Title	HOW WOULD YOU FEEL - ALS LEAGUE
Brand	ALS LIGA
Product/Service	AWARENESS CAMPAIGN
Category	A07. Not-for-profit / Charity / Governemt
Entrant	ALS LEAGUE Leuven, BELGIUM
Idea Creation	PUBLICIS BRUSSELS, BELGIUM
Production	CAVIAR Brussels, BELGIUM
Production 2	PRODIGIOUS Brussels, BELGIUM

Name	Company	Position
Frederik Jonnaert	Publicis	Account Manager
Kwint De Meyer	Publicis	Creative Director
Willem De Wachter	Publicis	Creative Director
Francois Massinon	Publicis	Copywriter
Massimo De Pascale	Publicis	Art Director
Daan Feytons	Prodigious	Agency Producer
Marc Van Buggenhout	Prodigious	Agency Producer
Jan Govaert	Publicis	Strategic planner
Bram Coppens	Caviar	Director
Werner De Coninck	Caviar	Executive Producer
Soraya Verbeke	Caviar	1st Assistant Director
Brecht Goyvaerts	Caviar	DOP Lighting Cameraman
Boris Godfroid	Caviar	Focus Puller
Tommy Vuylsteke	Caviar	Cameraman Wet unit
Pieter Germeys	Caviar	Camera Assistant / Safety diver
Stijn De Troyer	Caviar	Grip
Toon Echelpoels	Caviar	Sound Engineer
Luk Malu	Caviar	Drone Operator
Yasmine Schiettecatte	Caviar	Make up artist

Why is this work relevant for PR?

The campaign put ALS, an incurable and rare disease, at the center of the Belgian media for an entire week. By releasing a film, inspired by a real ALS patient’s story, we made people experience the harsh reality of the disease. The film created huge impact. Belgians started talking about the disease online and multiple national media also picked up the story. This created the perfect momentum for the ALS league to educate people on the disease and highlight the lack of funds for research. As a result, donations increased.

Background

ALS is a rare, incurable disease that affects the nerve cells, weakening the muscles one by one, which eventually leads to death. In Belgium a thousand people continuously suffer from ALS. Every year, more than two hundred patients pass away and at least as many are diagnosed with ALS. As it is a rare disease, pharmaceutical companies don’t invest in finding a cure and research almost completely depends on donations to the ALS league. This is a challenge as more common diseases are better known, so they receive more funds from the public. The Belgian ALS league needed to make people understand this disease and its consequences to create awareness for the pressing need for funds. The brief was simple: spark a national debate about ALS to create awareness for this lesser known disease.

Describe the creative idea (20% of vote)

The idea was not to simply tell the Belgian public about ALS, but to make them experience it. So we created a film based on the true story of Erwin, a former swimming instructor until he got diagnosed with ALS. Now Erwin sits in a wheelchair, unable to move or talk, stripped from the job he loved and no longer able to teach children to swim. The film shows Erwin near the pool of a family home. When a child falls into the water, viewers feel Erwin’s powerlessness. Mentally aware but not physically capable to help or shout, he can only undergo what’s happening. Other ALS patients identified with the film and confirmed it pictured the feeling of living with ALS. The film aimed to make people talk about the harsh reality of ALS, unfortunately the reality of many people every single day, with no cure so far.

Describe the PR strategy (30% of vote)

ALS is like a lit candle. It melts your nerves and leaves your body like a pile of wax. You can’t support yourself standing or sit up straight. Eventually your soul, perfectly awake, is imprisoned inside a limp husk. Like in a science-fiction movie, a person frozen inside his own flesh. ALS is not just a physical disease; mentally it’s hell. There have been numerous campaigns trying to explain the disease, but most people still don’t understand the severity of the disease. As experiences prove to be much more memorable, our strategy shifted the campaign from telling people about the disease, to making them experience how it feels to be trapped in your own body, perfectly aware. The campaign video was only the start. The goal was to create a debate on ALS on- and-offline and create momentum for the ALS league to educate people on the severity of ALS.

Describe the PR execution (20% of vote)

The campaign kicked off with the film online and on television. It immediately got picked up in national media and created a lot of online discussion. This created the perfect momentum for ALS league Belgium to talk about ALS as a disease, not just about the commercial, in newspapers and on national radio and television. When Eén, the Belgian national TV station judged the film too inappropriate for television and decided to ban it, people started massively sharing the film online. For an entire week, ALS was in the center of the Belgian media, even though the spot was only on television for a day.

List the results (30% of vote)

Even though there were some negative comments because of the harsh nature of the film, most reactions were positive and supported the film because it portrayed the harsh reality of ALS. Over 75% of the viewers shared the film after watching it online. Compared to the initial media plan, the spot multiplied its visibility by 10.000. Donations increased by 345% during and after the campaign. And, most importantly, for an entire week, ALS dominated the Belgian media, even though the spot was only on television for a day.