PR – hand in hand with social media

Norbert Ofmański, On Board San Markos Group  Chairman, goes backstage on “Mate from the past”, the Internationally acclaimed campaign (SABRE, Golden Drum, Epica, Mercury etc.) that brought history to life with an imaginative social media programme created, directed and produced by the Group’s companies.

It’s all about how to make the best communication campaign on a low budget…

Some of the best ideas are hatched in times of repose and relaxation. But why is it that ‘Eureka’  moments so often happen in the bath?  The Creative Director of San Markos (an advertising agency within On Board San Markos Group) was sitting in a bathtub trying to work out how to encourage young people to learn more about the history of Poland.  The seed of an idea became one of Poland’s most awarded PR and Advertising campaigns  – The Mate from the Past. The challenge – how to build interest in Polish history among the younger generation?  The inspiration behind the idea was the 65th anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising.

How to protect momentous past events from turning into dusty cards in the annals of our history? How to bring history to life and make it part of the present? How to create a compelling narrative to keep young people eager for the next chapter and maintain their interest to see what happens in the end – even though they know the final result from their history lessons? We achieved this by using integrated communication tools and developing innovative online campaigns.

The relevance of history?
Celebrating historical events often turns out to be an empty ritual without any real relevance to the present. Even the cruellest events of WWII will slowly turn into a solemn celebration quite meaningless for younger generations. The Warsaw Uprising is such a case. In August 1944, the 63 day-long struggle between the citizens of Warsaw and their German occupiers  represents one of the most dramatic and tragic events in Polish modern history. The average age of those who sacrificed their lives fighting in the  Warsaw Uprising was just 18, and now only those of 80 years can really understand the importance of those events, and they fall slowly into oblivion along with the passing of those heroes in whose memory they are organized. Moreover, as research commissioned by one of the most popular Polish dailies reveals, almost half of Poland’s population describe the events of the WWII as ‘uninteresting’. As the 65th anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising approached, the City of Warsaw’s promotional department of was looking for a campaign that which would go beyond the standard memorial celebrations – On Board PTR, together with San Markos, decided to take up the challenge.

The project: ‘Bringing history back to life’
To prevent and protect the momentous events of the Warsaw Uprising from turning into a dusty volume in Polish history, we managed to harness new technologies to bend time and go back to 1944. We came to the conclusion that the stories told by friends and  ‘mates’ are those that are most eagerly listened to, so we decided that the best way to attract the attention of young people is reaching out to them via Facebook. We created profiles of two insurgents: Sosna 24 and Kostek 23, who told their stories of everyday experience s “’ Live’ from the Uprising” on Facebook. We created a virtual diary enriched with images, music and songs of the period and documentary film shot with mobiles.

Passion was the real driver of the project. Our consultants and copywriters are extremely interested in Polish history and because of that, they were able to seamlessly adopt the roles of the insurgents.  Of course, they were supported by historical evidence and sources, but they completely made up the fictional and highly personal stories of Kostek and Sosna. It’s worth mentioning that there were about 30 people from On Board San Markos Group involved in the project, following the issues, driving and managing traffic and building the content.

1944 Live
A rough sketch of the campaign scenario was prepared in advance with the more precise details of everyday events discussed during planning meetings at the beginning of every week of the project. The team had to adjust to the ‘natural life’ of Facebook, which is most often visited during the week rather than at the weekends. At least four commentaries were uploaded every day, together with pictures, songs, links etc. Thanks to the courtesy of Getty Images, it was possible to present young people with some of the most interesting pictures reflecting the everyday reality of those times.

PR activities outside social media
As the action was developing, it quickly turned out that inviting people via Facebook only was not enough. In Poland in mid-2009, Facebook was only just emerging in popularity and we also needed to reach people who didn’t have a Facebook account.  So to do that,  we contacted bloggers writing about historical subjects. One of the most popular Polish bookmarking sites – Wykop.pl (Polish version of Digg.com) also offered to promote the project for free. We used traditional PR through media as well, and the story of both of our protagonists was presented several times on prime time (the main news) television and across the most popular Polish TV channels – reaching over five million viewers. The Sosna and Kostek story was also widely reported by all the main daily newspapers.

Results
“Mate From The Past. 1944 Live” was the first project in Poland capable of combining marketing strategy with modern historical education. We used new technologies and the growing popularity of social media to make the events of the past come alive, be more tangible, relevant and more interesting for young people. We managed to immerse them in the story of two fictitious insurgents and, by doing so, taught them the valuable lesson of the 1944 Warsaw Uprising.

Our heroes soon became two of the most popular individuals on Polish Facebook. Together they had over 4,000 friends, who commented on their 800 posts, took part in 1,512 hours of lively debates and discussions about the Uprising. Among them were celebrities, artists, journalists, and most rewardingly – a younger generation who were able to  ‘live’ our history. With the honourable patronage of The President of Warsaw, millions of people found out about Sosna and Kostek through reports and interviews on TV, radio, press and internet and almost 4,000 people experienced the death of one of their friends…

Other results:

• More than five million TV viewers
• Almost 85,000 radio listeners
• Coverage in all Polish dailies, weeklies, consumer and trade press

The entire project was undertaken with no budget – everybody who took part worked  pro bono. Working for free, individuals, organisations and institutions without whom  it would not have been possible to complete the project.  So there are, in fact, few things you need to have to create the perfect campaign: strong, committed resource and passion. And that’s true of all communications.

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