Title	THE NEW STANDARD SWEDISH
Brand	LERNIA
Product/Service	LERNIA ADULT EDUCATION AND RECRUITMENT SERVICE
Category	B03. Use of Audio Platforms
Entrant	JUNG RELATIONS Stockholm, SWEDEN
Idea Creation	JUNG RELATIONS Stockholm, SWEDEN
Media Placement	JUNG RELATIONS Stockholm, SWEDEN
PR	JUNG RELATIONS Stockholm, SWEDEN
Production	JUNG RELATIONS Stockholm, SWEDEN
Production 2	SLUTET ÄR NÄRA Stockholm, SWEDEN

Name	Company	Position
Ebba Hultengren	Jung Relations	Creative Director
Nicolina Jonsson	Jung Relations	Planner
Johan Nyman	Jung Relations	Project Manager/Advisor
Jens Hollingby	Jung Relations	PR Manager
Martin Ödman	Jung Relations	Project Manager
Jasmine Falk	Jung Relations	Junior Advisor

The Campaign

As it turns out, 72% of all Swede’s believe that having an accent will affect a job applicant negatively (in other EU countries only 36% believe accents have a negative effect). To get people to question their bias towards immaculate pronunciation we went ahead and changed the foundation of what a perfect Swedish accent is. We created the “New Standard Swedish”. Together with a professor in linguistics from Stockholm University, we morphed together different accents from around the country to create one collective Swedish voice. Traditionally a standard language is free of all accents, but this voice-sample instead embraced all language variations. We called it the “New Standard Swedish”.

Creative Execution

We executed the campaign in three stages: 1) Lernia suggests changing the standard language in a press release sent out to key national media and local media to get the buzz going. 2) Lernia releases a voice-sample on SoundCloud of the “New Standard Swedish” together with information on how people are being excluded from the labor market due to their accent (not because they lack talent or competence). A broad media outreach is conducted with more voice-samples and a making-of video. 3) Lernia’s key spokespersons talk to media and discuss how we all need to change how we listen, not how we talk. Lernia sponsors a podcast and buys reach for their social media posts with the voice-sample. Two of Lernia’s clients joined the initiative and custom voice-recordings for their answering machines and closing time call-outs are created.

* Lernia’s digital press room received + 1100 % traffic. * Visitors to the campaign website on lernia.se stayed for 13 min (compared to the 1m30s average). * 3 clients joined: The Scouts (answering-machine), Stockholm University Library (announce closing times) and Virserums Art Gallery is using the voice in an exhibition. * The initiative met resistance from right wing media. Mainstream media however defended the idea and described the voice-sample as a symbol for a more open society and inclusive labor market. * Earned media reach: 64 million. * Local spokespersons and Lernia’s CEO were interviewed in local and national media. * The campaign was discussed in the Swedish Parliament and defended by the Minister of Enterprise and Innovation. * Google trends: searches for ”Lernia” and ”Standard Swedish” reached an all-time high. * Youtube: the making-of video was on the top 10 list of trending videos in Sweden.

The “New Standard Swedish” campaign is built on one simple media file: a voice-sample. This voice-sample got all of Sweden talking and was played all over Sweden in radio, podcasts, TV and YouTube. In a time when brands are putting huge amounts of money behind full length TV-shows, brand experiences and VR events – we went back to the basics and managed to engage, educate and change behaviors with one simple voice-sample. The voice was later used in answering machines, closing time call-outs and in an art gallery exhibition.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

We needed to target key stakeholders in HR and education departments in the public and private sector who purchase Lernia’s education programs. They are influenced by on-going societal discussions – so it was important to get earned reach in main stream media (newspapers, life style magazines, podcasts, morning television and radio) and social media. Our approach was built on the assumption that people would react strongly to the suggestion to change our standard language and to how the voice-sample sounded. To add credibility to the campaign we first launched the voice-sample via PR. With a minimal media budget we then later added bought media reach on social and sponsored a podcast in order to increase the spread and engagement.