I (DIS)OWN MY CHILD

TitleI (DIS)OWN MY CHILD
Brand‘DA SE ZNA’ LGBT+NGO
Product/Service‘DA SE ZNA’ LGBT+NGO
Category B03. Creative Effectiveness for Good
Entrant McCANN Belgrade, SERBIA
Idea Creation McCANN Belgrade, SERBIA
Media Placement UM Belgrade, SERBIA
PR McCANN Belgrade, SERBIA
Production McCANN Belgrade, SERBIA
Credits
Name Company Position
Jana Savić Rastovac McCann Beograd Executive Creative Director
Jovana Milošević McCann Beograd Associate Creative Director
Lidija Milovanović McCann Beograd Associate Creative Director
Sandra Milojević McCann Beograd Senior Graphic Designer
Andrea Mitić McCann Beograd Account Manager
Emina Azizi McCann Beograd Regional Account Director
Aleksandar Milojević McCann Beograd Senior Strategic Planner
Marija Vićić McCann Beograd Communication Director for Creative Excellence
Jelena Jazić McCann Beograd Managing Director
Luka Ličina Drive Beograd Digital Copywriter
Stefan Nikolić Drive Beograd Designer
Nikola Nikolić McCann Beograd Head Of Creative Services
Biljana Kolaković UM Beograd Regional Managing Director
Dubravka Perišić McCann Beograd Creative Traffic
Catalin Dobre McCann Worldgroup Romania Chief Creative Officer McCann Worldgroup Romania and Regional Creative Director McCann CEE
Carmen Bistrian McCann Worldgroup Creative Excellence Manager EUROPE
Ana Kovačević UM Beograd Account Supervisor

Objectives

Creating a LGBT+ related campaign in conservative Eastern Europe country such as Serbia is a bit tricky every time: negative attitudes are present with every single mention of LGBT+ population and their rights in public, for ages, and the entire society is deeply divided with this topic. We wanted to start the talk and to reach mass population, and to change the predominant sentiment about this topic in wider society. All of that with limited budget. 1. Reach over a million people in the first week of the campaign and generate organic impressions and organic PR value since there is no media budget 2. Stimulate people to contact our support mechanism that we create. 3. Create positive sentiment about the campaign with minimum of 60% positive

Summary of the work

If you are gay, lesbian, or any other sexual minority in Serbia it means that one in four persons don’t want you to be their colleague at work, one in three don’t want you as a friend, and every other person doesn’t want you to be teacher to their kids. It seems that only worse thing than to be gay colleague, friend or teacher in Serbia is to be gay child in Serbia. 63% of Serbs say that it would be a problem if their children were gay. In an environment where the worst thing that can happen to a parent is "their son being gay and daughter a whore", we were faced with the challenge of how to start a conversation about all the problems that members of the LGBT + minority face every day, yet not making another polarizing campaign with deeply negative sentiment. In a ‘Strategy for Prevention and Protection against Discrimination’ Serbian Government identified as one of the common problems members of the LGBT+ population are facing that young LGBT+ people, when their parents find out about their sexual orientation, are expelled from home and family. In a society where the social distance from LGBT+ people in families is 82%, some parents are disowning their children through classifieds in the newspapers. This unique Serbian custom, incomprehensible to anyone outside the Balkans, is something that everyone among us here was threaten with. "I’ll disown you in the newspaper!" we have probably all heard so many times, but also is something that really happened in our, not so distant, past. Yes, parents were disowning their children in the newspapers, in the section of classifieds, for various reasons: vice, immoral behavior, but also because they love someone, usually the same sex. Gordana, Cveta, Jelica, Predrag, Dragana and Goran.. are proud parents of their LGBT children. So proud that they want the whole world to know that, or at least the whole of Serbia. So proud that they would never disown them just because they love the one they chose to love. And they decided to announce it to everyone! And how? Well, just changing the tradition of the existing format of classifieds: these proud parents wrote small ads of love and simply said I’M NOT DISOWNING. I don’t disown my child because they’re gay or lesbian, and because they love who they want. Classifieds were published in printed editions of 15 different daily newspapers throughout Serbia, in the regular section Classifieds. On June 22nd, everyone who opened ‘Novosti’ couldn’t help but notice a small ad of great love on the page with other classifieds. On that black and white page that rarely anyone reads, unless there is an excessive need, our ad stood out with the colors of love. At the same time, we have created an anonymous online chat to support people who want to come out to their parents, or having a difficult and problematic period after coming out, where they could contact a team of psychologists.

Engagement & Awareness

Within the first three days of the campaign, we exceed our objective to reach one million people for one week, and reached 1.5 million people! For 308 eur of total budget what was the cost of classifieds in 15 different newspapers, we generated earned media and PR value of 115.5k eur in total value through media coverage and news in 4 national TV stations, other magazines and over 50 web portals. Through the self-initiated support of public persons, celebrities and influencers we gained 2.7 million of impressions on social media and other digital channels. We used Nielsen Audience Measurement, Arianna software, peoplemeters methodology, Google Analytics, MEDIApuls reports, Facebook Business manager and Mediatoolkit reports to measure this.

Social Behaviour & Insight

In the first week after we launched online support for everyone who wants to come out or facing the problems after coming out, 14 people contacted us for help, and by the end of the year we stayed in contact with 66 people who needed our support. During year after, 280 new people contacted us for the support. We measured this by the number of contacts on our website. What we didn’t expected, and it happened, more and more parents contacted us in order to publish their classifieds of love and support towards their LGBT+ children.

Brand Affinity & Sentiment

In a society with predominantly negative sentiment towards LGBT+ population and related topics, we managed to reverse the sentiment: even 67% of population had positive sentiment towards our campaign and the topic we communicated. We measured this with Mediatoolkit advanced report. Also, an unexpected result came: Belgrade Pride, the annual pride parade happening each September contacted us and took our message IM NOT DISOWNING as their slogan and motto.

Sales Success

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Conclusion

When we started this story, we did not believe that a deeply traditional and conservative society would react two-thirds positively to one LGBT+ topic, having in mind their previous views on this population. However, for only 308 euros of the budget, as much as the small ads in 15 daily newspapers across Serbia cost, we reached 1.5 million people in just 3 days! We generated a total media value of 115.5k euros and achieved 2.7 million impressions on social networks. We created a movement of Proud Parents who are not ashamed, and moreover who are not disowning their LGBT+ children, a movement that was growing each day with parents who wanted to join self-initiated. We managed to talk about LGBT+ rights from a different, unexpected and non-administrative language that everyone understood, and moreover, more than two thirds of the population reacted positively. One small and outdated media format managed to move mountains!

Discounting Factors

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