Because of the long-lasting war in Syria thousands of people escape to Europe. Whilst in the beginning they were welcomed, today the refugees increasingly encounter rejection and hate. Especially in Germany right-wing radicalism is getting stronger and stronger. Their greatest weapon is the internet, where lies and false reports are consciously spread, to increase the hate and to incite the population against the fleeing people. The organization «Refugees Welcome», that helps refugees to integrate in Germany, intends to put a stop to the spreading of digital hate. «Refugees Welcome» wants to demonstrate that no one has to be afraid of the refugees and further make the Germans rethink the topic. But the campaign should also raise donations «Refugees Welcome» to fund their projects.

The idea has two strong parts: First, with a clever combination of channel and keyword targeting 10 spots were shown as unskippable ads in front of over 100 racist videos on YouTube. All of them disproved the common prejudices with hard facts, surprising revelations or humor. Furthermore, they anticipated the content of the following videos and rebutted the prejudices in them.

The second part was the documentary that was created out of the 10 spots and that became the main spreading tool for the journalists. Together with a press kit and the campaign page “www.search-racism-find-truth.com” we informed selected newspapers about the campaign. With the help of this documentary we got the attention to reach the German Press Agency, which was the key to go viral automatically. So we were able to “Skip prejudices” internationally and for free. Thanks to the clever distribution of PR, the campaign «Search racism. Find truth.» got mentioned in opinion-leading media very quickly. The articles began to spread until the campaign reached the German Press Agency. Afterwards, every German Newspaper got informed about the brave refugees that trolled the nazi content on YouTube. The campaign went viral within only two days. Media and blogs all over the planet reported for free. Furthermore, millions of people liked, shared and commented the campaign on Social Media.

The results are impressive:

We multiplied donations:

+749% donations compared to 2015

We established «Refugees Welcome» as an opinion leader, recognized authority and expert against hate speech:

+10 public speeches in one year – and more are already planned

We reached as many persons as possible to start the discourse: EUR +15.1 million earned media

We helped to stop prejudices against refugees and changed the thinking of the public: losing support for Pegida (Patriotische Europäer gegen die Islamisierung des Abendlandes = Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the Occident; up to 9000 participants on marches in 2015 vs. no public marches anymore) and AfD (Alternative für Deutschland = right wing party of Germany; April 2016: 11% vs. March 2017: 7%)

And last but not least:

With an investment of EUR 20,000 the organization «Refugees Welcome» raised EUR +270,000 in 2016. That means a ROI of 13.5 (= 1350%).