Turning brand unsafety into a tool for child safety.

BRIS is a Swedish Child Helpline fighting for children’s rights and providing support over phone, email and chat. In 2019, the organization wanted to reach children earlier than when they call its counselors. So, we came up with Google BAdwords – an idea that helped us reach vulnerable children as early as when they first search for help – on Google.com.

By buying 500 AdWords no other company could buy – such as phrases connected to abuse, mental illness, violence – we helped BRIS get in touch with over 1,300 new children.

The PR strategy for the campaign effectively piggy-backed on Google’s yearly “Year in Search” news story by crunching Bris’ data into a “Children’s Year in Search”-list released just a few days after Google’s list. The media coverage helped raise awareness among adults who can fund the helpline through donations.

My role in this project was in developing the idea further and to set and execute the PR strategy together with the creative & PR team; Jörgen Berglund (CD), Elisabet Fischer (Copy), Arvid Nittve (Copy) and Martina Larsson (PR), alongside the client’s own Comms department. I also acted as ghostwriter for the opinion piece published in connection to the campaign. Moa Hoff did the illustration for our key visual.

In 2020/21 we re-launched the campaign to similar success in earned media, highlighting new infographics telling the story of how children are feeling after a year of global pandemic.