Title	THE EQUAL EDIT
Brand	WIKIMEDIA FOUNDATION
Product/Service	WIKIPEDIA
Category	A07. Not-for-profit / Charity / Governemt
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

Why is this work relevant for PR?

With no media budget our mission was to engage a broad audience in something they know next to nothing about - Wikipedia’s annual conference Wikimania and the overall mission of Wikipedia. To do so, we had to create a new topic of conversation that would grab the attention of the public, press and bring awareness to the conference and Wikipedia’s mission. We did this by tapping into one of the most burning topics of conversation in Sweden - Gender Equality. And brought light to how incredibly unequal history has historically been and still is.

Background

Wikimania is Wikipedia's annual conference and 2019 it was held in Stockholm, the theme being UN's 17 Sustainable Development Goals. The idea with the SDGs aligns perfectly with the idea behind Wikimania - that through discussion and collaboration knowledge will spread and the goals will be reached. Our mission was to lift Wikimania in national press and create engagement about the conference. By promoting Wikipedia’s mission as the most complete, free source of knowledge in the world and show how free knowledge is key in reaching UN's SDGs. Our objective and challenge was to engage people in something they know next to nothing about, as Wikimania and Wikipedia’s mission have 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 creative idea (20% of vote)

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 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 PR strategy (30% of vote)

Goal 5 in UN’s SDGs is Gender Equality. This is also a burning topic that divides, engages and is discussed everywhere in Sweden. To get the key message across, that Wikipedia is the most complete, free source of knowledge there is, we tapped in to this topic. With an added twist, staying 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. The main article about Swedish history has a gender distribution of 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 we decided to rewrite history, taking a burning topic to the Wikipedia community, inviting them to mobilise and equalise history. With the goal of creating a true and equal history through collaboration - the Wikipedia way.

Describe the PR execution (20% of vote)

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 existing 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.

List the results (30% of vote)

Tier 1: Target: 10 articles in relevant Swedish media. Result: 56 articles in relevant Swedish media as well as global articles, exceeding target by 560% - where 90% of the articles contained the key message about Wikimania and Wikipedia’s mission. Target: Earned editorial reach 10+ million Result: 30+ million, exceeding target 300% Primary KPI: Create a PR-value of 45 000 EUR, equivalent to the campaign investment Result: PR-value 2+ million EUR (gross estimation), ROI = 43 times the investment. Target: Earned social reach 10+ million Result: 30+ million, exceeding target 300% Tier 2: Target: Create a social dialogue with at least 2000 social interactions Result: 40 000 social interactions and large engagement in social channels, where we created a global discussion regarding Goal 5, gender equality in history and Wikipedia’s role in the issue and. During the campaign Wikimania trended on Twitter. Tier 3: During the campaign donations rose by 274,49% and number of members rose by 433,33% from the previous year. The Equal Edit was incredibly successful. Almost every media in Sweden told Wikipedia’s mission, strengthening their position as the most complete, accurate and free source of knowledge there is, spreading the word about Wikipedia’s mission and Wikimania to a crowd six times the size of the Swedish population. The initiative also established a new method in the community, where external experts help to create more balanced historiographies in the future. The Equal Edit isn’t a short-lived campaign. It’s an initiative that will live on in Wikipedia.