South Africa, is a country with one of the highest incidences of violence against women in the world. An average of 360 incidences of physical and sexual abuse against women take place on a daily basis. A woman is abused every four minutes.

South Africa is predominantly a patriarchal society with severe socio-economic inequity and largely traditional views on gender roles. This combination makes a breeding ground for violence against women. This behavior is so prevelant it has become commonplace. Resulting in most South Africans becoming numb to something that should ilicit shock and outrage.

This numbness is confirmed and reinforced by the media. With many of the 360 cases of violence against women going unreported by the news. And when they are reported, they often live as tiny blurbs that are glanced over with little comprehension or pause for thought.

For a day, ordinary South Africans were jolted from their numbness as the human stories behind the inhuman statistics were put on display. The campaign would not allow society to look away or skim over the story of abuse onto the next newsbite. This campaign forced people not to turn the page on abuse but to pay attention.

360 women are abused daily in South Africa. On the 22nd of March 2018, the day after Human Rights Day, we launched a new national newspaper, ‘The Daily Abuse - news you need to see’. It documented real abuse stories of victims from the day before, 360 of them, and brought them into the public eye. Each article, served as a voice for the victim. Each story, an honest account readers had to relive in detail, in order to get the message; that yesterday, on Human Rights Day, 360 women’s rights were abused. And that today, tomorrow, and every day that follows, will be no different. Proving, you can’t turn the page on the daily abuse. It was distributed nationwide and handed out at intersections in city centres. Women of all races and ages, stood firmly against the daily abuse, mimicking streetpoles by holding boards with 360 news headlines.

The day after Human Rights Day (South Africa) offered the perfect time to launch the campaign, as human rights and their protection would be top of mind, and yet even on Human Rights Day the rights of 360 women were assaulted as they were the victims of gender based violence.

Between 6:30am to 9am, 30 000 copies were distributed nationwide and handed out at main intersections in city centres. Women mimicked street poles by holding boards with 360 news headlines, for several hundred metres leading up to where the newspapers were handed out. Prolific influencers were recruited with a direct drop containing the newspaper, information about the campaign, why it is important and how they can get involved.

The conversation that began at 6:30 on a rainy morning continued for the next 24 hours, supported or spurred by strategically timed interventions from POWA, the infliuencers and the campaign participants.

The Daily Abuse made headlines across the country, featured on local online news sites, news TV channels, prominent TV shows, newspaper articles, national radio stations and blogs. The #thedailyabuse trended locally on Twitter for over 24 hours, peaking at number two.

The campaign delivered more than 27 million Opportunities to See and 17 million online impressions. If this were paid for reach, it would have cost R7,6 million (±507 110 euros), so with a very modest budget of R670 000 (± 45 200 Euros), the campaign achieved a combined ROI of 1034%. It successfully achieved a reach of 44 million and an earned media value of R5,3million.

The target audience was broad, the general South African population, as violence against women impacts every stratum of society, regardless of education, income and culture. One key segment within this market was the media, there was a need to get this influencial segment to stop glossing over the issue and start applying pressure on society to reform.

The strategy was to refocus the media on the abuse, so that ordinary South African’s would be forced to stop turning a blind eye and start taking a stand against this issue. For one day POWA would “assault” the public with the assault that 360 women experience everyday. This would require communication that would cause the severity and frequency of this issue to hit home, punching South Africans out of their numbness. Getting POWA one step closer to achieving a safe and equal society intolerant of all forms of violence against women.

POWA (People Opposing Women Abuse) is a feminist, women’s rights organization that provides both professional services, and engages in advocacy in order to ensure the realization of women’s rights and thereby improve women’s quality of life. POWA is committed to enhancing the quality of life of all women and girls. The brand envisions a safe and equal society intolerant of all forms of violence against women and girls in all their diversity, where they are treated with respect and dignity and their rights are promoted. This is the vision the brand works tirelessly towards day after day.

The brief was simple: Highlight the severity of violence against women in South Africa and get people talking about the issue. Ultimately, the objective of the campaign was to sensitize South Africans to an issue, to which they had become quite numb. And in so doing get the citizens of this country to take a stand against the rampant violence against women that happens on daily basis.

This critical task needed to be executed with a very modest budget of R670 000 (± 45 200 Euros), so POWA needed an idea that would have maximum impact with minimum cost.