Title	SAID BY RETARDS
Brand	GOTHENBURG CO-OPERATIVE FOR INDEPENDENT LIVING
Product/Service	PERSONAL ASSISTENS FOR DISABLES PERSONS
Category	C02. Use of Social in a PR campaign
Entrant	STENDAHLS ADVERTISING AGENCY Gothenburg, SWEDEN
Idea Creation	STENDAHLS ADVERTISING AGENCY Gothenburg, SWEDEN
Media Placement	STENDAHLS ADVERTISING AGENCY Gothenburg, SWEDEN
PR	STENDAHLS ADVERTISING AGENCY Gothenburg, SWEDEN
Production	STENDAHLS ADVERTISING AGENCY Gothenburg, SWEDEN

Name	Company	Position
Martin Cedergren	Stendahls	CCO
Mikael Andersson	Stendahls	Copywriter
Josefin Thor	Stendahls	Art Director
Jens Flensburg	Stendahls	Account Manager
Jens Dohnberg	Stendahls	Film Photographer
Sara Josefsson	Stendahls	Film Photographer
Linda Hante Engström	Stendahls	Film Production Manager
Andreas Gunberg	Stendahls	Head Of Strategy
Tommy Carlsson	Stendahls	Planner
Vanja Johansson	Stendahls	Reseracher
Jens Waern	Simma Lugnt	Web Developer
Jakob Knutsson	Cutback Agency	Post Producer
Markus Holm	Amplify Photo	Photographer
Linda Fernell	Stendahls	PR Strategist

Why is this work relevant for PR?

By doing something unexpected, smart, up-to-date and both innovative and funny – something never seen before – we managed to get PR all over the world without spending a single € on media purchase.

Background

GIL is a Swedish organization that coordinates personal assistance for people with disabilities. They also work hard with disability issues like inaccessibility, prejudice and shabby treatment, in order to highlight the discrimination of this minority group – and their right to be in control of their own lives and have the same opportunities as others. People with disabilities often experience that they are not seen as full-worthy citizens. They feel that they are not expected to have any ambitions, demands or even have their own will. As if they were idiots. Most people will agree that it’s wrong to call someone a retard, just because they sound and look a little different. But Google Consumer Surveys shows that intellectual disabilities are still the first thing people associate with the r-word. Our goal was to get people to reflect on how the word is used.

Describe the creative idea

Instead of banning a word and use an expected and simple trick like taking the victim role, we wanted to find a smarter and more surprising way to get people to start reflecting on how the R-word is used. We wanted to question who the real retards in this world are. Both because we think it's a more efficient way of communicate, but also to show a completely different side of people with disabilities than you are used to. So, we decided to create loads of short films, in which people with disabilities play the lead role by quoting various horrible and idiotic statements from politicians and other influential people around the world. Then we packed the films as "inspirational quotes" and started to post them at the Instagram account: @saidbyretards. To get attention we tagged a lot of news sources and relevant people. And guess what? It worked!

Describe the strategy

The target audience is really all of us because the whole society is partly responsible for the marginalization of people with disabilities. Everyday we meet a perfect and well directed image of the reality at Instagram. Our feeds are filled with healthy breakfasts, perfect bodies, beautiful homes, cute babies, lovely beaches. Not to mention inspirational quotes. People with disabilities is almost absent. To make people with different functional variations more visible in our everyday lives, the most natural way was to start appearing in people's social flows. We posted the movies through an instagram account – @saidbyretards – where the films, camouflaged as "inspirational quotes", soon turned out to be something completely different. The Instagram channel gave us the opportunity to refer to the sources and tag both news sources, influencers and those who had said the quotes. We were able to act quickly when something really retarded was said.

Describe the execution

Instagram gave us the opportunity to kick-start awareness before pitching through news channels. Buzz started as we tagged channels, influencers, reporters, even those who had been quoted. We acted agile during an intensive two-week period after the account was launched, and adapted really hands-on to the Instagram algorithm for better organic reach. Next step was reaching out to niche media focused on communication and society matters. For the major news media in Sweden, we attacked the debate columns by submitting letters, adding new, raw relevant statistics on the topic about disability and miscare. The initiative even got its own episode on Sweden’s biggest public service national radio channel. The debate took off and generated articles that lead to international attention, all while the account was still growing a side in social feeds.

List the results

Goal: Number of earned publicity in national and broad media: one. Result: During the campaign period, two major news outlets brought a lot of powerful attention to the subject. Goal surpassed with 100 %. For example, the program Verkligheten from Sweden’s national publicly funded radio broadcaster (Sveriges Radio) dedicated a whole 28-minute-long episode to the campaign Said by Retards where GIL’s operational manager Anders Westgerd got to debate, describe and explain the problems the campaign is based on in a calm environment. Goal: Number of relevant articles on the campaign: ten. Result: The campaign period saw 25 published articles. Goal surpassed with 150 %. Goal: Create debate and discussions about LSS, the Law regulating Support and Service to Persons with Certain Functional Disabilities, on a national legislature level. Result: According to evening newspaper Expressen (Sept. 2 2018), LSS was one of the hottest issues during the Swedish election 2018. Goal: Create PR value estimated at two million. Result: During the campaign period, a PR value (factor 4) of five million SEK was created. Goal: The number of relevant followers for the newly started Instagram account: 500. Result: During the campaign period, the account received 1 900 new followers. Goal surpassed with 380 %. Goal: Increase the number of members: 1,6 % Result: During the campaign period, the number of members increased with 3,6 %. Goal surpassed with 125 %.