Børns Vilkår is a Danish NGO with the mission that no child in Denmark should be neglected. In 2019, the organisation released the “School’s Empty Chair” report, showing that 75.000 children in Denmark miss school because of mental health issues. In a country of less than six million, that is one in six children.

The problem: The report itself wasn’t getting enough attention. That is why we were tasked with creating a campaign that would turbo-change the issue, make news headlines and get politicians to act and create change.

The following objectives were set:

• Reach 33% of all adults in Denmark.

• Become the most talked about news of the day.

• Hijack the conversation at the opening of the Danish parliament.

• Get the issue on the political agenda.

• Most importantly: Get politicians to take action to reduce neglected children.

Do it all with zero media budget.

Background & Context:

Børns Vilkår is a Danish NGO with the mission that no child in Denmark should be neglected. In 2019, the organisation released the “School’s Empty Chair” report, showing that 75.000 children in Denmark miss school because of mental health issues. In a country of less than six million, that is one in six children.

The problem:

The report itself wasn’t getting enough attention. That is why we were tasked with creating a campaign that would turbo-change the issue, make news headlines and get politicians to act and create change.

Challenges:

Wanting to create awareness and change with a limited budget, we faced with three challenges:

1) Reach a diverse audience: Politicians, Parents and Professionals.

2) Communicate a complex story in a simple, highly shareable way.

3) Create as much noise to own the news circle for a day, making it impossible for central stakeholders to ignore the problem.

To solve this, we needed one big, bold idea, that would speak to all audiences at once while provoking a public discourse and giving news outlets great imagery.

The solution:

To reach the three segments at once was a difficult task and the fact that Børns Vilkår didn’t have any media budget required a different approach. We needed to develop a straight-forward but bold idea that would provoke a public discourse while being designed to give news outlets some great imagery. The following steps were set:

1) Identify a shared belief or common cause so we could engage all three segments with one big idea.

2) Create an activation that was powerful enough to own the news headlines for a full day.

3) The way to get there: “Highjack” an event, that media and politicians where already interested in. In doing so, we could “borrow” from its existing established capital.

Idea and execution:

A silent demonstration using 500 empty chairs set up outside the Danish parliament on its opening day – each chair a symbol for a child staying away from school.

To emphasise our point, each chair had a handwritten statement for why children were staying home from school. Bullying, violence, abuse, or suicidal thoughts were just some of the reasons that made people feel the problem in an emotional way and gave voice to a large group of kids that had been largely forgotten.

The campaign was set up overnight in front of the Danish parliament on the opening day. Doing so, we created a one-of-a-kind backdrop for one of the most news-worthy days of the year. Media and politicians simply couldn’t ignore the message as they passed by, gave interviews in front of the chair or even read out some of the quotes.