FREE THE SPEECH

Short List
TitleFREE THE SPEECH
BrandSWEDISH MINISTRY FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Product/ServiceSWEDISH DEPARTMENT FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Category F02. Costs / Creative Performance PR Campaign
Entrant KING Stockholm, SWEDEN
Idea Creation KING Stockholm, SWEDEN
PR POST STHLM Stockholm, SWEDEN
Production ANOTHER PRODUCTION Stockholm, SWEDEN
Credits
Name Company Position
Jesper Stein King Art Director
Axel Lokrantz Månsson King Art Director
Christoffer Dymling King Copywriter
Johan Tesh King Digital Director
Calle Cassel King Graphic Designer
Frank Hollingworth King Creative Director
Pernilla Berg King Account Director
Michaela Wethje King Planner
Sunit Mehrotra King CEO
Elin Boethius King Account Manager
Markus Ahlm Colony Film producent
Johan Söderberg Anotherproduction AB Director
Camilla Geijer Anotherproduction AB Producer
Blindspot Blindspot Web production

The Campaign

In the online film, we see how eerily quiet things become when important voices are silenced. We have taken well known freedom advocates such as Leonardo DiCaprio, Emma Watson and Malala Yousafzai and silenced them when standing at the UN podium ready to express themselves. But instead of great speeches there is only silence, since we edited out the actual talking from their speeches, which makes for an interesting, awkward viewing that makes you think and reflect over the issue.

The Brief

Media investment of €3000

Execution

The campaign was launched under the hashtag #freethespeech on the day of the 250th anniversary of the Freedom of Press Act in Sweden – the oldest in the world. During that day Swedish embassies and institutions all over the world, one after another depending on which time zone they represented - shared the film in their social media channels. They were also responsible for trying to get the word out to local press. Sweden’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, gave the campaign an extra push, by holding her own “silent speech” during a major freedom of speech conference that day. Our partner the United Nations also joined in and helped spread the message around the world.

We had a total reach of 10 000 000 people in over 30 countries with over 130 000 interactions. With only a media investment of €3000 we managed to earn a media value of over €500 000.

The Situation

With a limited media budget (3000 €) PR was from the start an integral part of this campaign to make it effective. We needed to create an idea that would have both people and journalists talking.

The Strategy

With a non-existing media budget (€3000) and a global audience to reach on a specific day, we had to tailor make the campaign for social media viewing, particularly Facebook, to achieve our goals. The content was therefore created to be easily sharable, both in the design of the film idea and with the use of the famous speakers that are part of it. The plan was to have hundreds of different Facebook accounts connected to the Swedish Foreign Ministry around the world, like all the embassies, to shared it from the same FB-channel to maximize the effects of the Facebook algorithms.