Title	TEXT FOR HUMANITY
Brand	SINCH
Product/Service	SINCH - B2B CLOUD COMMUNICATIONS PLATFORM
Category	A06. Consumer Services / Business to Business
Entrant	EDELMAN London, UNITED KINGDOM
Idea Creation	EDELMAN London, UNITED KINGDOM
PR	EDELMAN London, UNITED KINGDOM

Name	Company	Position
Mattias Ronge	Edelman	Chief Creative Officer
Stefan Ronge	Edelman	Chief Creative Officer
Martin Jon Adolfsson	Edelman	Creative Director
Anders Hallen	Edelman	Creative Technologist
Sean Cullivan	Edelman	Copywriter
Juan Posada	Edelman	Art Director
Myles Cameron	Edelman	Creative Technologist
David Mercer	Edelman	Client Strategist
Kay Yee Tee	Edelman	Client Strategist
Emma Zadravetz	Edelman	Project Manager
Abigail Lloyd	Edelman	Account Manager
Terrie Barron	Edelman	PR-Specialist
Marianne Fekene	Edelman	PR-Specialist
Melody Achi	Edelman	Influencer Strategist
Annita Konstantini	Edelman	Influencer Strategist
Daisy Scott Winston	Edelman	Influencer Strategist
Carrie Miller	Edelman	Strategist
Jonathan Bean	Sinch	Chief Marketing Officer
Katie Lawrence	Sinch	Director, Brand & Communications
Jeff Hasen	Sinch	Director of Communications
Diana Timlund	Sinch	Product Manager – Conversation Platform

Why is this work relevant for PR?

This is an initiative that didn’t just stop at grabbing headlines, but became a real, long-lasting tool for positivity, supercharged by Sinch's proprietary tech. All through earned creative thinking and PR craft. We broke the rules in how normal B2B PR campaigns are shaped. Instead of trying to target a very small target group directly, we engaged the world and our target group not only payed attention, but reached out to us, increasing our business leads with 300%.

Background

Sinch is a Swedish cloud communications platform handling texting and voice calling for clients such as Facebook, Whatsapp and Google. Several studies have investigated possible links between social media and smartphone use and poor mental health, including symptoms of depression and anxiety… it doesn’t look good. Could Sinch demonstrate the power of their tech solution to attract new business leads and at the same time represent tech as a force for good in the world? We were charged with generating brand awareness for Sinch and in a way that would make people feel positive about the technology.

Describe the creative idea (20% of vote)

To take a stab at online negativity we took something anyone, anywhere in the world could use - a simple text message - and supercharged it with Sinch's proprietary tech… Then we connected strangers all over the world. Introducing ‘Texts for Humanity’, the world's first texting switchboard, where anyone can send a positive text to a stranger and receive one in return. We launched in partnership with Mental Health America. Autogenerated text artworks turned messages in to beautiful social-friendly visuals, to encourage sharing. Influencers and media exclusives helped to get the campaign out to the public too.

Describe the PR strategy (30% of vote)

Sinch asked us for a campaign that would create wide awareness about their brand, but also highlight them as a purpose-driven company, specifically within mental health. Today, nothing is as personal and emotional to us as our phones. But although we’re using them to communicate 24/7, we feel worse mentally – not happier. Mean tweets, rude comments, hatred. All in the palm of your hand. (Studies have investigated possible links between social media and smartphone usage with poor mental health.) This is a problem for Sinch’s big B2B clients, who are among the largest, most tech obsessed social media companies in the world. Our strategy was to use Sinch’s own tech to show that technology could be the solution, not only the problem, and that people could spread love, not only negativity.

Describe the PR execution (20% of vote)

We worked with Sinch’s internal tech team to turn their existing text conversation bot into a switchboard. We created a new conversational user flow and a bespoke algorithm that turn plain texts into individual artworks available to share out on social channels. A curation was put in place ensures that only positive messages are sent through. We launched Text for Humanity just before the most depressive day of the year, Blue Monday – through media exclusives and influencers in several countries. Thanks to a thorough PR plan and real time monitoring and actions, our initiative grew to a peer to peer movement. The service is still live and available to anyone who wants to make a stranger somewhere in the world feel a little bit better.

List the results (30% of vote)

In a time of hateful comments, false news and increased stress online, we showed that mobile communication can be a solution, and not only the problem. Reach + Coverage +The campaign grew organically, with close to no media spend +It was voluntarily endorsed by Stephen Fry, who shared it with his 12.7 million followers +470M+ Earned Media Reach +50,000 Social Media Engagements +Mentions and stories in numerous top tier titles including the NBC Today Show, BBC Radio and The Evening Standard. Activity +1M+ words of positivity were sent and received +70.000 positive messages sent +Thousands of people from 85 countries on all continents participating Business Impacts +300% increase of business inquiries to Sinch +Sinch.com Web Traffic up 176% (sessions) compared to November 2019 – (From 24,000 to 66,000 Sessions) • Direct “Sinch” Brand traffic up 40% • Organic Search up 15% • Referral Traffic up 50% • Social Media traffic up 104%