DONATE THE HATE - THE INVOLUNTARY ONLINE DONATION
| Title | DONATE THE HATE - THE INVOLUNTARY ONLINE DONATION |
| Brand | ZDK - GESELLSCHAFT DEMOKRATISCHE KULTUR GGMBH |
| Product/Service | EXIT GERMANY |
| Category |
C08. Innovative Use of Social Media |
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Entrant
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GRABARZ & PARTNER Hamburg, GERMANY
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Idea Creation
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GRABARZ & PARTNER Hamburg, GERMANY
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Production
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HARVEST DIGITAL AGRICULTURE Hamburg, GERMANY
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Additional Company
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ZDK - GESELLSCHAFT DEMOKRATISCHE KULTUR GGMBH Berlin, GERMANY
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Credits
| Ralf Heuel |
Grabarz & Partner |
CCO and Partner |
| Jakob Eckstein |
Grabarz & Partner |
Creative Director |
| Matthias Preuss |
Grabarz & Partner |
Creative Director |
| Boris Horn |
Grabarz & Partner |
Programmer |
| Ulrich Erdmann |
Grabarz & Partner |
Digital Concept/Concept CD |
| Richard Pietsch |
Grabarz & Partner |
Digital Concept |
| Matthias Preuss |
Grabarz & Partner |
Creative Director |
| Tobias Lehment |
Grabarz & Partner |
Art Director |
| Florian Kronenberg |
Grabarz & Partner |
Art Director |
| Jakob Eckstein |
Grabarz & Partner |
Creative Director |
| Stefan Geschke |
Grabarz & Partner |
Creative Director |
| Lisa Weibezahl |
Grabarz & Partner |
Copywriter |
| Ina Bach |
Grabarz & Partner |
PR Manager |
| Joelle Timores |
Grabarz & Partner |
Account Supervisor |
| Axel Doepner |
Grabarz & Partner |
Agency Producer |
| Fabian Wichmann |
ZDK- Gesellschaft Demokratische Kultur gGmbH |
Head of Marketing |
| Jakob Eckstein |
Grabarz & Partner |
Creative Director |
| Matthias Preuss |
Grabarz & Partner |
Creative Director |
| Fabian Wichmann |
ZDK- Gesellschaft Demokratische Kultur gGmbH |
Head of Marketing |
The Campaign
While politicians and the media kept discussing about the right approach, we came up with: the involuntary online donation initiative DONATE THE HATE. For every hate comment posted on Facebook, the campaign makes an “involuntary” €1 donation to refugees and EXIT.
Execution
Our Facebook tool was given beforehand to (media) organisations affected by online hate comments. As our first supporters they sponsored the initial funding to put the campaign on air.
The interface links the answered comments to the DONATE THE HATE microsite. Thus we are e.g. able to register the involuntary donations in a live-counter and list a top ten of the most generous donors, or rather hate commenters. With the campaign on air we are constantly winning more and more supporters – organizations and private individuals – for our cause.
• Tier 1: Outcomes/awareness - change in behaviour, shifts in stakeholder decisions, brand equity
By now DONATE THE HATE is responding to more than 6,000 hate comments. Thus not only leading national and international attention on taking action against hatred resp. online hate comments in a smart way. But also interacting directly with the haters and even provoking some of them to rethink their behavior.
• Tier 3: Outputs/business results – sales, donations, site traffic, content response
DONATE THE HATE has spread internationally via traditional media and social networks – without a single Euro of media spend. Our hashtag reached millions of people. Two weeks after launching the campaign even Facebook got in touch, saying they wanted to support us.
By today the campaign is raising more than €14,000 for refugees and against neo-Nazis. Also DONATE THE HATE is currently being adapated in further countries.
The Situation
This work is relevant for PR because the very heart of the idea is to generate public awareness for the topic of (online) hatred and racism. Since EXIT-Deutschland cannot afford large media spendings, actually they don’t even have a media budget, we had to find a smarter and bolder idea to spark the conversation. With DONATE THE HATE we were able to demonstrate, in an innovative way, how to deal with hate comments. Not by replying with hate but clever counter-speech. Thus earning worldwide media coverage, millions of shares on social networks, and thousands of much-needed donations.
The Strategy
We have to repsond to the authors of hate comments directly – in order to post an immediate, positive counter reaction to their hatred, and to turn each one of their comments into an involuntary donation for the good cause. Therefore we have programmed an innovative Faebook tool that enables us and our supporters to respond to hate comments in a personalized way. A simple bot could not have done the job, since even though hate comments are utterly moronic, they must be recognized by human intelligence.