2019 Glass: The Award for Change

THE LAST EVER ISSUE

Short List
TitleTHE LAST EVER ISSUE
BrandGAZETA.PL, BNP PARIBAS, MASTERCARD
Product/ServiceTHE LAST EVER ISSUE
Category A01. Glass
Entrant WAVEMAKER Warsaw, POLAND
Idea Creation VMLY&R POLAND Warsaw, POLAND
Media Placement WAVEMAKER Warsaw, POLAND
PR WAVEMAKER Warsaw, POLAND
PR 2 VMLY&R POLAND Warsaw, POLAND
PR 3 FUNDACJA SUKCESU PISANEGO SZMINKA Warsaw, POLAND
Production VMLY&R POLAND Warsaw, POLAND
Production 2 PAPAYA FILMS Warsaw, POLAND
Credits
Name Company Position
Dawid Szczepaniak VMLY&R Executive Creative Director
Maciej Kozina VMLY&R Associate Creative Director
Daniel Przygoda Wavemaker Creative Head
Julia Szostak Wavemaker Creative Head
Urszula Mazur VMLY&R Account Manager
Anna Kwiatkowska VMLY&R Account Director
Gocha Adamczyk VMLY&R Senior Strategy Planner
Ewelina Wojtyczka VMLY&R Art Director
Adam Smereczynski VMLY&R Associate Creative Director
Michal Wolniak VMLY&R President
Joanna Adamkiewicz-Wolniak VMLY&R Board
Lukasz Majewski VMLY&R PR Director
Rafal Nalewajski VMLY&R Influencer Lead
Tomasz Szkodzinski VMLY&R Design Director
Pawel Szczygiel VMLY&R Senior Art Director
Wiktoria Belz VMLY&R UX designer
Katarzyna Rychowiecka Wavemaker Junior Copywriter
Inez Ali Wavemaker Social Media & Content Specialist
Maria Jeppson Wavemaker Media Partnerships & Junior Content Specialist
Edyta Werpachowska Wavemaker Integrated Communication Manager
Andrzej Suhov Wavamaker Paid Social Leader
Emil Tumilowicz Wavemaker Head of Content
Aleksander Kropidlowski VMLY&R director
Lukasz Siewiorek VMLY&R project manager
Weronika Lawniczak Papaya Films Photographer
Daniel Jaroszek Papaya Films Photographer
Paula Patocka Papaya Films Photographer
Malgorzata Popinigis Papaya Films Photographer
Kacper Sawicki Papaya Films Executive Producer
Ewa Kurzava Papaya Films Producer
Marzena Szkolak Gazeta.pl Lead Editor
Magdalena Karpinska Gazeta.pl Lead Editor
Bozena Kowalkowska Gazeta.pl Editorial Project Manager
Michal Rutkowski Gazeta.pl Marketing Director
Zuza Krajewska N/A Photographer
Olga Kozierowska Sukces Pisany Szminka CEO
Dagny Kurdwanowska Sukces Pisany Szminka NGO member
Olga Kolakowska Gazeta.pl Editorial Team
Anna Budynska Gazeta.pl Editorial Team
Olga Legosz Sukces Pisany Szminka NGO member
Dariusz Maciolek BNP Paribas Marketing Director
Joanna Blaszczyk BNP Paribas Marketing Manager
Malgorzata Witkowska BNP Paribas Marketing Manager
Marta Zycinska Mastercard Marketing Director
Pawel Kotowski Mastercard Client
Anna Marciniak Mastercard Client
Malgorzata Szczerbinska Mastercard Client
Rafal Cieciura VMLY&R DTP Manager
Natalia Makowska Solski PR PR Manager
Malgorzata Nierodzinska Creative Shop, Facebook Creative Strategist Facebook EMEA
Claudio Barreto Creative Shop, Facebook Creative Strategist Facebook EMEA
Edyta Kotowicz Creative Shop, Facebook Creative Strategist Facebook EMEA
Debbi Vandeven VMLY&R Global Chief Creative Officer
Lauren Lafranz VMLY&R Managing Director, Global Creative Operations
Claire Charruau VMLY&R Marketing Director
Jaime Mandelbaum VMLY&R Chief Creative Officer
Saul Betmead VMLY&R Chief Strategy Officer
Sunil Nair Creative Shop, Facebook Creative Shop, Facebook

Background

As one of the leading Polish news portals, Gazeta.pl debates political and cultural issues daily and, not afraid of controversy, continually initiates and progresses conversations. Gazeta.pl is owned by the largest, most influential, liberal publisher in Poland who sees its role far beyond just delivering the news. In place since 2015, Poland’s autocratic government has demonstrated on many occasions their will to subordinate women: they banned over-the-counter access to the morning-after pill, they threatened draconian new restrictions on abortion and claimed that gender discrimination in Poland does not exist. Movements like #MeToo have put the issues of gender equality and sexism front and centre globally. In Poland these movements were also visible but the impact of them were limited – still most of Polish people do not feel they are a part of inequality culture and that these issues affect their lives. We felt it was time to change that.

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

‘Gender’ doesn’t happen in a vacuum. In Poland, gender issues have been linked in complicated ways to politics, national history, and economic processes. To this day, women’s issues are viewed with suspicion as an import, something supposedly threatening Poland’s traditional culture. In Poland, everyday sexism is still acceptable, women are marginalized and patronized in most public forums, and schools don’t offer sexual education. And since 2015, the right-wing government, led by the Law and Justice (PiS) party, has worked closely with the Catholic Church to enforce a heteronormative Catholic family model and do away with women’s reproductive rights. For most people, including the progressive westernized middle class, gender issues still feel abstract. To create lasting change, we had to create something that would challenge everyone, anchor gender issues in everyday life and make them as mainstream as the oldest adult magazine in the country.

Describe the creative idea

For 27 years, “Your Weekend” – one of Poland's longest-running and most read adult magazine - reduced women to sex objects. In December 2018, when it was up for sale, we bought it immediately. And used it to challenge the culture of sexism and gender inequality it had contributed to building. We transformed “Your Weekend” in a conversation-sparking, ground-breaking magazine promoting diverse and progressive narratives of femininity. We teamed up Gazeta.pl, our client and leading Polish news portal, with Mastercard and BNP Paribas, two brands with a long-term commitment to empower women, to create this last issue. We published it on International Women’s Day. We kept the regular sections and columns but reimagined the content around sexual education, gender portrayal, equal rights, sexism and more. It was the symbolic end of an era and a spectacular beginning for a much-needed national conversation.

Describe the strategy

The main assumption was to make the topic mainstream. That is why we have decided to target the campaign to middle class Polish men. People we wanted to engage were not rejecting the topic, but thought that it that sexism isn’t their problem or their doing. We didn’t want to judge anyone or to instruct. We wanted to make them realize that they were brought up with a biased perspective on women because of titles such as “Your Weekend” and lack of proper education in schools.

Describe the execution

A teaser campaign started a week before the launch creating excitement about the iconic magazine’s last ever issue. Nationwide offline and online sales were launched on 2019 International Women’s Day. Gazeta.pl sold “The Last Ever Issue” through their publisher’s distribution networks such as Empik (a chain of 200+ bookstores), Relay/Inmedio/1 Minute (chain of 1000+ newsagents / convenience stores), publio.pl and kulturalnysklep.pl (online platforms owned by the publisher). Sales were supported by an integrated campaign including OOH, cinemas, radio, social media and PR. 100+ copies of the magazine were sent out to journalists and influencers which ignited a fierce social media debate. Both Mastercard and BNP Paribas amplified the campaign in their social media channels. A content section was created at gazeta.pl. It publishes content related to sexism, equality and diverse narratives of feminism. This content is redistributed through the media channels of what used to be an objectifying adult magazine.

Describe the results / impact

Our most impressive result is... 0. That’s the exact amount of impressions of “Your Weekend’s” objectifying content since 08/03/2019. The campaign organically reached 4.5M people and generated 25M media impressions (Poland’s adult population is c.a. 28M) according to media monitoring services. “The Last Ever Issue” content generated 500k+ visits to gazeta.pl - a 50% increase in their daily traffic. The campaign was mentioned by Poland’s most influential TV shows “Pytanie na Śniadanie” and “Szkło Kontaktowe”. It was even featured as the main story on gazeta.pl’s biggest competitor’s news site - onet.pl. The online edition of the magazine was the best selling e-magazine in Poland of March 2019 (although readership of e-magazines in Poland is still in its infancy). Projected offline sales make it the best selling issue of “Your Weekend” in 10 years. But most of all, we transformed a vehicle for objectifying women into a platform for empowerment and