XTACY

TitleXTACY
BrandNATIONAL PROSECUTION SERVICE
Product/ServicePUBLIC AWARENESS
Category C06. Breakthrough on a Budget
Entrant ROORDA RECLAMEBUREAU Amsterdam, THE NETHERLANDS
Idea Creation ROORDA RECLAMEBUREAU Amsterdam, THE NETHERLANDS
PR ROORDA RECLAMEBUREAU Amsterdam, THE NETHERLANDS
Credits
Name Company Position
Joeri Jansen Roorda Reclamebureau Creative Director
Willem Droog Roorda Reclamebureau Copywriter
Justin van Creij Roorda Reclamebureau Art Director
Jorn Slotboom Roorda Reclamebureau Designer
Edzart Bentinck exPRtease PR Manager
Carla Hofstee Openbaar Ministerie Client
Antoinette Doedens Openbaar ministerie client

Objectives

The objective is to raise the amount of police reports of citizens (behaviour) and to raise the amount of detections with 10%. Make citizens aware of the presence of XTC labs and dumping of XTC waste and involve them with the detection. Make sure the problem is turned into a subject that can be talked about and becomes a nationwide issue. Because of rising criminality and capacity problems, the public prosecutor's office often gets negative publicity. By involving citizens and the private sector in an innovative way, we'd like to get positive publicity for the public prosecutor's office. We quantified our objectives in media value. The usual benchmark for this is that the PR-investment needs to yield at least 3x the mediavalue. Because we had a very minimal budget at our disposal, we had the ambitious goal to increase tenfold the investment (€15.000 including production) in regard to the mediavalue.

Summary of the work

The public prosecutor's office wants to take action against the rising amount of XTC drug labs and the associated chemical waste dumpings. Because in fact drug labs (even within residential areas) and dumpings (often in the middle of nature) produce a considerable amount of danger for the public health and the environment. Moreover, the production of XTC goes hand in hand with fierce criminality. Dutch newspapers called it "Mexican-like narco culture in the countryside". In the south of the Netherlands the authorities estimate that 20% to 60% of the farmers are being approached by criminals to put their sheds to their disposal. Farmers that do not comply with this rental request usually have to deal with intimidation and threats. Besides the risks for health and environment, the waste dumpings are also a big cost item for the municipality (3 million Euro a year). They are responsible for the disposal of the chemical waste. Two public prosecutors therefore approached a creative agency to think about a solution. This cooperation with the public prosecutor's office and the agency was part of an experiment to investigate whether working together with the private sector could contribute to the weakening of organized crime. For this experiment there was a budget of not more than 15k. Creative challenge: The public prosecutor's office wants to detect more drug labs and illegal dumpings in order to attenuate the associated criminal risks. But how can police and the justice system ever win this battle against organized crime, to whom money and capacity is not an issue? Solution: When visiting a confiscated XTC drug lab and dumping location we noticed the typical anise-like scent that is released during production and dumping. Idea: When we make citizens aware of this typical scent, we would increase the chances of being traced with around 17 million detectives. We do this by introducing the typical scent as a perfume that people will talk about: XTACY. Excecution: The limited budget was just enough to develop a dozen of perfume bottles and to launch these on a great scale with a big PR-stunt in the center of the biggest drugs province in the Netherlands. We "happened to do that" on a day that our prime minister went to visit this particular city. The promotional team gave out free samples (The Dutch are always down to try something for free) with on the backside the copy: When you smell this scent you’re probably near an ecstasy lab or waste dump. Please report this immediately. Call 0800 6070 or 0800 700 for an anonymous tip. At the same time we spreaded a menu for municipalities so that the local authorities can easily repeat this activation in their district. On the menu you could find the prices for renting a promotional team, ordering the samples, the bottles of perfume and distributing the sample cards. Because we knew that the municipalities in the Netherlands do have buget our initial buget and reach would be increased many times using this system.

Engagement & Awareness

Our Xtacy perfume received over 25 million media impressions. It was the opening story on the eight o'clock news and it was featured front page on the biggest newspaper (De Telegraaf). Nationwide we received over 1.5 million euro worth of earned media, which is a considerable amount for a small country like the Netherlands. Nearly all Dutch media outlets covered the launch, and countries from all continents reported on it. From Vice, The Sun, The Times and El Paìs to the Kazakh Esquire and Chinese and Thai news shows; we made sure the smell (anise) got described in all the publicity it received, to help create a cognitive response even if you hadn’t smelled it yourself. 32 municipalities and several libraries, universities and police departments joined the campaign. From our ‘menu’ to ordered street teams, samples and promotional materials. Every time a local municipality organized an promo event we made sure the local press was aware. Resulting in 10 million extra impressions in local media after the launch. Xtacy perfume became also part of the curriculum not only at the police academy, but at the University of law as well. It’s used to educate, inspire and activate police forces and Openbaar Ministerie (public prosecutor's office) to involve the public and private sector in de battle against organized crime. Even now new perfume bottles are being ordered by people. Among them are foresters who want to let participants get to know the scent during tours in the natural reserves. The international publicity lead among other things to a commercial request from a commercial enterprise in Hong Kong that truly was interested to launch the perfume on the consumer market in China. All of this resulted in an increase of reported drug sites by 32% a year after start of the campaign. The broad media attention also made the criminals aware of the increased chance of getting caught. Since the start the campaign, the number of waste sites was cut in half. Long term effects. Now, more than 2 years after our campaign the increase of reported drugs sites is still 15%, since the start of our campaign. In the police reports the specific anise scent is still often mentioned as the main motivation to report.

Social Behaviour & Insight

For tracking and prosecuting XTC criminals, the help of citizens is needed. But many citizens wouldn't recgnize a drugs lab or dumping site even when bumping into one. By connecting the very obvious scent to an intriguing story about criminality, drugslabs and dumpings, we plant our message in the subconsciousness of the citizens. After all, scents can directly evoke subconscious associations. Everybody regognizes specific scents from their youth or the scent of a particular dish that immediatly makes you hungry. The signals of the prescence of a nearby drugs lab, especially the specific scent, are usually noticed but not directly connected to drugs labs and dumping places. The public prosecutor's office makes sure that citizens recognize this most important signal. Through the new campaign 'XTC, that smells suspicious' the public prosecutor's office brings this scent to the public attention with the introduction of a new perfume: XTACY. Den Bosch, the main capital of the province with the highest density of drug labs being seized, had the honour of being the location for the kick-off. By offering the scent as a free sampler (trial) we also made use of the Dutch habit to try new things directly. Especially when it's for free. The scented cards with the telephone number were often put directly in the wallets of the passers-by and subsequently shown to friends and family, who also smelled the sample, in order to share this exciting story. To decrease the inhibition of reporting (unsafe feeling) we also announced an anonymous number in all communication. This way, we not only put emphasis on the scent, but we also offer a simple and specific call to action.

Brand Affinity & Sentiment

All positive publicity has had impact on the public, but also on the public prosecutor's office itself. The pride and confidence among employees increased and everybody searched for more options to increase the involvement of the private sector and the citizens. Public and private cooperation is possible in many ways and can lead to many more innovative solutions for social questions. This is an integral approach in order to weaken organized crime. The public prosecutor's office cannot do it alone. A quote of the public prosecutor: "Through the entire organisation, there's an increased awareness that preventing and fighting organized crime works better and faster in a cooperation between the public and and the private sector!" Because of this cooperation the public prosecutor's office has more often approached creative agencies to cooperate in preventing and fighting organized crime. The agency responsible for this action now works on 2 new actions for the public prosecutor's office.

Sales Success

Target was to increase the ROI tenfold (from 15k to 150k). This target was tenfolded in its turn. The estimated PR value was eventually 1,5 million Euro.

Conclusion

On the evening of the launch, the daily news program opened with the action. The next morning, we were on the frontpages of the biggest newspapers with a photograph of our prime minister. After the newspapers and news programs, many talkshows and special interest magazines followed. The most interesting was that every media outlet chose a different approach. A journalist from Vice for example wrote a long read about how he sprinkled himself completely with the perfume and visited different places to see how people would react on his scent. He visited police stations, opened a bank account and visited cafés and restaurants where the kingpins of the underworld came as well. Other media chose to engage in investigations themselves. They interviewed people on the street and went to look for possible drug lab locations. We even got attention from fashion and lifestyle magazines, who visited "the nose" that was responsible for compiling our perfume. The two prosecution officers that were involved in the project were also highly demanded guests in talkshows and gave interviews for different magazines. After the launch the campaign remained visible because every time another municipality started their own action, the local media picked up on the news item. Also the success of the campaign itself remained newsworthy because every time new labs and dumping sites were traced thanks to a report of the scent, it caught the attention of the media. Nu.nl, the biggest digital news platform from The Netherlands, even placed a car in a resident area from which many liters of our perfume leaked out to see how passers-by would react to the scent. After national and local media, the perfume also caught the attention of international media. A Chinese news network even sent a camera team to Amsterdam to create a news item about our perfume and about the reactions of the people on the street. All of this resulted in an increase of reported drug sites by 32%. The elaborated media attention also made criminals aware of the bigger chance of getting caught. Since the start of the campaign, the number of waste sites was cut in half. Long term effects. Now, more than 2 years after our campaign the increase of reported drugs sites is still 15%, since the start of our campaign. In the reports the specific anise scent is still often mentioned as the main reason for reporting.

Discounting Factors

The exact quantification of the amount of reports by citizens mentioning our scent of drug labs and waste sites turned out to be impossible. Reports come in through different channels and are processed by different departments. These stations are - because of the privacy and safety of the inhabitants who live nearby - reluctant to share information regarding details of reports of nearby inhabitants. Therefore, we don't know exactly how many reports mentioned our scent on a nationwide level, only that the amount of reports has increased with 32% during the campaign and that it is now, more than 2 years after the campaign, still 15% higher than before the campaign.