THE UNCENSORED LIBRARY

Bronze Eurobest Award

Case Film

Presentation Image

TitleTHE UNCENSORED LIBRARY
BrandREPORTERS WITHOUT BORDERS (RSF)
Product/ServiceTHE UNCENSORED LIBRARY
Category A06. Not-for-profit / Charity / Government
Entrant DDB GERMANY Berlin, GERMANY
Idea Creation DDB GERMANY Berlin, GERMANY
PR THE HUMBLEBRAG Amsterdam, THE NETHERLANDS
Production MEDIA.MONKS Hilversum, THE NETHERLANDS
Production 2 BLOCKWORKS London, UNITED KINGDOM
Production 3 DAHOUSE AUDIO Berlin, GERMANY
Credits
Name Company Position
Dennis May DDB Group Germany Chief Creative Officer
Jan Harbeck DDB Group Germany Managing Director - Creative
Kristine Holzhausen DDB Group Germany Managing Director
Patrik Lenhart DDB Group Germany Executive Creative Director
Tobias Natterrer DDB Group Germany Senior Copywriter
Sandro Heierli DDB Group Germany Senior Art Director
Sirena Martinelli DDB Group Germany Art Director
Marco Lemcke DDB Group Germany Senior Art Director
Felix Boeck DDB Group Germany 3D Animation
Daniel Veit DDB Group Germany Account Manager
Caroline Bremmer DDB Group Germany Account Manager
Verena Schöbb DDB Group Germany Account Manager
Rik Nieuwdorp DDB Group Germany Art Intern
Edward Jasion DDB Group Germany Awards Manager
Dominika Zajac DDB Group Germany Supporting Creative
Helge Hoffman DDB Group Germany Supporting Creative
James Delaney Blockworks Managing Director
Robert-Jan Blonk MediaMonks Senior Producer
Javier Sancho Rodriguez MediaMonks Senior Project Manager
Jurriaan Gossink MediaMonks Creative
Jeroen Hol MediaMonks UX Design Lead
René Drieënhuizen MediaMonks Front end Lead
Johan Holwerda MadiaMonks 3D Lead
Henriëtte Gathier MadiaMonks Communications Director
Marta Tomczak MediaMonks Communications
Lucas Mayer DaHouse Audio Music Producer
Wonder Bettin DaHouse Audio Producer
Cassiano Derenji DaHouse Audio Account Manager
Markus Thomas DaHouse Audio Composer
Iris Fuzaro Le Tour Du Monde Film Maker
Jessica Hartley The Humble Brag PR Director
Sascha Gerlach Freelance Editor
Sebastian Irmer Freelance Motion Design

Why is this work relevant for Direct?

Reaching young people in oppressive countries suffering under online censorship and get them excited about press freedom is extremely difficult. To achieve this, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) used Minecraft in an innovative way to bypass censorship and directly target young gamers in these countries and get them engaged in reading independent journalism inside the game. The project came along with a social media campaign that activated the well-connected international gaming community to spread the news inside the game and turned gamers all over the world into press freedom activists.

Background

After the acclaimed “Uncensored Playlist”, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) wanted a new campaign to overcome censorship and get people excited about press freedom. The target was to reach millions of young people who grow up in oppressive countries under strict online censorship. They are especially vulnerable to disinformation by authoritarian governments and have no access to independent journalism. But it was also important to raise general awareness for the cause of RSF and their global fight against press censorship. In order to raise donations, RSF needed to win over people around the world and convince them about the importance of press freedom so they would support the cause.

Describe the creative idea (30% of vote)

How to overcome strong firewalls and at the same time get young people excited about press freedom? By bringing it to their world: Minecraft. Because even in countries where almost all media is blocked – Minecraft, one of the world’s biggest computer games, with more than 126 million active players per month, is easily accessible. In oppressive countries that increasingly restrict the rights of their citizens, especially young people tend to flee into games such as Minecraft that still provide freedom in virtual worlds. And Minecraft has books that can be freely written and read inside the game. RSF used this loophole to build a huge digital library in Minecraft to fill it with independent journalism: The Uncensored Library. And for the first time ever, a game became a tool to overcome censorship and bring the truth back to young people in oppressive countries.

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

The countries featured in the library were picked by comparing RSF’s “World Press Freedom Index” with Google data (Minecraft interest by country). Accordingly, journalists from countries with poor press freedom rating but high Minecraft interest were chosen by RSF and their censored work got republished in Minecraft books. The target was to reach young gamers (15–30 years), especially in countries with online censorship to get them engaged with independent journalism. To achieve this the well-connected gaming community needed to be activated to spread the word inside the game. In order to do so, the library was launched together with an awareness campaign including social media posts, YouTube videos, reddit threads and a website – all with the call to action to share the news.

Describe the execution (20% of vote)

Censored articles from acclaimed independent journalists from oppressive countries became uncensored “Minecraft books”, available in English and their original language inside the library. About 12.5 million Lego-like blocks were used to build an impressive and fun gameplay experience that would excite even experienced Minecraft players. On World Day Against Cyber Censorship, the library opened its doors in Minecraft. Along with a website, allowing visitors to enter the library by an interactive walkthrough outside the game. On the website the library map could be downloaded “censorship-protected” by blockchain technology. Every download map can be hosted inside the game again – allowing the library to multiply fast and making it impossible to censor. (+300K downloads and counting) The Uncensored Library will stay open indefinitely and in 2021 three more countries were added.

List the results (30% of vote)

The Uncensored Library reached more than 25 million gamers from 165 countries, many of them suffering under censorship (including Russia, Vietnam, Egypt, Mexico and Saudi Arabia). They spent countless hours inside the library reading books with independent journalism, the total playtime added up to more than 17 years. Big gaming influencers like CaptainSparklez talked about it and the community created more than 500 YouTube videos about the project – and what governments tried to hide suddenly was a trending topic. But the library went beyond the game: resulting in more than 860 news articles (total media reach 2.9B) – all with a media budget of €0. Donations for RSF increased significantly by 62% (YOY), helping them to extend their global fight for press freedom. The library even became a teaching tool in many schools and universities and the Design Museum in London made it a permanent part of their exhibition.