Today, same-sex marriages are prohibited in 87% of all countries, meaning that love, a human right, is controlled by discriminatory states and institutions. That’s the background to the initiative Marriage Unblocked – a digital platform where everyone, no matter the label, can propose, exchange vows and get married on the blockchain.

Swedish sports fashion brand Björn Borg has always stood up for equality. Driven by their belief that sports is love and love is equal, they are no stranger to challenging norms and institutions with boundary-pushing campaigns.

As Björn Borg is a tiny sports brand, their marketing budget is a fraction of that of big brands. To support equal love, Björn Borg wanted to create a campaign that boldly continues their fight for equal love, in a surprising way.

With the initiative, Björn Borg’s goal was to strengthen emotional connections outside their target audience. The desired target audience was LGBT and tech communities.

Swedish sports fashion brand Björn Borg has always stood up for equality. In 2018, Bitcoin, powered by blockchain technology, caught the financial world’s attention. It also caught Björn Borg’s attention, but instead of trading money, they decided to use blockchain to trade proposals, vows and I do’s.

Björn Borg built a marriage registry on the Ethereum blockchain, accessible through a website, marriageunblocked.com. The website facilitates encrypted marriage contracts, instead of money transactions, giving everyone the possibility to create contracts of love on the blockchain.

Today, discriminatory states hold the power to register marriages. Blockchain, on the contrary, is not controlled by any third party – the encrypted marriage certificates are legitimised by the blockchain community, stored digitally and distributed on millions of servers around the world, safely out of reach of discriminatory states.

With the initiative, Björn Borg’s goal was to strengthen emotional connections outside their current target audience, sports and fashion. The desired target audience was LGBT and tech communities. The initiative was social first, which is why Björn Borg rolled out a campaign film in their social media channels, featuring LGBT couples who shared their stories of love and discrimination. Showing how a new technology originally built to power cryptocurrencies can be leveraged for good drove the discussion online and engaged both tech and LGBT communities. Björn Borg also hijacked current events in anti-LGBT nations with targeted banners.

The campaign rolled out in June 2018, coinciding with Pride Month and the World Cup, hosted by a notorious anti-LGBT nation, Russia. The aim was to make people engage with the cause online, both in Sweden and globally.

For shareability, Björn Borg created a short film with same-sex couples talking about love and discrimination, including a couple from an anti-LGBT country who also fronted the campaign by getting married on the platform. Björn Borg spread the film on their social platforms and to journalists.

They also reached out to niche communities and media, focusing on tech, blockchain, lifestyle and LGBT. The platform was built by a startup pioneering in leveraging blockchain technology for good, which also gave them credibility to talk about blockchain. The platform trended in LGBT and blockchain communities and forums online.

To spread the word, Björn Borg also hijacked current events in anti-LGBT nations with targeted banners.

- 85M unique media impressions. Expected reach exceeded with over 400%.

- With 1.5M social media exposures, the initiative became Björn Borg’s best-performing social media initiative to date. Goal exceeded by over 1500%.

- Over 200+ publications globally, including coverage in AdAge, Huffington Post, LBBOnline, Out, Elle, Milenio, Campaign, Pink News, Trendhunter and Business Insider. Goal exceeded by over 500%.

- The goal of the campaign was to reach beyond Björn Borg’s current target audience/segment, sports and fashion. 90% of the reach was outside those two segments.

- Hundreds of people got married during the first week. Goal exceeded by over 480%.

- The campaign increased emotional connection to Björn Borg by 29% (Xtreme Brand Tracker 2018)

-Marriage Unblocked ignited a discussion on equality, and how innovative use of technology can empower humanity.