Look Beyond Borders Client: Amnesty International Poland Brand: Amnesty International Start Date: 17/5/2016 End Date: 31/8/2016 Countries in which effectiveness was proven Albania, Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom Campaign Background STARTING POSITION Amnesty International is an international organisation fighting for Human Rights. In the face of the rising migration crisis Polish office decided to conduct a campaign to influence the way refugees are perceived. MARKET CONTEXT World is facing the largest humanitarian crisis in history since WWII. The measure of the drama can be seen in numbers concerning civilians- 1 per 122 people of the world is a refugee without a safe place to live*1! The crisis is also a challenge for the countries living in prosperity and peace. In 2015, Europe was reached by 1 million refugees*2. In countries facing the problem, this is the subject of discussions related to increasing fear and discontent*3. Human aspect of the drama is often forgotten and results more aggressive public discussions. CHALLENGE Stereotypes and prejudice were the campaign s opponents. They lead to unjustified hatred based on fear and ignorance concerning refugees. This results from i.a. rising scale of the problem and terrorist attacks identified with all refugees. The human aspect has been moved to the background. Refugees are not talked about as humans but as quotas that must be accepted and threat. Common dehumanization is a resultant of lack of reflection and education. We did not want to directly encourage to help. The subject has such a potential for conflict that such an attempt can only backfire. The aim was to change the narration. Addressing the sensitive part by showing that the refugees are just the same people as we are.
Footnote: *1 Source: Based on the report of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), 2016 http://bit.ly/2qmwvh5 *2 Source: Based on calculations of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), 31 December 2015 http://bit.ly/2rizkai *3 Source: Based on the research by Pew Research Center Spring 2016 Global Attitudes Survey from 2016. http://pewrsr.ch/2ccmu1w Objectives OBJECTIVE 1 Getting media interested in the fate of refugees and dehumanization problem. KPI - generate 10,000 earned media per each 1 invested. OBJECTIVE 2 Building mass awareness of the problem. KPI - reach the entire TG. OBJECTIVE 3 Engaging Internet users in the refugee dehumanization problem. KPI - generate the total of SM engagement KPIs equal to 0,5mln. OBJECTIVE 4 To draw attention to the refugee dehumanization problem in the manner that doesn t reinforce divisions of societies. KPI- obtain a better campaign reception as compared to total of positive and neutral attitude of Europeans to accepting refugees. Creative Strategy INSIGHT We can see a threat in refugees, as in all what is unknown and strange, not even trying to see another, valuable human being Rising* reluctance, for cultural, social, and economic reasons, towards refugees and prejudice resulting from lack of understanding for more and more visible cultural and religious differences. Common fear multiplied by more frequent terrorist attacks that are mistakenly identified directly with refugees. It all made us base our campaign on the insight that refers to the fear of unknown deeply rooted in people. STRATEGY We wanted to show that fear and hostility come from undeserved stereotypes and sometimes it takes a moment of confrontation with what they refer to tear them down. Refrain from rational convincing that refugees are the same people as we are, just let it be felt. In order to obtain it, we used the psychological mechanism that mirror neurons account for which enables us to feel emotions of other people. This means that the empathy is generated in us by seeing it in another person. Using this mechanism, we wanted to infect Europeans with empathy.
CREATIVE BIG IDEA 20 years ago, psychologist Arthur Aron discovered that 4 minutes of looking into each other's eyes can bring people closer. Using this discovery, we decided to carry out a simple experiment. By campaign video, we wanted to enable audience to experience the experiment on their own; showing how little is needed to break the strangeness and stereotypes concerning refugees. We wanted to prove that the most important thing in the migration crisis is to see a human being in need of help in every refugee. EXECUTION Because we wanted to influence the largest number of people in TG, we needed to get a wide reach. With insignificant media budget ( 23), the execution was from the beginning based on the viral effect that would get media interested and move hearts of internet users helping the campaign spread all over Europe. We decided to carry out a simple experiment, during which refugees and Europeans sat opposite each other and looked into each other's eyes. The experiment was conducted in Berlin: city, which is a symbol of overcoming the divisions. Situations were not prearranged; natural, spontaneous reactions became the key. The people sitting across from each other had never met before. We made a touching video showing how little it takes to see the world through the eyes of another human being. In opposition to the trend of short social media videos, ours lasted as long as 5 minutes. It was a conscious choice in order to make as strong impression as possible on viewers. Such duration requires focus and enables feeling the experiment as well as almost experiences it ourselves. Video was posted on YT and Amnesty Polska SM channels. Selection of channels resulted from microscopic media budget. Getting European media and internet users interested was the key to success. From the beginning, video was supported by PR obtaining help in spreading among influencers and media. Footnote: * Source: The Chatham House Europe Programme, with Kantar Public, surveyed nationally representative samples of the population aged 18 or over in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Spain and the UK. Fieldwork was carried out online using quota sampling (age, gender and region) between 12 December 2016 and 11 January 2017. The total number of respondents was 10,195 (c. 1,000 per country). http://bit.ly/2lnweli Communications Strategy CHANNELS The campaign was promoted on Amnesty International Polska social media. We used their Facebook fan page, YouTube channel, and Twitter account. Information on the campaign and the problem of refugee dehumanisation were available on
the Amnesty International website. Selection of channels resulted from microscopic media budget. BUDGET. We had the media budget of 23 only for the needs of the Look Beyond Borders campaign. We used the entire budget to promote the first post on Amnesty International Poland FB in the first moments of the campaign. TARGET GROUP We knew we could not effectively reach everyone and an attempt to convince the hardest opponents seemed pointless. We wanted to reach and reinforce the support for the cause among those who accept the refugees and those who are not decided, who, on the one hand, fear what they see in the media, and on the other, have their conscience tell them that refugees need help.1 They were particularly important to us due to their openness to arguments and possible change of attitude. Both group jointly account for 45%* of European societies, i.e. 334 million people that we wanted to reach with our campaign. Opinion-leaders (celebrities, bloggers, journalists) were also an important target group able to help us to get European reach and start a discussion about the fate of refugees, as well as other Amnesty International offices able to carry on the campaign with universal message all over Europe. Footnote: *1 Source: The Chatham House Europe Programme, with Kantar Public, surveyed nationally representative samples of the population aged 18 or over in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Spain and the UK. Fieldwork was carried out online using quota sampling (age, gender and region) between 12 December 2016 and 11 January 2017. The total number of respondents was 10,195 (c. 1,000 per country). http://bit.ly/2lnweli Interactive/online: 100 Media Allocation Chart Total commercial communication expenditure: Under 5m Euro Results Summary The Look Beyond Borders is the first Europe s strong campaign concerning the fate of refugees and the most effective Amnesty International global campaign ever. Cocreated by the Polish division of the organisation, it has addressed the issue of dehumanisation of refugees in the public discourse. The most important purpose of the campaign was to increase the awareness of the issue and try to make Europeans more sensitive to the fate of people coming to the continent.
The campaign proved that reluctance towards refugees often comes from unfair stereotypes that can be only eradicated by direct confrontation. The moment when you sit down facing another person, look into their eyes, and you do not see an anonymous refugee any more but you start to notice another human being. The power of the campaign video came from actual emotions and feelings that affect stronger than bare facts and information. Thanks to the moving creation and apt strategy, we managed to change the narration about refugees. The campaign was mentioned by top media both in and outside Europe, generating 727 publications in 25 countries in Europe alone. This was how we managed to obtain the total reach of 481.8 million viewers in Europe and as many as 930 million viewers globally those were the people we reached with our message. The value of publications in various media (TV, radio, press, Internet, social media) on the campaign in Europe alone reached nearly 950,000. And all this with the media budget of just 23! The results obtained during the campaign made the Look Beyond Borders the most effective campaign in the 55-year-long history of Amnesty International. What is more important, though, is that with the Look Beyond Borders campaign, we managed to attract the attention of European societies to the issue of increasing polarisation, stronger and stronger language of hate speech, and dehumanisation of refugees. Thoughtless seeing the tragedy of thousands of people just through figures, forgetting that we talk about human beings who come to Europe in the search of a better, safer life for themselves and their nearest and dearest.