Title	BROADCAST WITHOUT BORDERS
Brand	REFUGEE PHONES
Product/Service	NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION
Category	A02. Creative Innovation
Entrant	ÅKESTAM HOLST Stockholm, SWEDEN
Idea Creation	ÅKESTAM HOLST Stockholm, SWEDEN
Media Placement	ÅKESTAM HOLST Stockholm, SWEDEN
PR	ÅKESTAM HOLST Stockholm, SWEDEN
Production	ÅKESTAM HOLST Stockholm, SWEDEN
Additional Company	FLICKORNA LARSSON Stockholm, SWEDEN

Name	Company	Position
Magnus Jakobsson	Åkestam Holst	Creative Director
Eva Wallmark	Åkestam Holst	Art Director
Desiré Engström	Åkestam Holst	Copywriter
Mouddar Kouli	Åkestam Holst	Producer
Eric Karlsson	Åkestam Holst	Motion Director
Digge Zetterberg Odh	Åkestam Holst	PR
Nicholas Baines	Deliberate	PR
Benedict Bunyard	Deliberate	PR
Gustav Martner	Refugee Phones	Advertiser's Supervisor

The Campaign

March 21st is Mothers Day in Syria. On this day we made it possible for Syrian refugees to get in touch with their moms in their home country. We invited them to call our ”Mothers Day Hotline” to leave personal messages for their mothers. Then we re-packaged these messages as ”radio-ads”, bought media space on Syrian radio and broadcasted these messages all over Syria. Reaching the unreachables.

Creative Execution

March 21st is Mothers Day in Syria. On this day we made it possible for Syrian refugees to get in touch with their moms in their home country. We invited them to call our new ”Mothers Day Hotline” to leave personal messages for their mothers. Then we re-packaged these messages as ”radio-ads”, bought media space on Syrian radio and broadcasted these messages all over Syria. Reaching the unreachables by re-inventing national radio in Syria.

Over 150 radio spots were broadcasted in Syria on Mothers day and during the week leading up to it. The campaign also got a lot of media attention with feature articles in Fast Company, Huffington Post, Newsweek and almost every major newspaper in Sweden wrote about it. And emotional interviews with Syrian refugees who sent personal messages to Syria were broadcasted on TV4, Swedens biggest commercial tv-network. Putting a spotlight on Refugee Phones and how they help people to reach out, no matter what. And above all, putting a spotlight on the possibility to take part of the project as a refugee from Syria. The campaign highlighted how humanity can reach across any border and put a boot in the side of xenophobia. From phone to air, and from heart to heart. It reminded everybody of our shared bonds of family and humanity in these troubled times.

This is not a robot, not a machine, not a ”shiny toy” for PR-purposes. It´s a social innovation that made it possible for refugees to get in touch with their loved ones by re-inventing commercial radio as a personal media.