Title	THE MATCH AGAINST BULLYING
Brand	SWEDBANK
Product/Service	FINANCIAL SERVICES
Category	A11. Consumer Services
Entrant	SWEDBANK Stockholm, SWEDEN
Idea Creation	PRIME WEBER SHANDWICK Stockholm, SWEDEN
Media Placement	PRIME WEBER SHANDWICK Stockholm, SWEDEN
Media Placement 2	SCREAM MEDIABYRA Stockholm, SWEDEN
PR	PRIME WEBER SHANDWICK Stockholm, SWEDEN
Production	SOCIAL CLUB Stockholm, SWEDEN
Production 2	THE LINE Stockholm, SWEDEN
Production 3	MARIA ÄNGQVIST KLYVARE Stockholm, SWEDEN
Additional Company	FRIENDS Stockholm, SWEDEN
Additional Company 2	BRAND UNION Stockholm, SWEDEN

Name	Company	Position
Louise Moberg	Prime Weber Shandwick	Creative Director
Nadine Le Gros	Prime Weber Shandwick	Copywriter
Robert Aras	Prime Weber Shandwick	Key Account Manager
Per Hansen	Prime Weber Shandwick	Key Account Manager
Sara Tidholm	Prime Weber Shandwick	Project Manager
Viktor Bodelius	Prime Weber Shandwick	Media Specialist
Ylva Lindberg	Prime Weber Shandwick	Activation Director

Why is this work relevant for Media?

Bullying will cost the Swedish society 1,6 billion Euros over the next 30 years. A new survey revealed that 65% of Swedish adults have experienced bullying in their childhood but are still passive spectators as almost every other Swede regrets that they didn’t do more to prevent bullying. The challenge that we were facing was therefore obvious - how can we get more adults to not only observe the children that are bullied every day (bullying that will affect them for their entire lives), but also encourage them to stop being a spectator and start taking action.

Background

In Sweden, 60,000 children are bullied every year - which is equal to more than one child in every school class. Friends is a non-profit organization, dedicated to the prevention of bullying. They educate and support schools, pre-schools and sports clubs throughout Sweden. Swedbank, one of Sweden’s largest banks, have been the main sponsor of Friends for more than 15 years and they also renamed Sweden’s national arena to Friends arena. The intention was to make this a permanent, physical place, where all spectators are reminded to stand up against bullying. Our brief was to strengthen the connection between the national arena and the work being done to prevent bullying. We also needed to use the arena as a platform to rally the nation around the issue. The overall goal was to increase awareness around all children exposed to bullying and get more people to take action against it.

Describe the creative idea/insights

What role could a national arena play in the fight against child and adolescent bullying? What if we could make it impossible for the 1 million annual arena visitors to both see these vulnerable children, understand how bullying affect their lives and engage them to take action? The idea: The match against bullying - Stop spectating Friends Arena is home to some of the biggest sporting events and concerts in the country. The idea was to use the arena to encourage those who entered it to do exactly the opposite of what they paid and planned to do there: watch an event take place. Regardless of where you would be in the arena you would be reminded that the next time you are a spectator in daily life, children will be affected and the whole society will continue to pay the cost of bullying.

Describe the strategy

The target audience was the general public – all of those who wished they had done more to prevent bullying. The strategy focused on using a moment where all eyes already were on the arena - a FIFA World Cup warm up between Sweden and Chile. Instead of talking about the super stars on the field we wanted to direct the spotlight on those children that truly deserve the attention. The football game was broadcasted live on national TV, reaching nearly 1/10 of all Swedes. Through targeted paid ads on social media we got the message across to the broad audience. By inviting influencers within the sports segment (e.g. Pia Sundhage, football coach, Jonas Eriksson, FIFA referee, Linnea Claesson, sports star, activist) and not the least - Sweden’s national football team, we engaged the public. Through news media and visits by Friends’ educators, we got the message out to schools.

Describe the execution

25 life-size sculptures of children were created, representing all vulnerable Swedish children, placed on permanent display throughout the arena, located where bullying most often occurs such as locker rooms and washrooms. When revealing the sculptures we changed the name of the arena to “No Friends Arena” to create buzz around the new inhabitants. School kids, influencers and media were invited to understand how to tackle bullying. Miniature versions of the sculptures were then sent out on a national school tour where we collected powerful and horrible testimonials. These stories gave the children and sculptures a voice and to make sure they were heard by the adult world - we took over an international football match. Instead of being escorted to the pitch by juniors, each Swedish player escorted miniature sculptures, who represented the 60,000 Swedish children exposed to bullying every year – more than the seated capacity at Friends Arena.

List the results

Action/Business results +124% increased traffic to Friends FB +30% increased traffic to Friends.se +400K engagement. Outcomes/awareness According to Yougov Swedbank has grown most in brand strength since last year (1 July 2017 - 13 June 2018), of all brands in Sweden. National awareness of Swedbank’s social engagements: +25% The match broadcasted live reached nearly 1/10 in Sweden (800k viewers). International medias: CNN sport, the largest football magazine; FourFourTwo, Football Stories and Manchester Evening News. Influential Swedish media and local newspapers covered the story. Our emotional film with Swedish captain Andreas Granqvist as spokesperson received +10 million views through social media and created a lot of engagement; likes, comments and shares: 391 000. Overall we reached: + 12 million. Influential people and organizations took action. The Swedish football team received a lot of praise from fans for taking a stand, also picked-up by media and generated positive reader feedback.