Telekom fights for a network without hate.

As Germany's leading network provider, Telekom sees it as its social responsibility and self-imposed duty to fight for a network without hate. A network in which everyone treats each other with respect. Telekom's goal is that everyone is able to #takepart in the digital space without fear.

The creative brief was to develop an attention-grabbing campaign highlighting the danger of online hate that any of us can fall victim to. And to communicate the concrete help for victims Telekom together with its partners is offering.

The objective was to sensitize as many people as possible, especially young people, to the impending danger – with a pretty limited budget.

Online hate is a rapidly growing problem. But although more and more media are reporting, young people in particular feel superior and underestimate the danger. It is too abstract for them and the victims too distant.

Politics is still powerless. Just recently, a law to protect victims of online hate was overturned in the German parliament.

It's time for big brands to stand up, take action and activate society. Telekom did it. With an approach that was unusual for a telecommunications brand, it drew attention to the topic of hate on the Internet and activated it followers and multipliers in order to ultimately reach as many people as possible.

Together with two of Germany's most famous influencers, Telekom launched a provocative campaign to draw attention to the fact that anyone can become a victim of hate - regardless of their skills.

Social media talents were invited to a casting show to check, if they are "Ready to be an influencer?". They had the chance to showcase their skills in front of an online community that judged each performance live via digital postings.

During the performance, the community's comments suddenly turned into a wave of hate comments. What the talents didn't know was that everything was staged. There was no community. The (real) comments were collected online in advance and played out by a live editorial team.

Under psychological supervision, the experiment was always cleared up in time. This way the candidates were able to experience hate attacks themselves under safe conditions.

The experiment was documented as a film.

Online hate is a rapidly growing problem. But although more and more media are reporting, young people in particular feel superior and underestimate the danger. It is too abstract for them and the victims too distant.

Therefore the strategic idea was to let the target group (16-30 years, social media affine) feel the abstract danger in order to sensitize them more intensively to the topic of "hate on the internet".

The key message: "No matter what skills you have, hate can hit you too".

The core creative idea was a film about a social experiment, in which young people were attacked by real online hate.

With it wanted to draw attention to this very important and sensitive topic and convince more and more people to become active with #takepart and join the fight against hate on the Internet. And to offer help by Telekom and its 44 partnering social organizations.

A stirring film documentary of the action became the centerpiece of an integrated campaign for a period of 14 days.

Moving teasers on social media and shout outs from famous influencers Diana zur Loewen and Eko Fresh generated more than 3.8 million views in a fortnight. Media coverage of the campaign and numerous interviews of the two on TV, print, radio and online reached over 18 million people.

Additional support came from Telekom's wide-reaching internal network and its 44 partnering social organizations in the fight against hate.

The campaign struck a nerve by making the well-known problem painfully tangible. It sparked a debate about the space we should give to "hate on the net" in our society and what we want to do about it.

This engagement of Telekom contributes to the Sustainable Development Goal #16 "Peace" by raising awareness of hate in the internet and offering help and solutions together with 44 partners.

These offers were used by many more people than before (+28 % compared to the period before the campaign).

The media coverage of the campaign on TV, print, radio and online reached over 18 million people. More than 3.8 million saw the film (campaign period 14 days).

With targeted digital content and the support of two of Germany's most famous influencers (each with more than 1 million followers), we reached a broad spectrum of our young target group, but also others.

The campaign was highly praised by almost everyone in the comments.

Media reports: 225

Social media posts: 105

Radio contributions: 42

Media reach: 8.328.429

Social media reach: 3.844.834

Listeners: 3.000.000

Earned media value: 879.706 €