MINUS 18: Youre Accepted [video]

Credits & Description:

Titile: Youre Accepted
Agency: Gpy&R
Brand: Minus 18
Country: Australia
Advertising Agency: Gpy&R, Melbourne
Entrant Company: Gpy&R, Melbourne
Media Agency: Gpy&R, Melbourne
Pr Agency: Gpy&R, Melbourne
Production Company: Gpy&R, Melbourne
Front End Developer: Alex Case (Gpy&R Melbourne)
Developer: Mark Natividad (Gpy&R Melbourne)
Digital Executive Producer: Ben Crowe (Gpy&R Melbourne)
Creative Director: Jake Barrow (Gpy&R Melbourne)
Group Account Director: Jonathan Clow (Gpy&R Melbourne)
Digital Producer: Kyle Stein (Gpy&R Melbourne)
Copywriter: Michael Barticel (Gpy&R Melbourne)
Integrated Designer: Rosalie Iaria (Gpy&R Melbourne)
Senior Designer And 3d Retoucher: Marcus Byrne (Gpy&R Melbourne)
Agency Executive Producer: Romanca Jasinski (Gpy&R Melbourne)
Account Manager: David Gallo (Gpy&R Melbourne)
Chief Creative Officer: Ben Coulson (Gpy&R Melbourne)
Art Director: Joey Newton (Gpy&R Melbourne)
Website URL: https://youreaccepted.com.au/#...
Synopsis:
A lot has changed in the way of LGBTI equality in recent years, but despite progress, there’s still a long way to go. LGBTI youth face an extremely high amount of unwarranted prejudices and violent discrimination, causing high rates of depression, self-harm, and even suicide.Social media remains the largest channel for a vocal minority to spread hate and homophobia, resulting in young people having a fear of simply being who they are.Minus 18, Australia’s largest LGBTI youth network, wanted to deploy a campaign that could empower people while also sending a simple but powerful message; they have a lot more support than they might think.
Campaign Description:
You’re Accepted is the direct Facebook campaign that gives LGBTI youth the courage to 'come out' anonymously to their friends and loved ones without any fear of being discovered or discriminated against. The platform allows them to garner support from people they’re closest to and helps them to gauge how their friends will react. A person begins by requesting support. Then utilising Facebook friend groups and email/phone contacts, it allows people, for the first time, to send anonymous personalised messages to friends and family through laser targeted Facebook ads.The personalised messages asked if they’d support a friend if they were to 'come out' – without telling them who exactly was requesting it. Friends could then log in and send messages of support directly back to the user.
Outcome:
So far an estimated 67% of Australian LGBTI youth have engaged with the initiative. Leading to over 1.1 million messages of support. The campaign was quickly picked up and spread across the media and social media, reaching over half of Australia's population through earned media alone. Although the initiative was always about showing people how much support they really have, there have been a huge number of young people who have felt empowered enough to 'come out' as a direct result of the campaign. This astonishing early impact has shown that a simple insight driven initiative can change people’s lives in a huge way.The idea is set to transcend the life of a regular campaign and will live on as an ongoing social tool, that will transform the lives of LGBTI youth struggling with their identities for years to come. 
Brief with projected outcomes:
We enabled LGBTI youth to anonymously announce that they were LGBTI to their friends, to gather support without any fear of being discriminated against. We empowered LGBTI youth through social support. There were no applicable restrictions or regulations regarding hel
Execution:
You’re Accepted was an Australia-wide campaign launched in April, 2016. We launched our initiative through Minus18, the website frequented by every LGBTI youth in Australia. Our message was simple; You're Accepted will prove to you, that there's a lot more support out there than you might think.LGBTI youth could then log into You're Accepted and request support from their friends. We matched their friends list with contact details they provided via Facebook’s custom audience targeting system. We then sent out personalised (anonymous) requests of support to these individuals, telling them one of their friends was LGBTI and needed their support. Their friends could then simply reply with messages of support. All messages were collated for the original sender, making it obvious they had more support than ever previously imagined.
Strategy:
Although most LGBTI Australians live healthy, happy lives, a disproportionate number experience worse health outcomes than their non-LGBTI peers in a range of areas, in particular, mental health and suicidality. So we targeted LGBTI youth in Australia and sourced support from within their social networks.The main target being LGBTI young Australians aged between 15 and 24 - they needed support. This age group’s interaction with mainstream media is on the decline. But, over 90% of the primary target actively engage with social media. So we purposely created an idea which stemmed from their Facebook friend groups. With different messages being delivered to different demographics, running a direct digital campaign gave us the flexibility to be as loud or as discreet as needed. Our idea made it possible for the LGBTI youth to target our secondary audience, their friends. Meaning everyone who received the message was perfectly targeted.