LIBÉ DES RÉFUGIÉS

Bronze Eurobest

Case Film

Presentation Image

TitleLIBÉ DES RÉFUGIÉS
BrandLIBÉRATION
Product/ServiceLIBÉRATION NEWSPAPERS
Category B02. Public Affairs & Lobbying
Entrant FF PARIS, FRANCE
Idea Creation FF PARIS, FRANCE
Media Placement FF PARIS, FRANCE
PR FF PARIS, FRANCE
Production FF PARIS, FRANCE
Additional Company LIBERATION Paris, FRANCE
Credits
Name Company Position
Fred Raillard & Farid Mokart FRED & FARID Chief Creative Officer
Olivier Lefebvre FRED & FARID Executive Creative Director
Julien-Pierre Mallet FRED & FARID Associate Creative Director
Etienne Renaux FRED & FARID Associate Creative Director
Nicolas Berthier FRED & FARID Associate Creative Director
Julien-Pierre Mallet FRED & FARID Art Director
Etienne Renaux FRED & FARID Art Director
Nicolas Berthier FRED & FARID Art Director
Julien-Pierre Mallet FRED & FARID Copywriter
Etienne Renaux FRED & FARID Copywriter
Nicolas Berthier FRED & FARID Copywriter
Robin Demoucron FRED & FARID Agency Producer
Jalila Levesque FRED & FARID PR Manager
Aliou Maro FRED & FARID PR Manager
Marie Nguyen FRED & FARID PR Manager
Laurent Joffrin Libération Brand Supervisor
Grégoire Biseau Libération Brand Supervisor
Thibault Loué Libération Agency Supervisor
Philippine Mesmin FRED & FARID Agency Supervisor

The Campaign

When it comes to refugees, we speak about data, statistics, immigration, even terrorism, but never about humans. Medias are one of the major responsible of this phenomenon. The best way to turn things around was to use one of these medias in an unexpected way to catch people’s attention and switch their perception on this issue. On March 7th we decided to give them the whole paper for 1 day. An entire Liberation issue was written by 21 refugees from an array of origins with one challenge: explain beyond today’s news how they see France. A paper by the refugees but not on refugees.

Execution

During 1 month, a team of 21 refugees from 10 origins was created with the help of 5 associations helping refugees. The following month, this team was split within different groups of work (representing the themes of the newspaper such as presidential elections, international, economy, sports, culture, ideas, society …) to find current topics and write their articles. 3 of them even interviewed the French President François Hollande at the Elysee Palace, and the main candidate Emmanuel Macron. On March 6th, the whole team came to Liberation to write on fresh news and finalized every single page of the newspaper. The day after 100k papers are printed. It was distributed all over France in kiosks, press shops, bars, AF planes, to the 30K subscribers, and in more than 25 countries. A digital version sold online is seen by 4M French people every day.

- 21 refugees of 10 nationalities - +35% of sales on this specific edition compared to usual days. - 100k papers were printed and the digital edition was seen 4 million times - Almost every major French medias (TV, Radio, Press) covered the news and interviewed authors - International media supported the initiative (AJ+, Skynews etc.) - The French President François Hollande tweeted and posted about it - 3 refugees were invited to meet him at Elysee - On Twitter #LibéDesRéfugiés was seen by 165 million people

The Situation

The refugee issue is omnipresent. Liberation, as a major newspaper (progressive) in France has a responsibility: create a social change about refugees. So Liberation turned its newspaper into a communicating object exclusively written by refugees, something never done before in the history. To enhance the movement, Liberation chose to do it 50 days before presidential elections and to include the French President and all the candidates. In this electoral context, their duty was to answer the call of Liberation. They were the real trigger that created a public debate, a burst in medias and social media, even beyond French borders.

The Strategy

Liberation is one of the major daily newspaper in France. It’s a progressive paper with a social democrat position founded by Jean Paul Sartre & Serge July in 1973. The paper stands for social issues with a provocative tone of voice and is renowned for using eloquent front covers. Several of them have become very symbolic. One of its main concern is to keep the press ‘freedom of speech” and the journalistic independence. When it comes to refugees, we speak about data, statistics, immigration, even terrorism, but never about humans. Medias are one of the major responsible of this perception. So the strongest way to reverse this trend was to give them the whole paper for 1 day to highlight that beyond figures, they have opinions and knowledges. They had the stage directly for a change. As a progressive media, Liberation was the perfect candidate to support the refugee issue.