Situation

Internet algorithms limit sharing. They show us only the views and opinions we already agreed with. The effect is polarization and intolerance. This is called a Filter Bubble. Or Echo Chamber. This is especially true for millennials, whose opinions are often formed via social media and influencers.

Brief

Telekom believes in “sharing” and they wanted to help millennials see each other’s perspectives. So, as a brand responsible for enabling people’s digital life, they had to take action.

Objectives ?

The campaign objective was making the audience realize their filter bubbles and help them reduce the effects of the situation, while reinforcing Telekom Romania’s brand promise: “Life is for sharing.”

The way to burst the bubble is to expose people to content opposite to what they are already consuming, in order to make them understand the other side’s opinions.

Trough data analysis we identified online influencers with audiences that had the least in common. We challenged them to swap their lives for a day, record the experience and share it on the social media channels of the opposite vlogger. We chose influencers who tackle the main problems dividing our society such as LGBT rights (Romania being one of the most conservative countries in Europe), immigration, vaccination, religion, tradition vs. modernity, body shaming, #rezist etc.

In Romania, vloggers are by far the no.1 influencers for millennials. Not only the credibility to influence our target, but they also had the direct channel to do so.

We identified vloggers with audiences that had the least in common, in terms of consumed content, likes, interests, and opinions. This allowed us to target the audiences of vloggers of opposing views so we could help them see each other’s perspectives.

We created an example that included a dozen swaps to set the trend in the vlogosphere. Then we watched the idea take off.

One way to burst the filter bubbles is to expose people to content opposite to what they are already consuming, in order to make them understand the other side’s opinions.

Using the data from YouTube and Facebook demographics, Google search patterns and Facebook interests, we identified vloggers with audiences that had the least in common. This helped us with targeting very specific audiences.

Then we challenged the vloggers to swap their lives for a day, record the experience and share it on the social media channels of the opposite vlogger. We chose influencers who tackle the main problems dividing our society such as LGBT rights (Romania being one of the most conservative countries in Europe), immigration, vaccination, religion, tradition vs. modernity, body shaming, #resist etc.

“Vloggers’ Swap” became a trend, hundreds of vloggers started swapping their channels, including most of the top 10 Romanian online influencers.

The swaps generated over 9.5 million views (while the targeted universe was 1 million people).

The swap videos made it to the top 3 on YouTube’s Trending multiple times.

The campaign generated over 300.000 positive organic reactions on social media (likes, comments, shares).

Telekom brand attributes such as recommendation, likability, consideration and purchase intent became at least 50% higher for millennials exposed to the campaign vs. the ones unexposed, surpassing much more established Orange and Vodafone brands.

“Vloggers’ Swap” was featured in prime-time news on all main TV channels, and on all main Romanian digital outlets (including international titles like Forbes, Vice, Elle, GQ, Marie Claire etc.)

The total reach of the initiative was around 85%, putting both the filter bubble problem and the swap solution on Romanians agenda.

And the media spending was zero.

But, the result that proves above all our target engagement and campaign’s long-term impact is that over half a million of the audience started following the vloggers of opposing views.