Title	CAMPAIGN AGAINST ILLEGAL FIREWORKS
Brand	DUTCH CONSUMER SAFETY INSTITUTE
Product/Service	CONSUMER SAFETY INSTITUTE
Category	C02. USE OF SOCIAL IN A PR 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

The Campaign

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 don't do anything about this problem, and so buyers have come to think they have nothing to fear. Idea: We wanted to create the perception that everyone who orders illegal fireworks will get caught by the “Taskforce Investigation Firework Bombmakers”. To achieve this, we created fake webshops purporting to sell illegal fireworks. We then infiltrated the target audience using a number of YouTube accounts promoting our webshops with fake unboxing videos. People who ordered via our webshops gave us their name, address and e-mail address. We used this information to send them personalized warnings stating their package had been intercepted by the Taskforce Investigation Firework Bomb-Makers. Three PR moments that made the national news caused the brouhaha to become even greater.

The Brief

The target audience of the campaign was people who order illegal fireworks online from Eastern European webshops (mainly men between the ages of 15 and 50). The fireworks they order are not illegal in the countries in which these online shops are based. They deliver firework bombs to the Netherlands in plain packaging. Because the Dutch police, customs and parcel delivery services are doing virtually nothing to counteract their activities, people ordering fireworks online believe that they are untouchable. We needed to change this perception.

Results

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 tremendous amount of media attention the campaign received (amounting to a media value of approximately 2.8 million euros), speculating 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.

Execution

We created fake webshops purporting to sell illegal fireworks. We then infiltrated the target audience using a number of YouTube accounts promoting our webshops with fake unboxing videos. People who placed an order had to give their name, address and e-mail address. We used this information to send them personalized warnings stating their package had been intercepted by the Taskforce Investigation Firework Bomb-Makers. We brought this approach to public attention with several PR moments. The fact that no one could understand how we had obtained buyers' details caused great panic in the fireworks scene and led several research journalists to try and enforce disclosure through the courts. We stepped in with an additional PR moment: the news reported on our methods and our results. This brought the issue to national attention, even leading to parliamentary questions being asked and government finally resolving to truly tackle the matter.

The Situation

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. We needed to change this perception.

The Strategy

To give the impression that everyone who ordered fireworks 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 buyers we unmasked received a personalized warning video by e-mail containing full details of their delivery. They also received a letter to their home address. We brought this approach to public attention with several PR moments. The fact that no one could figure out how we had managed to get access to buyers' details led to great panic in the fireworks scene.