THE UNCENSORED LIBRARY

Gold Eurobest Award

Case Film

Presentation Image

TitleTHE UNCENSORED LIBRARY
BrandREPORTERS WITHOUT BORDERS (RSF)
Product/ServiceTHE UNCENSORED LIBRARY
Category B04. Content Creation & Production
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 PR?

The Uncensored Library is an awareness campaign to educate young people in oppressive countries about the dangers of press censorship and at the same time raise general awareness for the cause of Reporters without Borders (RSF). It excited millions of gamers in countries with censorship about press freedom and got them engaged in reading independent journalism. This unprecedented use of Minecraft made the news all over the world, far beyond “just” political media. Lifestyle and Gaming news sites made press freedom their topic. Resulting in a huge PR success for RSF and the NGO’s cause, with donations increasing significantly.

Background

After the acclaimed “Uncensored Playlist”, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) wanted a new awareness campaign and overcome censorship. 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 lack access to independent journalism. But RSF also wanted to create general awareness for their global fight against press censorship and raise donations. But also expand the NGO’s target group and reach younger people as well as people not yet highly involved into political journalism and press freedom.

Describe the creative idea (20% of vote)

How to overcome strong firewalls and at the same time excite young people to engage in the topic of 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 these countries that increasingly restrict the rights of their citizens, especially young people flee into games like Minecraft that still provide freedom in a virtual world. 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: The Uncensored Library. A monument for press freedom impressive enough to get the gaming community engaged in the fight for free information. And for the first time ever, a game was transformed into a tool to overcome censorship.

Describe the PR strategy (30% of vote)

In order to reach young gamers in oppressive countries with no access to the mainstream media, RSF needed to activate the well-connected Minecraft community to spread the word inside the game. To catch their attention, it really needed a bold use of Minecraft combined with a fun and exciting gameplay experience. A social media campaign was directly targeting the Minecraft community and big gaming influencers, who are constantly on the lookout for exciting new topics to talk about. One week before the launch: hundreds of press releases were sent to global media outlets to focus their attention on World Day Against Cyber Censorship. Targeting not only classic news media but lifestyle, tech and gaming sites, not known to cover press freedom topics (yet). With pictures, videos, a website and interviews, RSF documented the fascinating story of overcoming censorship for the first time ever with a game in a truly news-worthy

Describe the PR execution (20% of vote)

Censored articles from acclaimed journalists became uncensored Minecraft books, available in English and the language of their origin in the library. It took 12.5 million Lego-like blocks to build the enormous library inside the game and it uses Minecraft’s in-game resources in an unseen and innovative way. A giant monument for press freedom that has a jaw-dropping effect on gamers. On World Day Against Cyber Censorship the library opened its doors inside Minecraft. Along with a whole social media campaign featuring Instagram and Facebook posts, YouTube videos, Reddit threads and tweets – all with the call to action to visit the library inside the game and share the news. Readers who don’t play Minecraft (yet) were directed to the project’s microsite where they could find background information about the project, read uncensored articles, donate to RSF and access the library by an interactive walkthrough outside of Minecraft.

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 all target countries: Russia, Vietnam, Egypt, Mexico and Saudi Arabia). They spend countless hours inside the library reading books with independent journalism and the total play time is adding up to more than 17 years – and counting. Big gaming influencers like CaptainSparklez, FitMC and Logdotzip spread the news and the community couldn’t stop talking about it. They uploaded more than 500 gameplay videos about the library on YouTube – 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 earned media reach 2.9B) – all with a media budget of €0. Resulting in a huge international PR success for RSF and massive general awareness for their cause within. People all over the world wanted to support press freedom and donations for RSF increased significantly by 62% (YOY), helping them to extend their global fight against press censorship. 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. The library will stay open indefinitely, 3 more rooms have been added this year and more uncensored articles are being added to give young people back their human right to access information.