Title | THE DISTRESS SIGNAL |
Brand | AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL |
Product/Service | AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL |
Category |
B03. Use of Broadcast |
Entrant
|
ANORAK Oslo, NORWAY
|
Idea Creation
|
ANORAK Oslo, NORWAY
|
Media Placement
|
OATH NORDICS Copenhagen, DENMARK
|
PR
|
SLAGER Oslo, NORWAY
|
Production
|
MAKING WAVES Oslo, NORWAY
|
Production 2
|
BADEOG Oslo, NORWAY
|
Credits
Hallvard Fjeldbraaten |
Anorak |
Copywriter |
Jens-Petter Aarhus |
Anorak |
Creative Director |
Janne Espevalen |
Anorak |
Client Director |
Kristina Tallaksen Flaten |
Anorak |
Project manager |
Henrik Guderud |
Anorak |
PR & Activation Director |
Ole Pedersen |
Anorak |
Planner |
Sondre Hårstad |
Anorak |
Graphic Designer |
Darri Thorsteinsson |
Anorak |
Director / Motion |
Nøkkvi Thorsteinsson |
Anorak |
Director / Motion |
Erlend Dal Sakshaug |
Anorak |
Motion |
Marianne Skøien |
Anorak |
PR & Activation |
Lars Georg Teigen |
Making Waves |
Client Director |
Håvard Ørbech |
Making Waves |
Performance Specialist |
Henrik Fischer Bjelland |
Making Waves |
Front-end developer |
Bjørn Molstad |
Making Waves |
Producer |
Piotrek Janosz |
Making Waves |
Front-end developer |
Gjermund Norderhaug |
Making Waves |
Back-end developer |
Maria Sætre |
Making Waves |
Graphic Designer |
Eskil Paus |
BådeOg |
Radio Director |
Magnus Brandsæter |
Freelance |
Producer |
Why is this work relevant for Brand Experience & Activation ?
Amnesty International believes in "The power of many" and that "Injustice happens when nobody is paying attention".
This campaign was not just a campaign that let everyone engage with the Amnesty International brand on Social Media. This campaign was a new kind of activism that used peoples attention, and engagement, to put pressure on a government - that held a woman prisoned for loosing her baby in a stillbirth.
Background
SITUATION:
In El Salvador any form of abortion is prohibited and women are being prosecuted as murderers. Teodora Vasquez was sentenced to 30 years in prison after suffering a stillbirth. She had already spent 10 years in jail when our campaign went live.
Amnesty International had already tried several petition campaigns without any luck.
Brief:
Create awareness around Teodora and the situation in El Salvador.
Describe the creative idea
The distress signal:
In 2017 Norway was the first country in the world to shut down its FM-radio-network. Every national news station was talking about it. But no one was talking about Teodora Vasquez.
That's why Amnesty International hijacked the Norwegian FM-network,
and gave this silenced media to someone no one was listening to.
Describe the strategy
Injustice happens when nobody is paying attention.
Amnesty International had tried several petition campaigns, so we knew we had to try something different.
Insight: Petitions happens behind closed doors. You probably wouldn’t know if your friend had signed one. We needed to find a way where one action could spark the next one. “#iamlistening Are you?”
Then there was the context: Every national news station was talking about the shut down of our entire FM-radio-network. We decided that this was our point of attack. By hijacking the Norwegian FM-band to start the broadcast of our distress signal we had momentum.
Now. The rest was up to the people.
Describe the execution
First we created the actual distress signal - a recording made from a phone call with Teodora’s sister and a reporter from Amnesty International.
We then managed to hijack the FM-band using our own radio-receiver, to broadcast its first distress signal since second world war.
Our receiver could only reach 8km, but by linking the broadcast to social media through a 24/7 live stream, we invited people to help us boost the signal. On iamlistening.org people could turn their Facebook or Twitter into a radio antenna by sharing the signal.
#iamlistening trended on twitter.
In the Live stream of the signal we had created a layer where we could communicate in real time with our audience about what was going on. And more importantly, you could see the counter showing how many people who had listened before you.
This was our petition. The campaign was live 24/7 for 9 days.
List the results
- Massive national news coverage.
- Every political leader in Norway shared the signal.
- Radio stations donated airtime.
- 317 PR stories.
In the end “The distress signal” didn’t only Reach: over 2,5 billion people.It was a new take on the traditional petition campaigns, where people could see their friends listening in. And on Feb 15th the Salvadoran government overruled the court’s decision and Teodora was set free. Since then, one additional woman has been released, and now the Salvadoran abortion law is up for review.