Background

When it comes to love, Philippine society still has preconceived ‘terms and conditions.’ Because of this, a culture of fear and doubt still exists—people, especially those in unconventional relationships, find it difficult to express love publicly. Oftentimes, a simple loving touch is met with prying, judging eyes, With these societal rules in place, does love really rule? Being the catalyst for closeness and acceptance, closeup wanted to encourage people to overcome judgment by making a move. Love rules where we let it.

Describe the creative idea

closeup created the Where Love Rules Live Map, a 360 campaign that centered on finding, identifying, and amplifying safe spaces for non-normative couples to express love publicly, without fear or doubt. By simply tagging the location on photos, the brand was able to identify 274 safe spaces in one day, and made this available to every couple who needed it by simply visiting an online live map.

Describe the strategy

The issue of societal rules and judgment towards unconventional love prevails in the Philippines. Instead of backing down, closeup, as the catalyst of closeness, decided to take this head on by activating the location-ness of the #LoveRules. The brand needed to establish something concrete to help push its purpose. With authenticity being a key factor to truly making a difference, what closeup did was to crowdsource the safe spaces from non-normative couples and materialise that in the form of a live map, which other non-normative couples can refer to. It also partnered with relevant influencer couples its audiences know and like to help further push the effort and to get more people to collaborate and share their stories and safe spaces.

Describe the execution

In partnership with Google Maps, closeup created a live map of safe spaces pinned and available for non-normative couples who needed it. First, couples were encouraged to post a photo on Facebook or Instagram and tag the location of the safe space. These were automatically transformed into location pins on the Where #LoveRules LIVE Map. Anyone in need of a safe space for Valentine’s day was saved. The online to on-ground campaign and the website to run today. As more safe spaces are identified and amplified, more couples are free to love anywhere they may choose.

List the results

By using data-driven technology to give everyone the power to claim their own safe spaces, closeup helped create a community that is truly free to love, and convey the message that love rules wherever we let it. · 274 identified safe spaces · 12,550,229 total reach · 266,055 total engagements · 3.42% average engagement rate (vs. 3.0% industry benchmark) · 85 social brand equity (all time high for closeup) · 299 purpose index (3x vs. Unilever and non-Unilever brands)