Korean SAT (Scholastic Aptitude Test): Healing Exam [image]

Credits & Description:

Client: Ebs
Product: Ebs
Entrant: Cheil Worldwide Seoul, South Korea
Idea: Cheil Worldwide Seoul, South Korea
Editor: Nov 12 2015 12:00am
Chief Creative Officer: Wain Choi (Cheil Worldwide)
Chief Creative Officer: Jeongkeun Yoo (Cheil Worldwide)
Creative Director: Sungjun Park (Cheil Worldwide)
Art Director: Jihoon Park (Cheil Worldwide)
Junior Art Director: Minzi Kim (Cheil Worldwide)
Junior Art Director: Jiyeon Kim (Cheil Worldwide)
Copywriter: Jieun Kim (Cheil Worldwide)
Junior Copywriter: Wonjae Kim (Cheil Worldwide)
Media Buying: Baekjin Yun (Cheil Worldwide)
Media Buying: Changkyo Suh (Cheil Worldwide)
Media Buying: Changseok Kim (Cheil Worldwide)
Media Buying: Jinyoung Lee (Cheil Worldwide)
Describe the campaign/entry:
The Healing Exam: an exam that became a love letter – A child is the apple of the eye of parents, regardless of test scores. EBS made a special message to students and inserted it to the paper, so that students can read it from the paper and write down their own heart-felt reply to parents. This test paper was actually used on the EBS regular mock test day, and students in the tense atmosphere got this unexpected test paper and were moved to tears. Most of the students wrote more than letter limit and we collected those messages and held an exhibition. Parents also sent a message of gratitude to EBS, saying that they were given the opportunity to convey a sincere note to their child.
Creative Execution:
An exam question set by students’ mothers
Regardless of the children’s SAT scores, they mean everything to their parents. To encourage the students, EBS made an exam paper with a question where the students couldn’t get wrong, by using a letter written by their parents themselves as an exam text.
PROCESS
1. Secretly contact the students’ parents and receive a letter written for their children, who have the SAT exam ahead.
2. Set the letter into the respective students’ language section of the exam.
3. The students answer the exam question set by their own mothers. Exhibitions are held, displaying the actual exam answers, so that more people can share their feelings.
The Healing Exam campaign was executed throughout high schools in Korea. Most students wrote down their candid reply on the paper exceeding the 20 words limit. They also gave a feedback that the burden of test got lifted after the Healing Exam. Parents sent a note of appreciation that they were given an opportunity to convey a sincere message to their child.
The Healing Exam film recorded more than 7 million views just two days after the release and was put under highlight from media and produced a lot of PR articles. The campaign itself was also enthusiastically received by the general republic and created into a documentary film, which was aired on November 30th 2015. Students’ replies were collected and displayed at the exhibition. Furthermore, the platform that sends a message of encouragement to college prep students was disseminated across multiple high schools in Korea.
It not only consoled test-taking students
The campaign itself was executed as an event and exhibition and the film was put up to EBS website, Facebook fan page, EBS blog, Naver TV channel and YouTube. There were a lot of PR articles related to the campaign and OOH had been put up on the metro by the time when test scores were announced. Furthermore, the Healing Exam viral campaign was also made into a documentary film and the film was aired on EBS Docuprime, one of its regular TV programs. And the Healing Exam platform itself spread across other Korean high schools where teachers send their
Insights, Strategy and the Idea:
Korean students can’t evade taking a test. Can we heal these students who suffer from the test? Test paper can stress out students, but it is also a special media that contains various articles. It can be an astonishing media for Korean students if used in a smart manner.
The Healing Exam: an exam that became a love letter.
EBS carried a message of encouragement from parents to their children on the language section of SAT mock test. Two weeks prior to the mock test, parents were contacted secretly and given a mission to write a letter to their child. EBS used these messages as an article to create a question and answers to the question were displayed at the exhibition. In addition, we also released the viral film on the date of SAT and put OOH to the metro by the date when the test result was announced so that more