1 in 3 German women will experience physical or psychological violence in their lifetime. This means we all know at least one woman affected.

96% of Germans condemn violence against women, but few actively oppose it. The conversation is taboo.

The Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth wanted to motivate people to stand up against all forms of domestic and sexualised violence. Their aim was to strengthen people and help them overcome their doubts, while fighting against violence at the source.

They engaged us to put this topic at the forefront of the public discourse.

Campaign Objectives:

1. Break the taboo and get people talking about gender-based violence

2. Promote awareness of the issue with a campaign opposing violence against women

3. Offer hands-on help and recommendations to support people experiencing violence

4. Become the top news story of the day in German media

Gender-violence awareness campaigns tend to centre around triggering images of victims, intended to have an emotional impact on the viewer. Evidence suggests, however, that we can become numb to these images and even tend to categorise such images (and therefore campaigns) as being for 'others', rather than ourselves. Such campaigns may even make things worse, by re-enforcing the powerlessness of ‘victims’ and the strength of abusers.

We had to do something different.

Being German, we decided to apply maths to a problem where emotions had failed... so we asked Germany 'What's Your Number?' and confronted our audiences with the real hard numbers of women they personally know (statistically) who will experience domestic violence.

We calculated the numbers for 22 German cities, and projected them in giant letters on buildings in prominent places. Visitors to our website could sync their Facebook data to see the number of their friends affected.

The 'What's Your Number?' concept was the earned idea that would sit behind the entire campaign.

Central message was that a third of the women we know will experience violence in their lifetime. That's a third of our female family members, of our female friendship circle, of our female colleagues, a third of all the women in our city and so on.

By drawing out this shocking number and making it personal, we knew that we would be able to drive the message home for our audience and generate media attention. The message was personal and immediate, without being sentimental.

Target audience: Germany’s general public.

Campaign assets and activities: Print, outdoor (building projections), online film, press release, press conference and media engagement.

Total fees (inc. conception, film edit, influencer and community management, press/editorial, website, partner integration, digital toolbox) :

€370,966 (net)

External costs (inc. subcontractor, paid social, influencer): €496,977.97 (net)

First we got all major German aid organizations to unite the message: Violence against women affects us all. In addition to the affected people, we raised awareness in their environment and encouraged them: recognize violence and act. There are opportunities for everyone to take action against violence.

Guerilla-illuminations in 22 cities nationwide projected a number onto buildings.

On International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women: Revealing the number of women in that city affected by violence.

During the German Federal Criminal Police press conference: Media breakdown of their female audience, including how many would be affected.

Releasing an online film.

Minister Dr. Giffey shared her number and invited politicians to calculate their constituencies’ numbers.

Online: Collaboration with celebrities and activists who published their numbers and calls-to-action, mixing our film with personal stories, amplified on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Campaign delivery in just six weeks.

MEDIA OUTPUTS:

• The media response to our kick-off was massive: More than 1,700 media reports/contributions.

• On the evening of November 25, our topic was the top news: “Tagesschau” at 8:15 p.m., “heute magazin” and in the evening news of private broadcasters: RTL, Sat.1, VOX, RTL 2 or Kabel 1.

• National newspapers reported: FAZ, Süddeutsche, BILD, taz and all regional daily newspapers, radio stations and numerous online media.

• Topic ran into the media until December.

REACH

• Digital campaign: 11 million reach.

• More than 100,000 unique visitors went to the campaign microsite in the first 3 weeks.

• Organizations and companies have offered their partner support for the initiative.

TARGET GROUP RESULTS:

• Counselling centres like the help line "Violence against women" and the women's emergency calls recorded a significant increase in requests for help after the start of our campaign. Although, the centres do not collect data on where the people contacting them but the increase in call traffic was felt in direct response to our campaign and communicated to us.

FILM RESULTS:

• Our campaign film became the most watched film of all time on the YouTube and Facebook channel of the Federal Ministry.

• 850,000 people were reached with the campaign film