Title	PREEMPTIVE STRIKE
Brand	THE COUNTY ADMINISTRATIVE BOARD
Product/Service	HELP LINE
Category	A01. Data & Analytics & Insight
Entrant	PRIME WEBER SHANDWICK Stockholm, SWEDEN
Idea Creation	PRIME WEBER SHANDWICK Stockholm, SWEDEN
Media Placement	PRIME WEBER SHANDWICK Stockholm, SWEDEN
PR	PRIME WEBER SHANDWICK Stockholm, SWEDEN
Production	PRIME WEBER SHANDWICK Stockholm, SWEDEN
Post Production	PRIME WEBER SHANDWICK Stockholm, SWEDEN

Name	Company	Position
Angelica Borch	Prime Weber Shandwick	Key Account Manager
Angelica Borch	Prime Weber Shandwick	Key Account Manager
Janna Öhd	The County Administrative Board	Development Manager
Yrsa Lindberg	Prime Weber Shandwick	Copywriter
Robin Wiman	Prime Weber Shandwick	Art Director
Christina Ericson	The County Administrative Board	Ericson
Ulf Calvert	Manscentrum	Operationally Responsible
Jens Orback	Manscentrum	President
Johan Hildén	Manscentrum	Processor
Erika Palmquist	Novellix	Publisher
Lisa Bengtsson	Novellix	Art Director, Publisher
Lena Hamamrgren	Novellix	Publishing manager
Hanna Belander	Prime Weber Shandwick	Creative Director
Robin Wiman	Prime Weber Shandwick	Art Director
Yrsa Lindberg	Prime Weber Shandwick	Copywriter
Peter Moro	Prime Weber Shandwick	Strategy
Viktor Halldén	Prime Weber Shandwick	Designer
Cecilia Eklund	Prime Weber Shandwick	Media specialist

Why is this work relevant for Creative Strategy?

"Preemptive Strike" addressed an issue others had pursued many times before, but with little progress. However, by turning the perspective around, we sparked a national debate, and managed to reach an audience who, per definition, had not been listening. How? By engaging an iconic author to write a story they could relate to. And we succeeded. We connected abusers with therapists, and surpassed our objective many times over. Preemptive Strike did not only get a lot of attention, it earned the respect from key stakeholders, and in the end the results necessary to begin to solve the problem.

Background

About 20% of Swedes will be victims of domestic abuse. The effect is immense suffering for the victims, and societal costs are high. Voices from all over the country were calling for the perpetrators of this violence to take responsibility for their actions. However, it's difficult to recognise your own violent patterns, and changing your ways is even harder. Therefore, the Swedish government initiated a project – a telephone line for perpetrators of domestic violence. Here, help seekers could receive emergency support, but also long-term psychological treatment to help them change their ways. The goal was to get as many calls as possibly the phone line, and to at least surpass our British predecessor by 25%.

Interpretation (30% of vote)

Before the phone line launched, all efforts against domestic violence focused on protecting victims after the abuse. Of course, treatment of these victims is vital. However, research shows that this approach does not prevent or reduce future acts of violence, so we aimed the telephone line at the perpetrators of violence, offering them psychological help to change their ways. Yet, investing resources in people who commit crimes of violence isn’t uncontroversial. The public conversation is aggressive and farther stigmatizing, not allowing people to come out and admitting they need help. While we need a respectful approach to the abusers in order to get them to reach out and seek treatment, we risked encountering opposition from those who perceived that the Preemptive Strike's telephone line put resources on perpetrators instead of victims. We therefore worked hard to find the right balance and gain broad acceptance without condemning the target group.

Insight / Breakthrough Thinking (30% of vote)

To understand the issue of domestic violence, we conducted interviews with scientists, government experts, policemen and specially trained psychologists. We surveyed the general public’s view on domestic violence as well as people who had abused their partners. The research showed that the main obstacle to both realizing and admitting that you are a violent partner is shame. The conception of "someone who hits women" can be difficult to relate to, and not in line with how the abusers view themselves. To overcome this challenge, we identified some key insights, including the importance of putting the responsibility on the abuser and the need to broaden the image of what should be considered violence. We realized that to reach the target group and get them to voluntarily call the helpline, we needed to create communication where the abuser could recognize themselves in the more subtle violent actions.

Creative Idea (20% of vote)

Jonas Hassen Khemiri is Sweden’s most acclaimed and awarded contemporary authors, whose books continuously top the best-selling lists. In his latest best seller, The Family Clause, he introduces a male character who physically abuses one of the novel’s main characters. We recognized the character's controlling behavior as symptomatic to the target group we wanted to reach, and saw an opportunity to challenge the traditional conception of who a perpetrator might be. We asked Hassen Khemiri to write an additional chapter, where the reader gets to experience a charged situation from the perpetrator’s point of view – nuancing violence in order to create recognition through an unexpected channel and, ultimately, encouraging more people to call the helpline. The chapter turned into a small book that was published and handed it out for free at all major Swedish bookstores in conjunction with the release of the paperback edition of The family clause.

Outcome / Results (20% of vote)

- The incoming calls exceeded our targets by 543% - and our comparative phone line by 679%. - Data from the incoming calls constitutes the country's largest fact base for domestic violence and will be grounds for much needed research on the issue. - Hassen Khemiri's short story was distributed on all stores of Sweden’s largest retailer of books and had, in addition to that, a reach of 9,800,000 through media. And an organic reach in social media over 2,000,000. - As the story and interviews with the author appeared in Sweden's largest newspapers, radio and TV a public discussion arouse on the issue, a more nuanced discussion on the subject than what we are used to. - The short story is highly requested as teaching material in high schools around the country to help start a conversation on domestic violence - and how to prevent it.