In Estonia there are only 41 prisoners with a life sentence. Contacting them isn’t easy because you can't simply pick up the phone and call them.

Our ad creating process was much like an action movie. We consulted a former Eesti Ekspress journalist, who led us to a contact that could maybe help us get in touch with Nikolajev. The person we contacted advised us to talk to Nikolajev’s sister, who agreed to send a text message to prison. As voice recorders are not allowed in prisons, a phone call was our only chance.

One day Nikolajev finally called us and we made first contact. It took eight very lengthy phone calls to get the material we were after. A few of the hurdles we had to overcome included the prison being a generally noisy environment, but also the fact that that Nikolajev had never done a radio ad before.

Time was tight and the preparation process a nervous one as the “heroes” of our campaign were very different to who we are used to dealing with.

??We needed to convince a former Estonian mafia figure Imre Arakas to be our model for outdoor, print and digital visuals. Luckily after long negotiations he agreed.

?Even harder task was getting Anatoli Nikolajev a prisoner serving life read our radio clip. As voice recorders are not allowed in Estonian prisons, a phone call was our only chance. After meetings with different contacts, the prisoner’s sister sent a text to the prison. It took several lenghty phone calls to get what we were after. A few of the hurdles to overcome included the prison being a noisy environment and the fact that Nikolajev had never done a radio ad. Creating the ad took us more than a month.