#storychangers

Background

The European Parliament asked Ogilvy to develop a viral activation campaign for young urban Europeans aged 18-27. The purpose was to raise awareness about European elections with this target group in particular, and to engage young people to go vote.

Idea

From research it was ascertained that young people:

1. have a very low interest in elections because they think they have no power over what happens.
2. live in a participative culture with strong support for creating and sharing one's creations with others
3. respond best to peer pressure: young people have a 20% increase in behavioural change if they see other young people like or engage with a communication.

Strategy

Show to young people that –by acting- they can change things and have them their way. This was done through an online event where young people were invited to change the ending of a story.

Implementation

As part of the European Elections Campaign 2014, a film was created to provoke young people by saying they don't care, and gave them the opportunity to show they were wrong by proposing 'their' new endings. During 4 days, the best endings were developed live by 5 animation teams in different cities and posted to the website, where people could watch them at work. Their work was live-streamed. An integrated paid, owned and earned plan was developed to maximise impact. The message: "Change the story. Use your power."

Results

Website:

• 74,545 unique visitors in total
• Average of 1m09s per visit
• Video views:
• YouTube Main film: 1,132,525 views
• Facebook Main film: 1,363,574 views
• Total Main film 2,496,099 views
• Facebook After movie: 301,437 views
• Facebook Making-of film: 107,096 views
• Total YouTube channel: 1,173,349 views
• Earned media coverage 197 clippings
• 9 top online influencers engaged.