SEARCH RACISM. FIND TRUTH.
| Title | SEARCH RACISM. FIND TRUTH. |
| Brand | REFUGEES WELCOME |
| Product/Service | REFUGEES WELCOME |
| Category |
C06. Response / Real-time Activity |
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Entrant
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FCB ZÜRICH, SWITZERLAND
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Idea Creation
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FCB ZÜRICH, SWITZERLAND
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Media Placement
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FCB ZÜRICH, SWITZERLAND
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Media Placement 2
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INITIATIVE MEDIA Zurich, SWITZERLAND
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PR
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EHRENBERG KOMMUNIKATION Hamburg, GERMANY
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Production
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FCB ZÜRICH, SWITZERLAND
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Additional Company
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TONSTUDIOS Z Zurich, SWITZERLAND
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Credits
| Dennis Lück |
FCB Zürich |
Chief Creative Officer |
| Andy Lusti |
FCB Zürich |
Creative Director |
| Hanja Baruschke |
FCB Zürich |
Creative Director Digital |
| Sarah Ming |
FCB Zürich |
Copywriter |
| Olivia Schläpfer |
FCB Zürich |
Art Direction |
| Fabian Sigg |
FCB Zürich |
Art Direction |
| Elgee David Wee |
FCB Zürich |
Art Direction |
| Lia Bellini |
FCB Zürich |
Art Direction |
| Emanuel Büchler |
FCB Zürich |
Content Developer |
| Marco Frei |
FCB Zürich |
Content Developer |
| Mark Becher |
FCB Zürich |
Client Service Director |
| Mirjam Milenkovic |
FCB Zürich |
Account Director |
| Michael Hürlimann |
FCB Zürich |
Account Director |
| Sharon Nehrenheim |
FCB Zürich |
Account Director |
| Nina Hinkelmann |
FCB Zürich |
Account Director |
| Aleksandar Sofranac |
FCB Zürich |
Frontend Developer/Designer |
| Snezana Tadic |
Ehrenberg Kommunikation |
PR |
| Peter Fobe |
Ehrenberg Kommunikation |
PR |
| Giulia Ciarla |
Initiative |
Media |
| Jazmin Suriel |
Initiative |
Media |
| Renzo D’Alberto |
Tonstudios Z |
Sounddesign |
The Campaign
The idea is: courageous refugees stand up against the digital hate preachers – right before the racist videos on YouTube. Unskippable pre roll ads should leave right-wing extremists with no choice but to stop and think about the refugees and their arguments. So we disturbed them on their way to consume racist material by giving them the chance to watch the story of a refugee instead of listening to more prejudices and hate. Additionally, we booked terrible right-wing Google Ad words to lead the viewer directly to the stories of the refugees.
Execution
The idea had two strong parts: With a clever combination of channel and keyword targeting 10 spots were shown as unskippable ads in front of over 100 racist videos on YouTube. All of them disproved the common prejudices with hard facts, surprising revelations or humor. Furthermore, they anticipated the content of the following videos and rebutted the prejudices in them. The second part was the documentary that was created out of the 10 spots and that became the main spreading tool for the journalists. Together with a press kit and the campaign page “www.search-racism-find-truth.com” we informed selected newspapers. With the help of this documentary we got the attention to reach the German Press Agency, which was the key to go viral automatically. So we were able to “Skip prejudices” internationally and for free.
The news of courageous refugees trolling nazi content?went viral – already on the second day they were published. In only one week the campaign got 160.358.977* views on different news platforms and blogs. Furthermore 1.213.059* social shares could be reached. We also achieved 12.2 million in earned media. But even better: “Refugees welcome” received an unbelievable boost of 723%* in donations that will be used to integrate many more refugees into the German communities and culture.
(*status end of April 2016)
The Situation
This idea was completely PR driven. Thanks to the clever distribution of PR, the campaign “Search racism. Find truth.” got mentioned in opinion-leading media very quickly. The articles began to spread until the campaign reached the German Press Agency. Afterwards, every German Newspaper got informed about the brave refugees that trolled the nazi content on YouTube. The campaign went viral within only two days. Media and blogs all over the planet reported for free. Furthermore, millions of people liked, shared and commented the campaign on Social Media.
The Strategy
The strongest weapon of the far right is the internet, where hate can be spread easily. To address the right people we went where racists are and beat them with their own weapons. Thanks to a complex combination of channel (YouTube) and keyword targeting (Google) complemented by the placement before very specifically selected videos we achieved maximum attention. Unskippable pre roll ads allowed us to confront the right-wing extremists on their personal digital device. The booking of the worst Ad words like “refugees out”, “fuck merkel” or “muslim infiltration” normally leads users to the right-wing extremist material. But thanks to our campaign those who looked up xenophobic terms were lured to the disarming clips of the refugees. The videos themselves led to a campaign page where people could learn more about the refugees, their stories and the truth.