Title	RED PHONE
Brand	TELMA TV
Product/Service	CORPORATE
Category	A05. Branded Live Experience
Entrant Company	NEW MOMENT NEW IDEAS COMPANY Skopje, MACEDONIA
Contributing Company	NEW MOMENT NEW IDEAS COMPANY Skopje, MACEDONIA

Name	Company	Position
Dusan Drakalski	New Moment New Ideas Company Skopje	Regional Creative Director
Nikola Vojnov	New Moment New Ideas Company Skopje	Creative Director
Filip Dimitrov	New Moment New Ideas Company Skopje	Client Service Director
Igor Tosevski	New Moment New Ideas Company Skopje	Copywriter
Eli Peseva	New Moment New Ideas Company Skopje	Communications Director

The Campaign

Macedonia is a country where freedom of speech has deteriorated over many years, where media is divided according political parties that control them, where a wire tapping scandal proved the direct influence of politicians on mass media via telephone, one TV station without a budget wanted to say 'WE ARE INDEPENDENT'. The objective was to promote the position of the TV station, as well as to increase the ratings. Research showed that the trust in the media is dramatically decreasing due to the fact that the public feels that the media are being orchestrated by the political parties and the news are not objective. Even more according to the Reporters without Borders press freedom index, the country's ranking has declined from 34th place to 123rd today. The solution was done with one single RED PHONE placed in the prime time TV program of the station which ranged with the purpose to interrupt the journalist, but they ignored and hanged up, thus presenting that Telma TV does not accept any pressure on its news. The Red Phone managed to get the whole country talking about the TV station and the freedom of media. The other TV stations reported the event as news. Both political parties and their media believing the RED PHONE was for real, launched attacks towards Telma, demanding proof of political pressure. Even the ruling party came out with a statement. But in doing so, they helped spread the campaign impact even further. Within 24 hours the Red Phone started to generate its own content. It exploded throughout the Internet and social networks, immediately turning it into a viral movement for freedom of media with over 10.000 shares in 24 hours.

Just 24 hours after the campaign was launched the campaign generated its own content: 10.000 shares, thousands of 'bravos' from the public for the journalists who finally took a stand. The other TV stations reporting the campaign as news. The political parties launched attacks towards Telma TV, demanding proof of political pressure. Even the ruling party came out with a statement. But all of these actions helped spread the campaign's impact even further. Telma TV ratings grew 250%. The fight for freedom of media succeeded and continued.

The objective we had was to promote the position of Telma TV station, as independent, as well as to increase the ratings. We did this with one single RED PHONE placed in the prime time TV program of the station which ranged with the purpose to interrupt the journalist, but they ignored and hanged up, thus presenting that Telma TV does not accept any pressure on its news. The Red Phone managed to get the whole country talking about the TV station and the freedom of media. The other TV stations reported the event as news. Both political parties and their controlled media believing the RED PHONE was for real, launched attacks towards Telma, demanding proof of political pressure. But in doing so, they helped spread the campaign impact even further. Within 24 hours the Red Phone started to generate its own content.