The Campaign

Because of the tricky political relationship between North and South Korea, South Koreans prefer to remain silent(indifferent) on the North Korean refugee matter. Despite the NGOs' past traditional marketing efforts to raise awareness on the sufferings of North Korean refugees, many South Koreans, especially those in their 20s, remain indifferent to them and their sufferings. The campaign aims to raise awareness of the North Korean refugees amongst South Koreans, mainly in their 20s, in an appealing way. We created a guerrilla exhibition – ‘Invisible People’. We brought to light the sufferings of North Korean refugees in a non-traditional way. By using the unique 3D scanning and printing technology to create these figurines and embedding them with the refugees’ emotional stories, people would be attracted and compelled to find out more about the refugees. Moreover, the figurines were hidden in the museum. So visitors could seek them out, like in a scavenger hunt. 48,216 people visited the exhibition and, in total, 3.5 million people came to know about the refugees through word of mouth, social media and mass media. The exhibition received extensive media coverage with over 30 outlets including MBC, KBS, SBS, Arirang TV, newspapers, online media and news agencies. Due to the success of the campaign, foreign museums have approached UNHCR to hold similar exhibitions in their countries.

The Brief

The campaign aims to raise awareness of the North Korean refugees amongst South Koreans, mainly in their 20s, in an appealing way.

Results

The ‘Invisible People’ exhibition was the first of its kind organized by UNHCR Korea in collaboration with Cheil. In just three weeks, the exhibition garnered significant interest – 48,216 people visited the exhibition and more than 5,000 encouraging messages were posted on the Facebook page and sent to the refugees. Although the campaign wasn't intended to raise funds, 87 people signed up to become sponsors of UNHCR's global refugee efforts. In total, 3.5 million people came to know about the refugees through word of mouth, social media and mass media. The exhibition received extensive media coverage with over 30 outlets including MBC, KBS, SBS, Arirang TV, newspapers, online media and news agencies. Due to the success of the campaign, foreign museums have approached UNHCR to hold similar exhibitions in their countries

Execution

We brought to light the sufferings of North Korean refugees in a non-traditional way. By using the unique 3D scanning and printing technology to create these figurines and embedding them with the refugees’ emotional stories, people would be attracted and compelled to find out more about the refugees. Moreover, the figurines were hidden in the museum. So visitors could seek them out, like in a scavenger hunt. The campaign ran according to the original plan and there’re plans to adapt it for other museums worldwide.

The Situation

There was a challenge preceding the campaign. Despite the NGOs' past traditional marketing efforts to raise awareness on the sufferings of North Korean refugees, many South Koreans, especially those in their 20s, remain indifferent to them and their sufferings. The brief called for a new way to reach out to them.

The Strategy

We held an exhibition titled "Invisible People" at the Seoul Museum of Art. 30 refugees and their emotional stories were incarnated in the form of figurines, created from advanced 3D scans and prints. Then we placed the figurines where can’t be seen easily.