Why is this work relevant for Creative Data?

One of the most recent surveys by Truecaller pointed out that in every 55 minutes in India there’s a case of stalking. Truecaller sifted through multiple data points like most affected cities, frequency of spam calls, percentage of calls reported, etc, and realized that a huge vacuum for awareness still remains. Truecaller wanted to leverage this opportunity amassed from data and run a campaign around Women’s Day to raise awareness in society. Backed with an awareness campaign called #ItsNotOk, the brand aimed at reducing the same by using data to their advantage, and bringing about awareness to these serious issues.

Background

In India issues like stalking and harassment haven’t received much light. Society has normalized it, and women are reluctant to report it. In India, 1 out of 5 women receive sexual and harassing calls, which is normalized in Indian society. Truecaller enables users with features like caller identification and blocking spam calls to promote a toxic-free safe environment. The brand stands to enable safe and relevant conversations between people to use their expertise for a social cause. The task was to push the envelope and inspire women to take action to Block and Report against any form of online harassment faced by them, with a genuine narrative that shook anyone’s conscience. The key objectives were to generate massive reach and engagement across social, media channels, and partners; to get people to discuss openly, leading them to break the stigma associated with such issues faced by women.

Describe the Creative idea / data solution (20% of vote)

As women stay silent because of stigma and fear in most situations, cases of stalking spiral up every day. 37% of stalking victims fulfill the diagnostic criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder. After sifting through different data touchpoints, Truecaller discovered that, on average, 1 woman is harassed every 55 minutes in India, and that almost 54% of people had been victims of phone harassment while 60% had no idea of helpline numbers in case of emergencies. Truecaller wanted to create a campaign around these data points appealing to urban women between 20 and 45 years of age as a first step; to create a forum to inspire women to block and report harassers instantly. The digital film 'Shabd' was made, based on a real-life narrative, where a speech-impaired girl gets stalked and harassed, eventually reporting the harassment, conveying that one doesn’t need words but simply the courage to speak up.

Describe the data driven strategy (30% of vote)

Truecaller is a leading global Caller ID and Call blocking app. Catering to millions of users across the globe, the brand has massive potential to gain insightful true data. They conduct annual surveys spanning across demographics. From this, they realized the severity of issues like online stalking and telephonic harassment women face by screening multiple data-points. Numerous shocking insights as below were unlocked: *1 out of 5 women receive sexually inappropriate calls *76 percent of such calls face are from unknown sources *29 percent of women reported worry, 29 percent were troubled and 21 percent reported fear *The most affected cities in India are Chennai, New Delhi, Pune, and Kolkata 85 percent blocked the number but only 12 percent reported Truecaller aimed to reduce this by an awareness campaign named #ItsNotOK. This campaign encourages reporting and appeals predominantly to urban women between 20 and 45 years of age.

Describe the creative use of data, or how the data enhanced the creative output (20% of vote)

Post analysis of multiple data points, Truecaller was able to raise awareness amongst the most affected segment of society, the working women in urban cities between ages 20 to 45. The campaign centered around a film called Shabd, a 5-minute-long video played by a speech impaired actor, highlighting the horrors a working woman in a metropolitan city faces, and how she is inspired to raise her voice. The campaign was placed and promoted across all social media platforms to push awareness around reporting of stalking, primarily to women. The brand worked with media partners like Glance and Humans of Bombay to amplify the scope of the campaign to the younger age group, and to generate mass awareness. Truecaller also launched an app called 'Guardians' that allows a user to share their location with anybody. This app integrated the data analysis conducted to help younger women facing online harassment and stalking.

List the data driven results (30% of vote)

Overall, the campaign generated over 179 million impressions across all channels and platforms, with almost 2 million hits on the microsite and almost 80,000 people taking an active part in the survey hosted as well. The brand film received overwhelmingly positive reviews & generated tremendous engagement with over 140,000 hours of watch time for the video across platforms with almost 10 million video views. Moreover, the campaign generated enormous conversations on all platforms & partner platforms as well, leading people to open up about their past experiences. Overall, the campaign generated 900X engagement in the form of comments and shares and was trending at #3 on Twitter on Women’s Day. The Net Promoter Score of the Truecaller App increased by 2% in the month after the campaign. The campaign was widely appreciated on news media and got featured on Dainik Bhaskar, Brand Equity, Campaign India, Mad Over Marketing.