Title	THE EQUAL EDIT
Brand	WIKIMEDIA FOUNDATION
Product/Service	WIKIPEDIA
Category	A01. Glass
Entrant	WENDERFALCK Stockholm, SWEDEN
Idea Creation	WENDERFALCK Stockholm, SWEDEN
PR	WENDERFALCK Stockholm, SWEDEN
Production	WENDERFALCK Stockholm, SWEDEN

Name	Company	Position
Peter Andersson	Wenderfalck	Client director
Ola Granfeldt	Wenderfalck	Project Manager
Joel Karlsson	Wenderfalck	Media specialis
Nathalie Folkeryd	Wenderfalck	Media specialist
Jonas Axblom	Wenderfalck	Social media & content specialist
Ellie Ekström	Wenderfalck	Art Director
Urban Wirdheim	Wenderfalck	Copywriter
Frida Lind	Wenderfalck	PR Creative
Joel Klasén	Wenderfalck	Designer
Petter Rudwall	Wenderfalck	Creative Director

Background

One of Wikipedia’s main brand values is the spreading of free, accurate and balanced knowledge to everyone. This also means information that’s balanced from a gender perspective. Our brief was to lift Wikimania, Wikipedia’s annual conference, in national press and create engagement about the conference. The theme of the conference was UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. We wanted to show how free knowledge is key in reaching UN’s SDGs, by promoting Wikipedia’s mission as the most complete, free source of knowledge in the world. Our objective and challenge was to engage people in something they know next to nothing about, as Wikimania and Wikipedia’s mission has very low awareness in Sweden. In order to engage a broad audience in a niche conference, we had to create a topic of conversation that would naturally engage the audience and spread the word. Without a media budget.

Describe the cultural / social / political climate in your region and the significance of your campaign within this context

Sweden is in the forefront when it comes to gender equality. It was the first country in the world that adopted a feminist foreign policy in 2014. And gender equality is also a topic that has a natural high engagement within the population. It’s a burning topic that’s discussed everywhere in the country. Goal 5 in UN’s SDGs is Gender Equality. And it’s main purpose is to find ways to give women the same platform, and voice, as men have enjoyed since the beginning of society. This is a goal that resonates within the Swedish society. And initiatives are created daily to give women of today the same platform as men. But what about the women of yesterday? Swedish history is filled with influential women. Problem is, they’re never mentioned. Usually they’re overlooked or replaced by men. Essentially painting a picture that only men have historically shaped Swedish society. Something that’s simply not true. We wanted to connect Goal 5 in UN’s SDGS with Wikipedia, to create a whole new topic in the gender equality discussion. And show how many remarkable women Swedish history has, but that’s never mentioned.

Describe the creative idea

Swedish history is written by men. For men. And is mostly about… men. In reality the Swedish history isn’t lacking as many women as it might seem. There’s loads of influential women in Swedish history. Problem is, they’re just not mentioned. To show Swedes that Wikipedia is the most relevant and complete free source of knowledge in the world, we wanted to give the women of yesterday the same platform as the women today. So we created The Equal Edit. An initiative to rewrite Swedish history on Wikipedia and make it more gender equal. We introduced a method where everyone in the community is invited to edit articles and equalise them, with the help of external experts - making the editing process as quick and simplified as possible. So that for the first time in history, influential women can stand side by side with influential men.

Describe the strategy

As mentioned before, Goal 5 in UN’s SDGs is Gender Equality. This is also a burning topic that divides and engages every Swede. So, to show Swedes that Wikipedia is the most relevant and complete free source of knowledge there is, we tapped in to this topic but added a twist that’s very relevant to Wikipedia: Gender Equality in history. History is the ultimate proof of how unequal society has been and still is. Something that’s very visible on Wikipedia. For instance, in the main article about Swedish History the gender distribution is 90% men and 10% women. By disregarding the influential women that has shaped Swedish society, Wikipedia paints a false picture of Sweden. That’s why our primary target was the Wikipedia community, inviting them to mobilise and equalise history. Simply with the goal to create a true and equal history through collaboration - the Wikipedia way.

Describe the execution

We collaborated with experts (like Historiskan, a history magazine with focus on women) to create a list of historic but "forgotten" women. The list was made available throughout the Wikipedia-community (on Meta-Wiki and in editing groups). The list is a tool, with clear and accurate sources, making the editing process as simplified as possible. We launched the initiative during the Wikimania conference. We released the initiative by targeting and inviting key journalists, pitched a handful of spokespersons to different media segments and started a social media activation focusing on historical Swedish women. The Wikipedia founder talked about the initiative, UN’s SDGs as well as Wikimania during the opening ceremony and in press. During Wikimania, we held a panel discussion about gender equality in history and UN’s SDGs - to inspire the community globally and create awareness about the initiative. It became the most visited and talked about event during Wikimania.

Describe the results / impact

What began as an initiative in Sweden, became a global discussion about equality in history. Almost every media in Sweden talked about the initiative and Wikipedia’s mission, and the debate also spread globally. Earned reach was 60+ million, a crowd six times the size of Sweden. PR-value was 2+ million EUR, an ROI of 43 x the investment. Our target of social interactions was at least 2000. 40 000 social interactions later we had created a global discussion about Goal 5, gender equality in history and Wikipedia’s role in the issue. During the campaign donations rose by 274,49% and number of members rose by 433,33% from the previous year. The initiative also established a new method in the community, where external experts help to create equal, balanced historiographies in the future. Because The Equal Edit isn’t a short-lived campaign. It’s an initiative that will live on in Wikipedia.