Results and Effectiveness

During the period of the campaign, we succeeded in unmasking more than 500 potential buyers – but the spin-off was much bigger than that. As a result of the extensive media coverage at the beginning of the campaign, about how the police had been able to get hold of buyers' details, many people no longer dared make orders. The commotion led a number of real online fireworks webshops to cease delivering to the Netherlands. The campaign also put this problem squarely onto the political agenda, as a result of which real action is finally being taken.

Creative Execution

To give the impression that everyone who ordered fireworks online would be caught by the Taskforce for the Detection of Firework Bomb-Makers, we chose a media approach that enabled us to get very close to the target audience online. The various media channels we employed, and the other ways of reaching out to people that we used, were all inextricably linked. Using the fake webshops, profiles on online forums and YouTube, and the unboxing videos, we managed to convince people to order their fireworks through us. The videos delivering the personalized warnings and DM (letters to people's home addresses) were a very effective deterrent for the audience. Three PR moments that made the national news caused the brouhaha to become even greater.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

Problem: Every year, dangerous illegal fireworks cause more and more damage, injuries and even fatalities in the Netherlands. As a result of the emergence of webshops operating out of Eastern Europe, ordering illegal fireworks has never been easier. Customs and the police have failed to address this problem, so buyers have come to think they have nothing to fear. Strategy: Eliminate the perception, that people can safely and anonymously order illegal fireworks online. Idea: We wanted to create the perception that everyone who orders illegal fireworks will get caught by the Taskforce Investigation Firework Bomb Makers. To achieve this, we created fake webshops that supposedly sold illegal fireworks. People who ordered via our webshops gave us their name, address and e-mail address. We used this information to send them personal warnings stating their parcel had been intercepted by the Taskforce Investigation Firework Bomb Makers.