Long live the neighbour’s goat

The challenge
The small publisher PressOne wanted to reach a much larger audience while changing Romanian society for the better and to influence the Romanian society mentality.

The research
We conducted a study together with GFK, which showed some troubling results: as far as the Romanians’ self-perceived flaws, envy is the second. It showed that lthough Romanians admit their high level of malicious envy, they also have a big potential for positive envy.

Strategic approach
We wanted to provoke negative the status-quo of the saying “May the Neighbor’s Goat Die!” by changing it into a new & positive one: “Long Live the Neighbor’s Goat!”. Therefore, we conceived an integrated PR and advertising campaign in three stages: STEP 1: PUT THE ISSUE ON THE PUBLIC AGENDA; STEP 2: SURPRISE MEDIA OUTLETS; STEP 3: TURN THE CAMPAIGN INTO A MOVEMENT

Implementation
First, we publicized the GFK study (ordered by PressOne) about Romanians’ relationship with envy and shared it to all media. We also created our own content about the research, both editorial and creative. We offered 5 statues of goats to 5 media publishers, competitors to Press One: PRO TV, Hotnews, EuropaFM, Times New Roman and Recorder. All of the publishers covered the subject in their own editorial style, making the goat statues the talk of the town.

On December 1st, the 100 years celebration day of the Romanian Union, KFC and McDonald’s simultaneously launched one Facebook post each, praising each other. The Facebook stunt put the December 1st military parade in the shade in social media, with thousands of people, big influencers and media publishers finding it extremely relevant. This generated a movement: 93 other brands praised their rivals in social media.

Results
– The readership on the PressOne website increased by 430% during the campaign
– 95 brands (from KFC & McDonald’s, which was a world premiere) got involved and supported the campaign by appreciating a competitor, on their owned social media channels.
– The brand PressOne was mentioned in the competitors’ media outlets 164 times, generating a viewership of 421k.