SIRE (Stichting Ideële Reclame) tries to put social injustices on the map through media campaigns and in doing so, wants to wake people up, make them think and get them moving. Media agency STROOM has been working pro bono for SIRE for years and Agency Lead Samantha Catsburg is also part of the campaign board. Media agency STROOM finds it important to contribute to the urgent issues that SIRE raises. With social campaigns SIRE targets the whole of the Netherlands, from the public to politicians.
A new and current urgent theme every year
The Children in Poverty campaign was conducted in 2021: 1 in 13 children in our country live in poverty. That's more than 250,000 children. They are at risk of social exclusion. We prefer not to talk about it, it is an uncomfortable truth in our prosperous country. SIRE wants to change this by raising collective awareness and stimulating the conversation about child poverty. The first step towards a solution starts with making the problem open for discussion. From circle talks at school to the media and the Lower House. With the campaign, SIRE wants children and their parents to feel free to talk about their situation, so that their environment sees and recognizes the problem. A creative concept was chosen to get children to open the conversation. A mass media and network strategy was used to ensure that the campaign landed in all relevant places.
Target
The general Dutch public, politicians of all parties.
Objective
To make Dutch society aware of the existence and extent of child poverty in the Netherlands. In addition, make politicians, regardless of their political affiliation, aware of the fact that little attention is paid to the problem of child poverty and stimulate the conversation about it.
Strategic insight
Research shows that children do not consider lack of money the worst thing, but social exclusion. Because of their poverty, they do not belong or belong less. Children become socially isolated almost silently. A first step toward a solution, however difficult, is to make the problem negotiable. When it is not talked about, it is not felt, not understood, not spread. So: '1 in 13 children in our country lives in poverty. Let's talk about that.'
Campaign
The campaign started with a TV commercial. Simultaneously with the commercial, we launched online 3 video interviews in which Anashya, Zakariyya and Romy - children who actually live in poverty - engage in conversations with people with whom they did not previously talk about poverty. These heroes are the faces of the campaign. All three of them raise their finger, because they want to say something, tell something. They are 1 of 13 children living in poverty in our country.
In addition to the usual media strategy (a full 360-degree approach), a networking strategy was chosen. In which various companies (ABN AMRO, Lidl and PostNL) and public figures such as Princess Laurentien, made a difference by helping to carry the campaign. A TV special was made with Tijd voor Max, giving an hour of exclusive attention to child poverty. Through various influencers, the real stories of our children in poverty were shared. Through personal contacts, politicians were addressed and activated. The children from the TVC were approached to participate in various TV programs around this topic (Steenrijk, Straatarm/SBS6, Nog één week/NPO3, 'What would you do?'/NPO3, Mijn Pestverhaal/NPO3, Echt gebeurd/ZappDoc).
SIRE addressed politicians directly for the first time in its existence. Not only through a personal approach but also by addressing politicians directly about their responsibility in a newspaper advertisement.
Creatively distinctive
It was decided precisely not to talk about lack of money (like other children's aid organizations), but to focus on the consequence of social exclusion due to child poverty. This generated a lot of attention. In addition, the narrative perspective was tilted. We let children themselves tell what they experience "in poverty" and let them start the conversation with their environment (teachers, family and experts by experience). Surprising, because people often talk for and about them. The mentioned network strategy: activating, hooking up, participating, thinking along and carrying out the campaign in cooperation with many parties makes this campaign a very special project.
Campaign results
The main results that give a good idea of the broad scope of this campaign: 49% of the Dutch are familiar with the campaign. 81% find the campaign clear, 73% likeable, 48% think the campaign incites action, 78% are touched by the campaign and 73% find the campaign striking. The rating of the campaign is 7.6. In fact, 56% of people give it an 8 or higher as a rating. This rating makes it one of the best rated campaigns in recent years.
88% think it is important that SIRE pays attention to child poverty. 88% find child poverty a new topic that has not yet received much, if any, attention.
The launch of the campaign led to great PR exposure. The major (news) media covered it: Nu.nl, Algemeen Dagblad, RTL Nieuws, NPO Radio 1, Hart van Nederland, NOS Jeugdjournaal, Trouw, Telegraaf, Linda.nl, Qmusic, Sky Radio, NPO3FM. This resulted in 166 news items at the launch of the campaign with a reach of nearly 13 million. Sources: Panel Wizard, Media agency STROOM, Monalyse
Media agency STROOM - Energy for Growth realized this campaign in close cooperation with SIRE, BORN05 and a huge list of media partners, publishers, influencers and business partners. For which, once again, our immeasurable thanks! For more information visit sire.nl
If you would like more information about Media Agency STROOM, please feel free to contact us at contact@stroom.com