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INSP Awards: Best Campaign Finalists for 2017

We’re eagerly preparing behind the scenes to bring the INSP Awards to life next week, and today we’re unveiling the Best Campaign finalists!

There’s been some impressive campaigns out there from the network this year, and we made the judges’ deliberation even harder by adding an extra finalist into the mix – with six street papers making the finals in this category.

Read on to find out all about those vying for Best Campaign, and don’t forget to take a look at all the finalists for this year’s INSP Awards here.

We’ll be announcing all the winners at the awards ceremony, as part of the Global Street Paper Summit next week.

The Finalists:

Faktum, Sweden

Faktum

“How Swedish do I have to look for you to buy Faktum?”

Faktum wanted to combat the issue of prejudice and racism after receiving negative comments about the increase of Romanian people on their work force. Faktum produced a film intended to go viral on their social media platforms, about a Romanian woman being given a makeover to look more traditionally Swedish, with the tagline “How Swedish do I have to look for you to buy Faktum?”. The provocative nature of the message in the film created a buzz – various daily newspapers wrote about it, and the video received over 500 shares on Facebook, reaching in excess of 250,000 people.

Hus Forbi, Denmark

Hus Forbi

Anniversary year

Hus Forbi started its 20th anniversary campaign with a fictional trailer to a new superhero movie about the invisible man, symbolising the need to make sure the homeless are visible. Over the course of 2016, Hus Forbi continued its anniversary campaign with an event every month, and most of these were very visible both in the general public and the media across Denmark. Events included a t-shirt sale and outdoor art exhibitions. Sales of Hus Forbi in 2016 increased by an average of 5,000 papers a month, generating the equivalent of an entire extra month of sales across the year.

Megaphone, Canada

Megaphone

“Let’s Change the Story on Homelessness”

Megaphone’s 2016-17 campaign centred around the theme “Let’s Change the Story on Homelessness” – confronting the reality of how commonplace homelessness has become. They launched a crowdfunding email and video campaign to raise $10,000 to fund a 6-part series exploring solutions to the homelessness crisis in the province of British Columbia. The campaign was immensely successful, raising almost double their goal, and allowing Megaphone to create 6 shareable videos to accompany each article, reaching a much broader audience for maximum impact.

Surprise, Switzerland

Surprise

Surprise on Tour: #VendorWeek 2017

Surprise went on tour across Switzerland during #VendorWeek 2017, under the motto “encounters in public space: five days against social exclusion on the road in a VW bus”. Stopping in Basel, Bern and Zurich, the bus served as a meeting point and as a mobile point of contact intended to change public perception on the issues faced by vendors. Passers-by and interested parties in the different cities were able to chat with the vendors and Surprise employees over a bowl of warm soup. It resulted in some interesting conversations and encounters between people from different walks of life.

The Big Issue Australia

The Big Issue Australia

20th Anniversary

The Big Issue Australia celebrated its 20th anniversary with the release of a special commemorative edition, supported by an extensive national media and social media campaign. The campaign aimed to celebrate their vendors and highlight the significant social impact of The Big Issue since 1996. Almost 30,000 copies of the anniversary edition sold in the first fortnight, a 30% increase on the previous issue. Celebratory events, video messages from famous Australians and a flash dance mob all generated a buzz online and in the press, and the overall reach on social media exceeded 1million.

The Contributor, USA

The Contributor

#BossNotBum

The #BossNotBum campaign was an experiential marketing effort to rebrand Contributor vendors as micro-business owners. Vendors set up shop behind an office-style desk and handed out business cards to customers and those walking by. The campaign reached thousands of people in the Nashville area through direct interaction at vendor “offices”, and reached even more through social media via the sharing of #BossNotBum. The hashtag reached the top-trending list in the Middle Tennessee area. The effort emphasised Contributor vendors’ willingness to work hard and invest in their micro-businesses.

Don’t forget to use #INSPAwards to join the chat on social media, and keep checking back this week to find out about all our finalists across the 11 awards.