Title	AUTISM CAN WORK
Brand	ANDROS
Product/Service	FRUITY DESERT
Category	A12. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) / Corporate Image
Entrant	SERVICEPLAN FRANCE Paris, FRANCE
Idea Creation	SERVICEPLAN FRANCE Paris, FRANCE
PR	SERVICEPLAN FRANCE Paris, FRANCE
Production	SERVICEPLAN FRANCE Paris, FRANCE

Name	Company	Position
Alexander Schill	Serviceplan Group	Global Chief Creative Officer
Dimitri Guerassimov	Serviceplan France	Chief Creative Officer
Fabien Teichner	Serviceplan France	Chief Creative Officer
Hervé Poupon	Serviceplan France	Chief Creative Director
Daniel Perez	Serviceplan France	Creative Director
Benjamin Coché	Serviceplan France	Creative Director
Chloé Rosiaux	Serviceplan France	Copywriter
Astrid Pinon	Serviceplan France	Art Direction
Ingrid Hammaoui	Serviceplan France	Art Director
Renaud Chabert	Serviceplan France	Creative Producer
Simon Guillou	Trinity FIlms	Editor
Hugo Denepoux	Trinity Films	Editor &Motion Designer
Jarina Amach	Trinity Films	Grading & FX
Manu Cuesta	Trinity FIlms	Director Autist Shoots
Nicolas Foulatier	Trinity Films	Line Producer
Alexandre Poirier	Comptoir du son	Sound Engineer Studio

Why is this work relevant for Brand Experience & Activation ?

The Autism Can Work program is a real game-changing operation based on a virtuous discovery. First, it has brought to light an unsuspected but powerful workforce : severe non-verbal autistic people. A labor gold mine endowed with exceptional qualities. They can contribute with the highest efficiency to companies' productivity, and therefore to society's prosperity. Besides, these autistic people, who'd never have imagined their life out of psychiatric hospitals or care centers, discovered they could be highly qualified professionals and be considered as such. If imitated widely, such a program can change the face of work and healthcare.

Background

There are over 500.000 severe non-speaking autistic people in France. Mistreated. Isolated. Cut off from society. Each one represents a 100.000 Euros yearly cost for the state. Not to be treated, just to be parked in “care centers”. Recently, the EU authorities have called out France on the topic of Autists mistreatment and exclusion.

Describe the creative idea

What if we were all wrong about Autism ? What if Autism was just another form of intelligence, misunderstood and left unexploited ? Could autistic specificites, well-employed, be valuable work skills ? Work, as everybody knows, is the first factor of social insertion. Based on that strong belief, Andros - one of the main food leaders in France - and its partner agency decided to change the way people look at Autism. Where society sees autists as compulsive people, we see compulsively focused people. In their obsessional behaviors, we see obsession for precision. So how can we turn these “inhabilities” into capacities ? By creating AUTISM CAN WORK. A care program that is a career program.

Describe the strategy

1. Proving that this belief actually works. Andros took a bold risk: hiring severe autistic people in its factories, in the same terms as any worker. It turned out they were as productive and efficient as any worker. With a job and a salary, like any citizen, they became much happier and independent in society. 2. Turning that successful experience into a program To help other companies do the same, Andros and its partner agency launched a digital toolkit platform where recruiters could find information about the Andros experiment, search for the right autistic candidates’ profiles and get a full package including a place to live and professional coaching for the autistic workers.

Describe the execution

We presented this game-changing platform to the CEOs of major companies, HR departments and main autism associations. Through this one-on-one digital tool, job offers were matched with the perfect autistic candidates. As the 4th national plan on Autism was launched by the French government, we triggered a nationwide PR campaign aiming the medias and journalists, based on Andros’ bold experiment.

List the results

This pioneering initiative started a wide debate in national media, that pushed the French government to endorse and support AUTISM CAN WORK. Our program helped cut down the yearly cost per Autisic person from 100.000€ down to 35.000€, generating precious cost savings for the community. Health workers and autism specialists acknowledged the virtues of our program on autistic people’s well-being. To this day, two other major companies are already involved in AUTISM CAN WORK, and many more showed a significant interest in Andros’ program, proving that we need people with Autism as much as they need us.