Winners & Shortlists

#FREEDOMOFTWEET

Title#FREEDOMOFTWEET
BrandREPORTERS WITHOUT BORDERS
Product/ServiceFREEDOM OF INFORMATION
Category B04. FUNDRAISING, CHARITIES, APPEALS, NON-PROFIT ORGANISATIONS, PUBLIC HEALTH & SAFETY, PUBLIC AWARENESS
Entrant Company GREY DUSSELDORF, GERMANY
Advertising Agency GREY DUSSELDORF, GERMANY
Credits
Name Company Position
Fabian Kirner GREY Germany Gmbh Chief Creative Officer
Alexandros Antoniadis GREY Germany Gmbh Creative Director
Martin Venn GREY Germany Gmbh Creative Director
David Baertz GREY Germany Gmbh Art Director
Markus Werner GREY Germany Gmbh Art Director
Channie Hansen GREY Germany Gmbh Art Director
Thomas Kuhn GREY Germany Gmbh Copywriter
Helge Hoffmann GREY Germany Gmbh Copywriter
Serdar Kantekin GREY Germany Gmbh Digital Concept
Christoph Pietsch GREY Germany Gmbh Account Director
Jann Eicker GREY Germany Gmbh Account Director Digital
Marc Schulze GREY Germany Gmbh Director Digital Communications
André Schieck GREY Germany Gmbh Chief Digital Officer
Jochen Herzog Greyworks Editor
Daniel Hölscher Greyworks Motion Design
Wilhelm Dukart Greyworks Sound Design
Torsten Levermann Greyworks Producer
Mathias Wahler Reporter Ohne Grenzen E.v. Fundraising And Public Relations

The Campaign

At the core of the idea we had the goal to reach as fast as possible a high viral effect and a high level of multiplication with the help of opinion leaders in the media and politics without using paid media. The campaign was launched a couple of hours after the Twitter shutdown by the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Reporters without Borders Germany couldn’t let this act pass without comment and needed to react fast. We created in just a couple of hours an impactful statement that stands for the freedom of tweets. By posting it to the socialmedia channels of Reporters without Borders we could spread the message in no time and use the media Erdogan fears most to raise a public dicussion about him and his politics. Furthermore it is the most discussed post in Reporters Without Borders’ history, it has more than 1,500,000 views, thousand of comments and was even shared by German top politicians. The image was published in articles on a myrid of blogs and websites like the huffington post and hürriyet (the best known newspaper in Turkey). Also the numbers of facebook page likes increased by almost 20%.

The Brief

The goal of the campaign was to archive awareness about Erdogans moves against the freedom of speech and freedom of information. Furthermore it should start public discussions about him and his politics before the local elections (9 days later).

Results

The post initialized what the Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan tried to prevent by all means: a lively discussion on him and his politics. Furthermore it is the most discussed post in Reporters Without Borders’ history, it has more than 1,500,000 views, 3000 Likes, 1600 Shares, thousands of Comments and was even shared by German top politicians. All this refers only to facebook. The motive was additionally spread through other social media channels and it was published in articles on a myrid of blogs and websites like the huffington post and hürriyet (the best known newspaper in Turkey). Also the numbers of facebook page likes increased by almost 20%.

Execution

1. Fast reaction After Erdogan shut down twitter we came up with an idea that was quick to execute but still powerful. We used a press photo of him, edited it and put a hashtag symbol on his mouth. The symbol that stands for twitter and tweets suddenly becomes a muzzle for the Turkish Prime Minister. By adding the line „freedom of tweets“ we made our message even clearer. 2. Fast coordination with the customer. 3. Posting the final motive to the facebook page of Reporters without Borders Germany 4. Spreading the motive to additional social media channels and other platforms. All this accomplished in one day in just a couple of hours.

The Situation

Reporters without Borders is an international non-profit, non-governmental organization that promotes and defends freedom of information and freedom of the press. The organization has consultant status at the UN. Reporters Without Borders has two primary spheres of activity: one is focused on Internet Censorship and New Media, the other on providing material, financial and psychological assistance to journalists assigned to dangerous areas. The situation: Recordings which revealed corruption inside Turkey’s government popped up on Twitter. On March 21st, Prime Minister Erdogan gave the order to shut down Twitter: more than 10 million Turkish users were denied access to the service.

The Strategy

The goal was to reach a large number of opinion-leaders and to motivate them to comment and share the post. The core of the strategy was to reach a high virial effect through a deliberate provocative, polarizing motive that is postet fast as a reaction to an up-to-the-minute event. Because of the twitter shutdown we used mainly facebook to spread our message. The post startet converstations instead of usual one-way communication. People shared it vouluntairly so the motive archieved a viral effect as hoped for.