THE UNFILTERED HISTORY TOUR

Bronze Spike

Case Film

Presentation Image

TitleTHE UNFILTERED HISTORY TOUR
BrandVICE WORLD NEWS
Product / ServiceVICE WORLD NEWS
CategoryG08. Market Disruption
EntrantDENTSU WEBCHUTNEY Bengaluru, INDIA
Idea Creation DENTSU WEBCHUTNEY Bengaluru, INDIA
Idea Creation 2 DENTSU WEBCHUTNEY Mumbai, INDIA
Idea Creation 3 DENTSU WEBCHUTNEY Gurgaon, INDIA
Media Placement DENTSU WEBCHUTNEY Mumbai, INDIA
PR DENTSU WEBCHUTNEY Mumbai, INDIA
Production DENTSU WEBCHUTNEY Mumbai, INDIA
Production 2 PIXEL PARTY New Delhi, INDIA
Production 3 VICE MEDIA London, UNITED KINGDOM

Credits

Name Company Position
Gautam Reghunath Dentsu Creative Head of Business
Aditiya P.G. Dentsu Creative Head of Creative
Gurbaksh Singh Dentsu Creative Innovation Lead
Binaifer Dulani Dentsu Creative Creative Lead
Karishma Changroth Dentsu Creative Project Lead
Ashwin Palkar Dentsu Creative Creative Head - Art
Kushal Lalvani Dentsu Creative Copy Lead
Aabhaas Shreshtha Dentsu Creative Creative - Art
Anjali Thomas Dentsu Creative Account Manager
Geetika Sood Dentsu Creative Creative Producer
Niranjan Raghu Dentsu Creative Video Lead
Manish Joseph Dentsu Creative Motion Graphics Lead
Ishtaarth Dalmia Dentsu Creative Strategist
Ananya S Rao Dentsu Creative Strategist
Meghna Yesudas Dentsu Creative Social Lead
Shaleen Wadhwana Consultant Research Consultant
Shreya Vivek Arora Dentsu Creative Senior Art Director
Tanya Paul Dentsu Creative Senior Art Director
Vignesh Praveen Dentsu Creative Animation and Video Production
Manasi Sheth Dentsu Creative Art Director
Rakesh Bairwa Dentsu Creative Lead Web Developer
Rahul Sharma Dentsu Creative Web Developer
Gerson Pearson Dentsu Creative Video and Mixed Reality Producer
Priyanka Borah Dentsu Creative Business Lead
Stuti Sudha Dentsu Creative Copywriter
Amey Chodankar Dentsu Creative Creative - Art
Karthik Nambiar Dentsu Creative Creative - Art
Farishte Irani Dentsu Creative Microsite - Copy
Vaishakh Kolaprath Dentsu Creative Art Director
Ronak Chugh Rooted Films LLP Films
Sameer Rahat Consultant Music Composer
Jeremy Pinto Vivi5 Studios Motion Graphics
Manas Sharma Vivi5 Studios Motion Graphics
Mehul Mahicha Vivi5 Studios Motion Graphics
Ateesh Chattopadhyay Consultant .
Prashant Bhikadia Consultant .
Sachin Ghanekar Consultant .
Emi Eleode Consultant .
Shanel Moraes Consultant .

Why is this work relevant for PR?

The Unfiltered History Tour is an AR guerrilla tour of the British Museum’s disputed artefacts.We created Instagram Filters that scan heavily disputed artefacts on display at the Museum. From Egyptologists, to the seventh descendant of the Gweagal Shield - 10 experts and underrepresented colonial voices, for the first time ever, play tour guide in narrating the true histories of artefacts from their homelands. Within its first month, the Tour was championed by Shashi Tharoor and Marc Fennel, covered by VICE competitors like the Guardian, BBC, Hyperallergic, and publications in 10 countries where the artefacts belong to.

Background

The British Museum is the world’s largest receiver of stolen goods with over 8 million objects - that’s a lot of potentially looted artefacts. But for centuries, we’ve only heard the imperialist version of how they got there. An equitable environment can only be created when silenced voices express the intergenerational trauma caused by colonial loot. Brief To place VICE World News at the forefront of conversations around colonialism and challenge dominant cultures by opening up dialogue to countries around the world to create a balance in the way history has been told. Objectives 1. Give a platform to underrepresented minority voices to share their accounts of artefacts that belong to their country. 2. Re-ignite the ongoing conversation on repatriation and postcolonialism with VICE championing marginalised voices. 3. Educate young people about the untold side of history using a tool as accessible as Instagram filters to tell unfiltered stories.

Describe the creative idea (20% of vote)

The Unfiltered History Tour is an unauthorised, interactive tour of the British Museum where visitors can scan disputed artefacts and see them being teleported back in time to their home countries. Using Augmented Reality to showcase first-ever visual depictions of scenes of colonial crime, we created Instagram Filters that scan 10 heavily disputed artefacts currently on display at the museum. From the seventh descendant of the Gweagal Shield, to the Governor of Rapa Nui - 10 experts play tour guide in narrating the true histories of artefacts from their homelands. Worldwide, people enjoyed extended podcasts and immersive experiences in the voices of the same experts. Marginalised voices, and their experiences became the narrative of the campaign, overshadowing the Museum’s Imperial narrative. The Tour was developed to reach out to young Britons and ignite conversation on platforms that they know best.

Describe the PR strategy (30% of vote)

The British Museum’s one-sided, imperialist narrative could only be tackled with authenticity. So, marginalised expert voices from 10 countries were brought on board to tackle this lopsided British narrative - Jamaica, Easter Island, Egypt, Greece, Nigeria, Ghana, Iraq, India, China and Australia. This would enable us to gather traction across a global youth audience, including the 10 home countries these artefacts belonged to. Publications that catered to a wide field - ranging from tech, political history, art history, design and culture were shortlisted to amplify the key message - unfilter a side of history never taught before in textbooks or anywhere else. Each artefact’s true history was further amplified in its home country through Vice’s global distribution network. This approach allowed us to fill the gaps in the British Museum and mainstream narratives with the true stories as told by marginalised, colonised voices from 10 erstwhile British colonies.

Describe the PR execution (20% of vote)

The Unfiltered History Tour was developed by a 100-person strong team working remotely for 18 months across 10 timezones. We got expert voices from the countries these artefacts belonged to - Ghana’s Ernest Domfe and Haki Shakur, Nigeria’s Victor Ehikhamenor, Egypt’s Heba Abd el Gawad, Iraq’s Max Joseph, Jamaica’s Sharifa Balfour, Greece’s Petros Apostolakis, Australia’s Claire G Coleman and Rodney Kelly, China’s Fu Yiwen and Rapa Nui’s Tarita Alarcón Rapu and Sergio Rapu. Their accounts of the intergenerational trauma and suffering of their ancestors, along with the looting of their cultural treasures formed the bedrock for the extended 10-part podcast series and Instagram Augmented Reality filters that launched in December, 2021.

List the results (30% of vote)

In its first month, the campaign has received endorsement from former UN Under-Secretary General Shashi Tharoor, award-winning journalist Marc Fennel and the British Committee, amongst others. Earned media worth $631K 32 million social impressions 40% rise in TikTok followers and 49% increase in total impressions on Instagram 21,583 podcast downloads and 5,200 filter uses (in 30 days) Change in behaviour According to a 2014 survey, 59% of Britons were proud of the British Empire. In a poll conducted weeks after the Tour was launched, 59% of Britons said they believed the Parthenon Marbles (part of the Tour) belonged in Greece. The podcast series let us go a lot deeper with the project and give audiences something heavily educational, not found in British history textbooks. What some users had to say after taking the tour: “Confronts and challenges colonial origins.” “Hearing the past told by multiple perspectives gives depth.”

Please tell us how disruption in your market place inspired the work

VICE World News is a newly formed brand, to provide global news reporting for young audiences internationally. In order to grow their cross-platform audience significantly year on year, we needed to cut-through a crowded media environment. The Unfiltered History Tour tackled the marketing challenge of developing awareness and consumption by using a unique format (Augmented Reality backed by journalistic reporting) which captured their audience’s attention. Providing a platform for underrepresented minority voices, allowed VICE World News to travel to Ghana, Nigeria, Egypt, Jamaica, Rapa Nui, Iraq, India and several other countries. They were also able to provide a deeply authentic, international perspective which can often be lost in mainstream news reporting around repatriation of the British Museum’s objects. The podcast series allows users to delve deeper with something heavily educational, moving listeners beyond the habit of simply reacting to news events through headlines and hot takes on social media.

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