Hus Forbi is a Danish NGO founded in 1996 to serve as the voice of the homeless. And this Christmas, the homeless desperately needed someone to speak their case. The Danish winter is notoriously hard, and many homeless people depend upon homeless shelters to get through the cold nights. But due to covid-19 restrictions and assembly bans, those shelters were forced either close or operate with a very reduced capacity. Additionally, social activities and the traditional charity Christmas dinners were also forced to be cancelled. This meant that many homeless Danes were facing a desperate winter without shelter or warmth, or even a Christmas meal.

Every year the Danes hope for a white Christmas. But this year a white Christmas could have serious impact. COVID-19 restrictions and assembly bans had closed many homeless shelters leaving homeless Danes with nowhere to get shelter or warmth. To highlight this and drive political action we created a range of untraditional snow globes. The snow globes featured some of the very homeless Danes who were facing a Christmas on the streets. The snow globes would act as a chilling symbol of the shelterless as the idea had to be direct and striking to a situation demanding immediate action. The snow globes were sent to influencers and politicians as an unignorable object to keep on their desk urging them to act. Every shake of the globe would remind them of the homeless people, who were out there in the cold with nowhere to get shelter or warmth.

The situation the homeless were facing needed urgent attention. Christmas is traditionally a cluttered time of year with everyone trying to get their Christmas messages seen and products sold, and with Covid-19 the communication landscape was even more unusual.

Therefore, we decided to communicate directly with the decision makers in parliament and the media by using a traditional Christmas icon (the snow globe) but with a very striking and effective motif. We decided to show the true urgency of the situation by using real homeless people in our globes, to personalize the issue and bring home to those targeted in the campaign, how real and urgent this issue was. Finally, the heart-breaking image of a lonely, homeless figure out in the snow was intended to inspire our politicians to act and remind them of what Christmas is all about. Giving to those in need.

The first week of Christmas (1. December 2020) we launched the campaign by sending out Snow Globes to selected influencers with a relevant profile; and politicians responsible for the imposed Covid-19 restrictions. Each snow globe featured a miniature figure of a real homeless Dane. The figures were created by 3D scanning and -printing Harald, Jens, David and David’s dog in 1:30 scale. Each snow globe was accompanied by their personal stories of homelessness and how the closing of shelters during winter would impact them. Influencers were urged to share the message publicly, and politicians were called upon to act urgently before the rough winter weather would hit the many homeless Danes forced to sleep outside. The campaign was also activated through social media and a campaign site where you could meet the homeless participants and get inspired to spread the word and drive action on a political level.

With zero media spend we managed to spark a national debate in all media, and amongst the public and politicians. But most importantly our message reached parliament resulting in an immediate 5 mil. DKK, being given to create enough additional emergency shelters to secure all homeless Danes a bed for Christmas and into the new year. In addition, an exceptional exemption in the covid assembly ban was passed for homeless charity dinners. This all meant that no homeless Dane would have to spend this Covid Christmas alone or outside in the cold.

Reach: 7.450.000 / Earned media: 4.900.500 / PR ROI: 1970%