Title	14 IS NOT OK
Brand	ESTONIAN SEXUAL HEALTH ASSOCIATION
Product/Service	NOT APPLICABLE
Category	B02. Non-profit / Foundation-led Education & Awareness
Entrant	OPTIMIST CREATIVE Tallinn, ESTONIA
Idea Creation	OPTIMIST CREATIVE Tallinn, ESTONIA
Media Placement	OPTIMIST CREATIVE Tallinn, ESTONIA
PR	OPTIMIST CREATIVE Tallinn, ESTONIA
Production	OPTIMIST CREATIVE Tallinn, ESTONIA
Post Production	OPTIMIST CREATIVE Tallinn, ESTONIA

Name	Company	Position
anoorupa bose	Optimist Estonia	Creative strategy, Creative direction, Copywriting, Media strategy
Siim Nikopensius	Optimist Estonia	Creative strategy, Creative direction, Copywriting
Bruno Palmik	Optimist Estonia	Art direction
Heigo Heinleht	Optimist Estonia	Art direction
Maris Teder	Optimist Estonia	Project management
Susanna Eenma	Optimist Estonia	Project management
Marko Kivirand	Optimist Estonia	social media management
Cäthly Oja	Optimist Estonia	PR management
Sandra Audova	Optimist Estonia	PR management
Triin Adamson	Optimist Estonia	PR management
Kristjan Taal	na	Photography
Helina Risti	na	styling
Elsa Levo	na	make-up

Why is this work relevant for Branded Content & Entertainment?

In Estonia, the legal age of sexual consent is only 14. Every year, 14-year-old children get sexually abused because of it and yet, all previous attempts to change this law have failed. Problem is, people think 14 is OK. So we bought an online content marketing space and released a story about a 14-year-old child in the most dangerous situation because of this law. The story was so frightening that people missed the content-marketing sign and thought it was a real story. Within 24 hours, the story and its photos went viral sparking a public movement to change the law.

Background

The situation: In Estonia, the legal age of sexual consent is only 14. At 14, a child is too young to understand the dangers that come with sexual consent. Every year, 14-year-old children get sexually abused because of this law, and yet, every attempt to change the law has failed. There is no consensus among political parties and key decision makers on this topic. Neither is there any public pressure on them to take action, because people think 14 is OK. The brief: We had to protect 14-year-old children from sexual abuse by raising the legal age of sexual content. Key objectives: We had to get people to realise how dangerous this law is, so they would publicly raise their voice in support of changing the law. This in turn would raise the pressure on politicians and lawmakers to take immediate steps to increase the legal age of sexual consent.

Describe the creative idea

We released a horrifying story about the ‘consensual relationship’ between 14-year-old Piia Heivdal and 54-year-old Kristo Terrandi. The story was fictional, but we crafted it like a typical tabloid style news report and released it on one of Estonia’s leading online news portals that is known for sensational news. The story also featured a realistic image gallery that showcased and normalised their intimate relationship. As planned, people completely missed the tiny 'content marketing' sign and continued reading in horror thinking it was a real story about a real child! By the time readers realised this was actually a campaign, they would have also realised in the most impactful way, why 14 is too young. So at the end of the story, we gave people a Call-to-Action to help change the law and we introduced the hashtag #14isnotOK to enable people to raise their voice together.

Describe the strategy

We analysed hundreds of news reports around this topic from the last 7 years and conducted surveys among the general population to understand why this dangerous law had remained unchanged. We found that the main problem was that people think ''14 is OK''. So our campaign was targeted to the general public to drive awareness and instant response, which in turn would influence politicians and decision makers to take immediate action. To make people realise how dangerous this law is, our strategy was to show them a 14-year-old child in the most dangerous situation because of this law. But the situation would have to be so frightening, that it would provoke people to publicly oppose the existing law. We would also have to craft a hashtag or a slogan that would enable the public and the influencers to raise their voice together and send one unified message to politicians.

Describe the execution

Initially, two of Estonia's biggest news publishers refused to release our story. On 17th March, we finally managed to release the story of 14-year-old Piia and 54-year-old Kristo via a content marketing space on one of Estonia’s leading online news portals which is known for publishing sensational news. Because our media budget was only €2000, organic virality and earned media was critical for us to succeed. We made the story so moving that people would want to share it. When people shared it, we made the shared article's thumbnail image and text so impactful, that others would click on it. We also featured an image gallery in the story so the photos themselves could go viral on photo-based platforms like Instagram. At the end of the story, we added the hashtag #14isnotOK to drive people to use it and put pressure on lawmakers, thus turning people into campaign ambassadors.

Describe the outcome

Within 24 hours, the story about 14-year-old Piia and 54-year-old Kristo, the photos and the hashtag #14isnotOK went viral. Despite a media budget of just €2000, the content crossed 1 million+ impressions in a country of 1.4 million people. Story results: Story read: 204,000+ times Images clicked: 300,000+ times Story ranking: 10th most-read story in the history of the news portal Social media results: Audience engagements: 160,000+ Comments and reactions: 25,000+ The story sparked a nationwide movement where for the first time, the people and the influencers raised their voice publicly to say ''14 is not OK''. Victims who were sexually abused at 14 started sharing their stories using the hashtag #14isnotOK. And together, our voices were loud enough to make politicians and lawmakers immediately introduce a bill to raise the legal age of sexual consent to 16. 14 will no longer be OK in Estonia.