Creative Data > Creative Data

GO BACK TO AFRICA

FCB/SIX, Toronto / BLACK & ABROAD / 2019

Awards:

Grand Prix Cannes Lions
CampaignCampaign(opens in a new tab)
Supporting Content
Case Film
Supporting Images

Overview

Credits

Overview

Why is this work relevant for Creative Data?

Close your eyes and think of a tourist at Stonehenge. What color is their skin? If you imagined a white person, you’re probably among the majority. That’s because the dominant, Western story of commercial travel is led by images of Caucasians. White people on a beach. White people at the Eiffel Tower. White people on safari. While there’s nothing wrong with white travellers, the dominance of this narrative crowds out the chance for other communities to picture themselves there. Our project uses an innovative approach to visual data collection and AI-driven contextualization to locate and deploy an alternative narrative.

Background

Between 1525 and 1866, more than 12.5 million African people were taken from their communities, loaded onto ships, brought to the West, and forced into slavery. Today, systems of oppression endure – including racialized language such as the “n word” and the slur, “Go back to Africa,” which is used every three minutes on social platforms alone.

Black & Abroad is an American travel brand serving members of the Black community. In efforts to merchandize African destinations to its target, it has found two key barriers:

1. Widespread misperceptions of Africa as a dangerous, undesirable destination.

2. Lack of representation of Black travelers in commercial travel imagery.

Our brief: Reinforce Black & Abroad’s position as a leader in redefining world experiences for the modern Black traveler.

Objectives:

Reclaim the phrase “Go Back To Africa”.

Contribute to a positive narrative around Black travel.

Build equity behind the Black & Abroad brand.

Describe the idea/data solution

DIVERSITY IN DATA

Our analysis of Google image search results (later corroborated by our platform’s search results) found that fewer than 6% of African travel imagery features Black people, and of that less than half are represented as tourists. In addition, multiple academic studies (Alderman 2013; Burton and Klemm 2011) have concluded that non-white populations are not well represented in travel photography.

INNOVATION THROUGH CONNECTION

At the heart of this project is an innovative approach to combining frontier technology applications (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Acxiom, Google Vision) to address the lack of representation of Black people in commercial travel imagery. This project also plays at the forefront of “man and machine” theory, where humans achieve scaled decision-making abilities about a complex topic (race) through the assistance of machines (no one person can sort millions of images).

ORIGINALITY

We’ve created a bold, fresh brand idea – a travel campaign for Africa built on a racial slur – then crafted it into a bold data/technology idea. We see this as a leading example of the way data and creativity can work together. It shows the not only can data/tech drive effectiveness, they provide new canvases for creative thinking.

Describe the data driven strategy

THE NEEDLE-HAYSTACK PROBLEM

To address the lack of representation in mainstream travel imagery, we turned to an accessible, vast archive of travel photography: social media. The challenge was locating the images we wanted within this massive collection (3.2 billion images added daily).

LOCATE AND CONTEUXTUALIZE

Our algorithm starts by narrowing the pool to a manageable number (currently 2.8 million) based on pre-defined relevance criteria (accounts followed, locations tagged, hashtags, etc.). Next, it applies Google Vision AI, detecting faces, activities, objects, compositional strength, etc. The output is a pool of high-relevance imagery with rich contextual metadata.

“MAN AND MACHINE”

We used machines to compile, organize and shortlist a vast number of images (from approx. 2.8 million to 14,000). The final selects, however, were made by humans with knowledge of ethical principles such as “shadeism” – a type of racism that implies some shades of Black are better than others. Once a human has made a select, the AI learns from that choice, which then informs subsequent recommendations.

PROGRAMATIC FOR THE PEOPLE

We used Axciom’s interest-based targeting platform to find and serve relevant social and digital ads to members of the Black community from a total of 6,840 possible creative variants.

Describe the creative use of data, or how the data enhanced the creative output

DATA JOURNEY & IMPLEMENTATION

NetBase to find data on the phrase “Go back to Africa”.

Acxiom for audience-based hypertargeting on Twitter.

Custom-built algorithms and APIs to collect visual data.

Google Vision A.I. to assist in sorting and understanding that data.

Acxiom for interest-based targeting of programmatic banners.

MEDIA CHANNELS

60-second video/pre-roll – Explains campaign idea.

Paid posts on social – Realtime hate displacement.

Digital out-of-home – Redacted tweet awareness.

Programmatic banner ads – Conversion layer.

GoBackToAfrica.com – Content hub.

DATA INTEGRATION

We built a series of APIs to hand off data from one platform to the other. As data flowed through our system, each platform refined its fidelity (e.g., sifting, sorting, tagging). We also built APIs to hand off content to appropriate channels: the website, banners and social.

APPLICATION

The outcome is a cohesive, non-linear customer experience. It’s all designed to put the right message in front of the right people at the right time, to change perception of a phrase and to drive conversions against Black & Abroad’s brand, services and product offering.

List the data driven results

We started with a strong idea – a pan-African tourism campaign that reframes a racial slur – then super-charged it with a data/technology layer that allowed it to address issues of representation in the entire category.

BRAND BUILDING

315% increase in brand visibility.

2x search interest in the brand.

CREATING DESIRE

60% increase in booking interest for Black & Abroad’s upcoming African trips.

88% of our audience said their interest in visiting Africa had increased.

CHANGING PERCEPTION

89% of our audience said our campaign reduced the hate from the term “go back to Africa.” 52% now feel the term is “hopeful” or “empowering.”

92% feel that they know more about what Africa has to offer.

COMMUNITY REACTION

Among members of the Black community, the response to the campaign has been virtually unanimous and positive – most clearly evidenced in the comments sections of the launch video. The most common reaction: “Dope!”

PR

“Turning white trolls into Black gold.” – AFROPUNK

“A galvanizing example of the power of words and our ability to mold their meaning.” – AdWeek

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