With the social debate led by (extreme) right and decreasing government funding, Flemish NGO 11.11.11 was having a hard time realizing its goal: more north-south solidarity. Faced with this headwind, the organization preferred to hold a non-controversial position as to not scare or provoke people. Still, its fanbase was eroding. Just like the funding. And the erosion was accelerating.
How we gave a leading NGO its voice back...
How we gave a leading NGO its voice back - and led it to the top of the charts. Literally.
NGO
Brand strategy
Creative concept
Campaign development
PR
Media planning
Film & photo
The challenge: An ever faster eroding brand
Our approach: Turn up the heat on the brand by turning the tables on the debate
Branding and funding go hand in hand. Nobody loves a lukewarm brand. When your relevance is being questioned, you can’t afford to play it safe. You need to take a clear position. Be loud, proud and self confident. It’s OK to have enemies, if you can win more friends.
We started by turning the tables on the migration debate and getting 11.11.11 out of the defensive position: a daring guerilla poster campaign and social media posts skillfully bended hate speech to solidarity statements. This reset the brand. From there on, it was a clear path to new, relatable funding campaigns.
The campaign in 2019: Changemakers lead the way... to the #1 in the charts
Some individuals make all the difference. Freedom of speech activists, environmental campaigners, defenders of women’s rights, etc. To honor them, we teamed up with Belgian’s #1 hiphop artist Tourist LeMC. Together we went to Congo to meet changemakers and write a song with local artists.
We turned this into the central creative of the campaign, supported by content that really gets under your skin. A PR kick off action boosted momentum: we gagged over 350 famous statues as a symbol of numbing free activist speech.
The results: Get high on PR. And ROI.
You know those cringeworthy campaign songs? This was the opposite. Called “Ubuntu”, it got massive airplay on all stations and reached #1 in the charts. Tourist LeMC sold out Belgium’s biggest venue and opened his show with Ubuntu. All revenue related to the song was donated to 11.11.11.
The PR effect of the campaign was easily worth 20 times the media budget, with all channels and newspapers reporting on our kick off action and the campaign song. If we count the number of times the song was aired, we’re reaching over 1000 times the out of pocket budget. We just stopped counting after that.
And the donations? In times where charities are struggling with declining results from fundraising, 11.11.11 equaled the high returns of the previous years with 5.5 million euros.