Faktum is west Sweden’s street paper sold by the homeless and the socially excluded. Selling the paper is a job and not charity. An opportunity to get back into society and a more independent life. Many locals leave Gothenburg during the summer vacation and the city fills up with tourists instead. As a result, Faktum sales drop significantly.

Our brief was to turn this trend and at the same time make sellers more visible in society and on the streets.

Objectives:

1. Turn the trend and sell more papers (compared with the same period the previous year).

2. Increase the income for sellers (compared with the same period the previous year).

3. Reach as many as possible in Gothenburg to create good business conditions for the sellers as well as make the problem of homelessness and social exclusion more visible on a local level.

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 it 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 - 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 and locals (staycationers) 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 Swedish election in september, questions about homelessness and social exclusion needed to become more visible and talked about. To spread the message, we mainly targeted local media and used our own earned media channels online. Our thinking was simple; if we let our sellers meet journalists and politicians through the vehicle of the guided tour, 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.

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

Local press and politicians booked private tours. Tours where representatives for political parties like Kristdemokraterna (The Christian Democrats) and Miljöpartiet (The Environmental Party) as well as local media participated. This resulted in a positive article in Göteborgsposten (GP), the largest local paper, with a reach of 462 000 people per day and an in-depth interview with editor-in-chief for Faktum, Sarah Britz, in the largest local radio station SR P4 with a reach of 174 000 people per day. Together with complementary marketing activities, we can positively say that most people in Gothenburg (population 572 000) during the campaign period received the message in some form (Objective 3).