The Look Beyond Borders film launched in May 2016 by Amnesty Poland was a viral sensation with over 1 billion views (other sources than AI started to share it). But some commented that the video owes its emotion to the editing,and not to the participants’ genuine reactions. Therefore we decided to take the concept to the next stage which involves globalising it beyond Europe and live streaming the experiment directly onto Facebook Live from 4 global locations: Sydney, Mexico City, Nairobi, London, touched by a refugee problem. We wanted users all over the world experience live connection with refugees and their stories. The overall purpose of the live event was to draw attention to how refugees’ human rights are under threat around the world and show that refugees have their own stories to tell.
Campaign Success
24 hours before, the event was promoted by a teaser video with footage from the Look Beyond Borders film to build intrigue about the upcoming event in 15 countries. The experiment took place in a live setting, and the locals didn’t know that they are about to meet refugees – meaning that the online audience will see their emotional reactions. Communication started with an event broadcast on Facebook Live from four cities in the world: Sydney, Nairobi, London, and Mexico City. The participants were to look each in the eyes for four minutes. It was inspired by an experiment that proved that 4-minute eye contact gets people closer to each other more than anything else. The experiment, broadcast live, was attended by people from Australia, Kenya, Great Britain, and Mexico as well as refugees from such countries as Ethiopia, Democratic Republic, Afghanistan or Syria.
Describe the success of the promotion with both client and consumer including some quantifiable results
I Welcome campaign had two objectives: firstly to build awareness of the issue by engaging emotions and drawing attention to the fate of refugees and, secondly, to cause real financial support to flow to Amnesty International.
And we managed to achieve both objectives during the campaign. In the first stage, we used videos and live broadcasting to reach nearly 8 million people across 15 countries, including 4 countries targeted directly with live broadcasting plus additional 11 neighbours – an extra goal of our communication. Thanks to this effort we improved awareness of the refugee issue worldwide.
In the second stage, we focused on driving those people who have already engaged in the initial stage, so that they start contributing donations to Amnesty International. Our actions helped involve over 64 thousand people to take a pledge and support Amnesty International.
Explain why the method of promotion was most relevant to the product or service
#IWelcome was oneof the biggest, most powerful and successful campaign in history of Amnesty International. The number of comments, genuine reactions all over social medias, press and television was enormous. Our LIVE campaign on Facebook enabled Facebook users to directly access refugees and their stories. They could finally get a hands-on experience of everyday problems of refugees without any press or media with their often biased message in-between. They could directly witness the reality of resolving social conflicts, experience for themselves what Amnesty International members face and how close their work is to life and problems of each of us.
The main goal of the experiment was to engage a wider online audience in order to grow our membership and increase our human rights impact. We aimed to produce inspiring and emotionally engaging content that will lead people to sign our pledge action. We’re weren’t targeting, or trying to persuade, people who are openly hostile to Amnesty and refugees.Our target were Facebook users who are particularly open to the idea of welcoming refugees. People who aren’t opposed to Amnesty’s stance on the refugee crisis and may be willing to support or join us if communicated to in the right way. They may have shown interest in refugee content but aren’t already supporting us either financially or through taking action online.