2024 Winner

CASE SUMMARY

La Maison grise is a shelter that supports and empowers women who have experienced domestic abuse, in order to help them regain control over their lives. According to Statistics Canada, one in four crimes committed against persons in Quebec are related to domestic violence. Women are predominantly the victims of this abuse, with 78% of cases reported.

According to the helpline at SOS violence conjugale, the number of distress calls increased by 41% between 2021 and 2022. Moreover, 184 women were murdered in a context of domestic violence in 2022 only.

In October 2022, the province of Québec had witnessed 12 femicides linked to domestic violence in only three months, an extremely troubling and alarming situation. As Halloween was approaching, the organization wanted to seize the opportunity to shed light on this growing problem. After all, Halloween is about fright, and the most common thing in Halloween horror movies is women being chased, beaten, tortured and killed. La Maison grise wanted to remind Québecers that this wasn’t just fiction: it’s a sad reality for too many women.

In this context, La Maison grise hoped to launch a campaign/initiative with two goals
in mind.

To raise public awareness about the unsuspectingly high prevalence of hidden domestic violence around and to make La Maison grise known and renowned; position the organization as a key resource for women affected by domestic violence.

They designed window decals depicting scenes of violence and placed them in home windows of neighbourhoods where femicides are most frequent. The campaign was launched on the NPO social channels through an OLV documenting the initiative. The video was also used as a PR piece sent to mainstream media in order to reach the broadest audience possible.

“Fear Windows” helped raise awareness of La Maison grise on a shoestring budget of less than $5,000. Without any paid media investment, the design initiative collected more than 180 media placements from both influential local and international media outlets, generating more than 100 million earned impressions

Beyond simply covering the designs themselves, the articles highlighted the troubling pervasiveness of domestic violence and showcased resources for victims and their loved ones, specifically La Maison grise — whose website traffic more than quintupled during the campaign period.

Most importantly, La Maison grise saw its donations increase by 3,043% YOY, providing the necessary funding to open a new shelter in 2023, to help more women and children escape the horrors of domestic violence.

Credits

Chief Creative Officer: Aaron Starkman
Chief Strategy Officer: Sean McDonald
Executive Creative Director: Xavier Blais
Executive Creative Director, Design: Hans Thiessen
Group Creative Director: Sean O’Connor
Art Director: Mathieu Lacombe, Preto Murara
Writer: Charles Côté
Designer: Alex Bakker
Strategist: Suzy Truong
Broadcast Producer: Annick d’Auteuil
Director: Mathieu Lacombe, Charles Côté
Offline editor: Alijah Monckton
Online editor: Etienne Bergeron
Motion Designer: Leigh O’Neill
Director of photography: Jean-François Sauvé
Audio House: Circonflex
Account Services: Gabrielle Bergeron
Media amplification: Sara Lemmermeyer, Meredith Montgomery, Gabrielle Bergeron
Screen printing : BangBang
Client: Danielle Rouleau, Nathalie Lamarche