Internet dangers that children face online, are often abstract and hard to grasp. So Romanian parents don’t perceive them as “real”.

To promote the Safe Kids app and educate parents about online threats, Telekom Romania created the “The Online Park”.

We set a special stunt in the largest amusement park in Bucharest, by building new, custom made, park “attractions”. Each “attraction” was designed to mimic a different threat that children face online, from cyberbullying, to chat room predators and online porn.

Then we let parents interact with these newly created media and experience the online dangers, in the real world.

Romania has a unique issue – it has the fastest broadband internet in Europe and the cheapest broadband internet in the world. As such, Romanian children use the internet as their favorite playground - to learn, explore, play & make new friends.

But awareness about online dangers among Romanian parents is still extremely low.

To them, internet dangers are abstract, so they tend to dismiss them as not being “real” dangers. As a result, 91% of parents don’t use any software tools to protect their children online.

BRIEF CHALLENGE:

Promote “Kaspersky Safe Kids” app offered by Telekom, which helps parents protect their children online in an effective, easy-to-use manner:

OBJECTIVE:

Raise awareness about online safety among Romanian parents of young children & pre-teens. This meant Telekom had to identify a way of presenting complex online dangers in such a simple way that made them hard to dismiss.

We analyzed the main types of threats Romanian kids face online and we created “The Online Park” - a special stunt set in the largest amusement park in Bucharest.

We custom built new park “attractions” and placed them in the park. Each “attraction” was designed to mimic different online threat:

“Magic Mirror” demonstrated in real time, how cyberbullying feels like, using words from real Romanian chatrooms.

“Secret Photo Friend” showed how easy is for online predators to approach children online, gain their confidence and extract information from them.

“Balloons stand” presented parents with different acronyms children use in their social channels communication.

“XXX Toys” made a dramatic visual demonstration about online porn exposure.

This way we “brought” the online dangers into a setting familiar for the parents. Then we let the parents experience the online dangers, in the real world.

Note: Please watch the online movie for full project overview.

Telekom Romania has committed to improving children online safety as one of its key social responsibility territories.

But researches showed that awareness among Romanian parents regarding online safety is very low, 60% of parents not being familiar with online dangers at all, and 91% not using any software protection.

Our strategy was based on a key insight - although Romanian parents are vigilant in protecting their children from real-life dangers, they leave them completely exposed to online dangers - like cyberbullying, porn and online predators.

So we presented the online dangers in a set up very familiar for the parents – an amusement park. And we asked a simple question - You would never leave the unprotected in the real world? Why leave them vulnerable in the online world?

By drawing a parallel between “real” life dangers and the dangers lurking online, we triggered parents’ instinct to protect their children.

Working with online safety experts and psychologists, we developed and custom-built different “attractions” that mimic the most common internet threats.

Then the „attractions” were placed in the biggest amusement park in Bucharest among the existing attractions. Parents with children visiting the park were invited to try out the new park attractions. The reactions of the parents were recorded using multiple hidden cameras and a selection of these reactions was later used to create a gripping and emotional online movie. The movie was released online and promoted by parenting influencers, in parenting groups in social media and with a digital promo campaign (pre-rolls, banners, SM posts, PR articles). The digital promotional campaign lasted for 5 weeks.

Note: Please watch the online movie for full project overview.

The stunt resulted in highly impactful and emotional online film that within minutes spread among Romanian parents, generating over 3.5 million views.

The project was quickly picked up by almost all mainstream media and as a result, the campaign reached 88% of all parents in Romania*.

Parent’s consideration for using online tools increased dramatically from 16% to 80%**, while the Safe Kids app downloads rose 800%, compared to the period before the campaign.

Moreover, brand purchase intention for Telekom products increased 100% among Romanian parents who watched the video***, with parents praising the brand as innovative and addressing one of today’s biggest problems.

*Source: Media Investment

**Source: Reveal Marketing Research

***Source: Reveal Marketing Research