Vladimir Putin’s propaganda machine had been in full force for decades in Russia. In full control over the narratives Russians are allowed to hear, Putin was lying about the war in Ukraine and atrocities committed there.

Knowing that Russians have no access to independent media, Call Russia turned to one channel Putin would be hard-pressed to cut off - telephone calls, and made them into media channels of truth.

The initiative’s success depended on a massive global media launch, in multiple markets and languages, with the aim of earning widespread

When Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, Vladimir Putin’s propaganda machine had been in full force for decades. In full control over the narratives Russians are allowed to hear, Putin was lying about where Russians were being sent to die and about atrocities committed in their names.

Knowing Putin would accelerate his moves to cut off all potential sources of the truth, including independent news and social media, Call Russia turned to one channel Putin would be hard-pressed to cut off - telephone calls.

Organized by a community of passionate volunteers, Call Russia had very little advertising budget and no pre-existing platform. The initiative’s success depended on a massive global media launch, in multiple markets and languages, with the aim of earning widespread coverage that could connect on an emotional level strong enough to motivate Russian speakers to make the most difficult and important calls of their lives.

The creative idea was simple: one phone call won’t end the war, but 40 million might. The Russian people themselves, armed with the truth, had the power to stand against Putin.

Execution, however, was immensely complicated. Convincing Russian-speaking volunteers to invest significant time and emotional effort into a seemingly impossible task required compelling assets in multiple languages and exposure to a massive global audience.

In just 120 hours from concept to execution, Call Russia launched one of the largest and most impactful civic movements against the war. The initiative’s technical achievements were accompanied by story-telling that captured the attention of leading media outlets, reporters, and opinion leaders and resonated with audiences around the world, generating more than 130,000 phone calls from more than 130 countries.

Call Russia assessed from the outset that recruiting callers would rely on massive earned media, as well as active and authentic media presence, to compensate for its lack of advertising budget and no pre-existing name recognition.

The strategy highlighted Call Russia’s massive scale (more than 40 million phone numbers) and its uniquely in-depth approach. Call Russia is far from an impersonal or automated campaign. It is deeply reliant on human perseverance and connection.

Preparation began with Call Russia’s cutting edge, bilingual web platform and moving video anthem, complemented by an attention-grabbing press release to be distributed widely via newswire and personally-tailored pitches for top media targets.

To provide media with human narratives and show calling in action, Call Russia recruited and prepared a bank of media-ready volunteers (carefully respecting the volunteers’ concerns about safety and privacy in the face of Russia’s draconian punishments for anyone speaking against the war).

A small team of professionals worked pro bono around the clock over a single weekend to create multilingual assets, execute media engagement, and prepare dynamic social media. Planning and execution reached around the globe from Vilnius to London to Washington and beyond.

High-priority media had access to organizers and volunteers while the release and website were embargoed, followed by a globally coordinated launch. Top-tier coverage appeared near-simultaneously in global media and markets with large Russian diasporas (e.g., U.S., UK, Lithuania, Poland). A 24/7 virtual press room triaged inquiries and secured additional print, broadcast, and audio coverage (e.g., the popular BBC Ukrainecast and NPR’s This American Life).

Call Russia’s guerrilla social media presence put particular emphasis on Twitter for reaching journalists and influencers. Without any paid promotion, reach (823,000 impressions with an average 2.4% engagement rate) far exceeded results of large, massively-funded campaigns.

Call Russia is a civic activation campaign with very little budget and no pre-existing platform or infrastructure, still it successfully executed a media-first strategy focused on capturing the attention of top-tier journalists and earning massive global media coverage.

Call Russia’s PR-focused strategy, based on compelling assets and carefully targeted engagement, has achieved an earned media result that dwarfs some advertising campaigns with budgets in the tens of millions of dollars.

More than 800 top tier global articles reaching an audience of 1.7 billion people have featured Call Russia in the span of just four weeks, including CNN, BBC, CBS News Reuters, the Associated Press, Agence France-Presse, RTL News (Germany), and many others.