Faktum is west Sweden’s street paper sold by the homeless and the socially excluded. The sellers are a common sight in Gothenburg, the largest city in west Sweden. For the locals it’s a well-known brand known for its high quality journalism and many buyers go to the same seller every time a new issue is out.

People are looking for what’s real, unique and different. It’s not a coincidence that “like a local” is becoming a more central notion in today’s tourism.

We also know that many cities have a tendency to hide problems with social exclusion. But to solve a problem we need to talk about them and with each other. By making our sellers more visible, we can create a better understanding of the situation.

The idea of letting Faktum sellers talk about their Gothenburg was born. Because who knows the streets better than those who live there?

We created a new business idea - Street Talk - guided tours with Faktum sellers where they talk about the history of Gothenburg, show its famous spots and sights, but also show a different side of the city, and tell a very different story. Their own.

We wanted to reach both tourists (including selected tours in English) and locals in Gothenburg in order to increase sales. To get information out on the streets, tourist offices and hotels became important.

Another important target group were local politicians. With the upcoming election, question about homelessness and social exclusion needed to be more visible and talked about. To spread the message, we mainly targeted local media and used our own earned media channels online. If we let our sellers meet journalists and politicians through the vehicle of the guided tour, we believed that we’d get good results.

Bernhard, Eija and Johan were the first sellers to lead their own guided tours. This took place on the weekend, 15-17 June 2018.

We contacted local journalists plus politicians and organised a private tour with one of our sellers. Building up to the start, we filmed short promos with all three and spread in our own earned media channels. Flyers were distributed to tourist offices and hotels where staff were informed about the tours. Swedish mobile operator Halebop donated three OOH’s near the pick up points. Posters and other free promotion, like donated t-shirts with logos, were also used.

The incentive was high for our sellers to promote the tours themselves. Usually, sellers buy the paper for 30 SEK, sell it for 60 SEK and keep the difference. Now the paper cost 120 SEK and also worked as a ticket for the tour. Sellers earned 90 SEK per participant.

We turned the trend. 300% more papers were sold than the same period the previous year (Objective 1), a tenfold increase in seller incomes (Objective 2). Money that might not seem like much but makes a huge difference in our sellers lives.

Local press and politicians quickly became interested in the project and booked private tours. Tours where representatives for political parties as well as local media participated.

This resulted in a positive PR in the largest local paper, with a reach of 462 000 people per day and local radio with a reach of 174 000 people per day. Together with complementary marketing activities, most people in Gothenburg (population 572 000) got the message (Objective 3).

Street Talk has now become a new part of the Gothenburg cityscape. So who knows, maybe the way back into society can come in the shape of a tour?