2020 Winner

CASE SUMMARY

Challenges and Goals
Between 1525 and 1866, more than 12.5 million African people were taken from their communities, loaded onto ships, brought to the West, and forced into slavery. Today, systems of oppression endure – including racialized language such as the “n word” and the slur, “Go back to Africa,” which is used every three minutes on social platforms alone.

Black & Abroad is a travel brand serving members of the Black community. In efforts to promote African destinations to its target, it has found two key barriers:
1) Widespread misperceptions of Africa as a dangerous, undesirable destination.
2) Lack of representation of Black travellers in commercial travel imagery.

Insights and Strategy
When someone with racist intent says “Go back to Africa,” it’s hurtful. But if you could change the context, you could also change the meaning. The brand strategy has two pillars:
Displace the hate Prior to launch, online search results for the phrase “Go Back To Africa” were almost unanimously negative. The brand saw value in establishing a positive counterpoint that exists in the same space.
Rewrite the narrative Here’s where the tone shifts to relentless positivity. It’s where the brand celebrates Africa, and draws attention to the diversity of its 54 countries, and show aspirational images of Black travellers.

Execution
The brand hijacked hateful uses of the phrase “Go Back To Africa” as they happened on Twitter, redacted the racist context, and used them as headlines for hyper-targeted ads for each of Africa’s 54 countries.

The ads drove to GoBackToAfrica.com – an AI-curated content hub designed to address the lack of representation in commercial travel imagery. A first-of-its-kind content platform, GoBackToAfrica.com contained 54 ever-growing galleries, organized alphabetically by African country, built with the express purpose of showing members of the Black community travelling in Africa. The GoBackToAfrica.com content platform also powers programmatic banner ads that use interest-based targeting to connect our target with specific African countries.

Results
There was a 197% increase in positive usage of #GoBackToAfrica on Twitter, a 315% increase in brand visibility, a 60% increase in booking interest for Black & Abroad’s upcoming African trips and 88% of the brand’s audience said their interest in visiting Africa had increased.

Also, 89% of the brand’s audience said the campaign reduced the hate from the term “go back to Africa.” 52% now feel the term is “hopeful” or “empowering.” And 92% feel that they know more about what Africa has to offer.

The campaign won the Grand Prix in Creative Data at the 2019 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, putting Black & Abroad shoulder to shoulder with some of the biggest brands in the world, including Volvo, IKEA, Burger King and Nike.

Credits

Client: Black & Abroad, LLC.
Co-Founder, Client: Eric Martin
Co-Founder, Client: Kent Johnson
Chief Creative Officer: Ian Mackenzie
Associate Creative Director: Frederick Nduna
Associate Creative Director: Andrew Bernardi
Designer: Ramon Charles
Copywriter: Curtis Chapman
Account Director: Fraser Jackson
Integrated Producer: Gillian Morrison
Junior Producer: Kristine Lippett
EVP, Strategy: Anna Percy-Dove
Director, Strategy: Paul Hanlon
Strategist: Simran Kaur
Senior Manager, Data Analytics: Andrew Yang
Data Analyst: Abdul Dau
SVP, Head of Data and Technology: Jacob Ciesielski
Product & Technology Solutions: John Sime
Front-End Developer: Heung Lee
President: Andrea Cook
SVP, Director of Global Communications & PR: Melanie Mitchem

Post Production House: Rooster Post Production
Editor, Post-Production: Colin Murdock,
Editor, Post-Production: Jeff Poremba
Assistant Editor, Post-Production: Shane Preston
Executive Producer, Post-Production: Yumi Suyama

Media Agency: Initiative Media

Public Relations: Shannon Stephaniuk - Glossy PR

Music/Sound: Grayson Matthews Audio Design
Music Producer: Mark Domitric
Sound Engineer: Vlad Nikolic
Media Producer: Nicholas Shaw