The Campaign

Ad blocking is a huge topic of conversation in the digital world at the moment. Our idea was to harness the zeitgeist around this and use it for good. We would seek to turn this platform on its head and use it to get our messages to parts of the world they may usually be censored. We approached one of the world's biggest platforms, AdBlock, to partner with Amnesty International and together take a stand against cyber censorship. We knew that putting ads in front of those that had expressly chosen to block them was a risk for both parties. Our belief that this would not backfire was based on our analysis of the adblocking audiences – it was a calculated risk that these messages would be ones close to their own hearts and one that they would be, on this occasion, happy to see ads for.

Execution

To ensure this audience, who’d opted out of seeing all ads, would pay attention and share our messages on we turned to some of the world's most recognisable names in the fight for freedom from censorship and surveillance and we let them tell their story in their own words. Enlisting Edward Snowden, Ai Weiwei and Pussy Riot we created ads that clicked through to content written by these influencers on the dangers of cyber surveillance and governmental digital censorship, all driven by their own experiences. Launching on World Day Against Cyber Censorship everywhere users of AdBlock went, they would see our message. They not only embraced it, they shared it on to the world through their own social channels. The seemingly counter-intuitive partnership ensured that our story was picked up by news outlets around the world, ensuring the campaign was seen far beyond AdBlock’s 50 million users.

Tier 1: We reached an entirely new audience who previously had little to no knowledge of Amnesty International's focus on the importance of cyber freedoms. Tier 2: Our campaign to reachWS over 330 million people globally. Over 100 major news organisations covered the story with 95% of them doing so positively for Amnesty International . With a total campaign cost of less than $20,000, and $0 spent on paid media, we generated over $7.5 million worth of earned media. Tier 3: Globally, Amnesty International experienced the highest levels of web traffic in the history of the organisation All ads were served to an audience who have actively chosen to block all advertising and yet they experienced a response rate of over 1000% above industry benchmarks. The highest levels of web traffic occurred in China and Russia – exactly the sort of countries that Amnesty International usually find it hard to spread their message.

The Situation

Amnesty International is a globally recognisable organisation. They’ve a passionate following of supporters but can struggle to get their message to people outside beyond that group. As an NGO they lack the paid media budget to cut through and achieve a scale of reach with their messages and getting people outside of their usual supporter base to stop, take notice and share on their messages is increasingly difficult. For World Day Against Cyber Censorship we worked with global leaders in cyber freedom and delivered messages via a unique platform directly to an audience we knew cared deeply about cyber freedoms.

The Strategy

At the heart of ad blocking is the desire to control your online experience. People who have downloaded one tend to be more tech-savvy, concerned with online privacy and believe that the internet should be free from censorship. This made them a perfect audience for Amnesty Internationals message. There was just the small issue that they’re are not traditional supporters of Amnesty and they’re an audience that are, by definition, hard to get your message in front of. By convincing AdBlock to partner with us we ensured that we’d get their attention –we needed to ensure our message would be one they would be open to hearing and sharing on with the rest of the world. The innovative nature of the partnership, and the choice of influencers we worked with to help us craft the messaging, were aimed at creating cut through and relevance that could not be ignored.