We leveraged the fiercely patriotic, visual language of the World Cup to communicate barely-known facts and connect victims with life-saving help.

Statistics show that domestic violence spikes during the World Cup: reported incidents in the UK increase 26% when England play, 38% when they lose. Similar statistics play out across the world.

We hijacked fan-culture – the behaviour of adorning skin with national flags - to tell the chilling story between football and domestic violence.

We released new, reimagined flags to coincide with crucial ‘knock out’ matches, when emotions were running high.

Every 4 years the World Cup ignites football fever. But there’s an ugly side to the beautiful game: domestic violence spikes during the tournament. In the UK alone, reported incidents increase 26% when England play, 38% when England lose. Similar statistics play out across the world.

The National Centre for Domestic Violence save lives by providing free legal help such as emergency injunctions. It was vital we communicated this service at a time when victims were proven to be in most danger.

So, we hijacked football culture: subverting the behaviour of fans adorning their bodies with their teams’ national flag by reimagining these flags in the form of realistic wounds and bruises across victims’ flesh. In doing so we purposefully increased the visceral reaction to an already-emotive symbol, interrupting football chatter and provoking much-needed conversations around domestic violence and how to seek life-saving help.

We uncovered a powerful insight: reports of domestic violence spike during the World Cup. In the UK reported incidents increase 26% when England play, 38% when they lose. Similar statistics play out across the world

The National Centre for Domestic Violence provides emergency legal injunctions for victims which can save lives. With incidents set to surge it was vital we connected people with life-saving help.

But we faced a colossal challenge: no-one was aware of the issue and every other brand wanted to leverage the World Cup. We simply couldn’t compete in terms of budget.

By hijacking the fiercely patriotic language of fan-culture we created impact and forced the public to rethink what the World Cup means for domestic abuse victims.

Being reactive to results, and tailoring executions to coincide with emotionally-charged ‘knock out’ matches, enabled us to position the NCDV as a key source for help victims.

We meticulously reimagined iconic flags in the form of realistic wounds and bruises across victims’ flesh. The imagery was designed to capture attention, enticing viewers to look closer and absorb the chilling facts, purposefully delivered with clean, concise typography.

The campaign ran for the duration of the World Cup. We were reactive to match results and worked fast to launch new flags to coincide with specific ‘knock out’ matches, when emotions were running high and victims are proven to be most vulnerable.

The powerful images spread across digital, OOH and print. Relevant flag executions were released on social channels moments before kick-off for specific ‘knock out’ matches.

We reimagined 5 flags: England, France, Switzerland, Belgium and Japan across OOH, print and digital executions, for the duration of the World Cup.

Our hero post alone reached 4.7m+ organically (on Facebook). The campaign created organic news headlines in more than 13 countries across the world, across more than 100 news platforms including: BBC, ABC, Huffington Post, and The New York Post.

Our hero post alone was organically shared 40,000 times and generated over 30K comments. That organically shared post went on to be shared tens of thousands of times itself (organically).

Social awareness for NCDV increased by 1250%. Over the campaign period, calls for help to NCDV increased by 19.6%. The campaign created organic news headlines in more than 13 countries across the world, across more than 100 news platforms including: BBC, ABC, Huffington Post, The New York Post and Fox News – reaching millions of people worldwide, increasing awareness and opening up much-needed conversations around domestic violence and where to seek help. Even the NHS and police adopted the campaign