Luis Eduardo Loria Rojas: COSTA RISA

Credits & Description:

Category: Crisis and Issue Management

Advertiser: LUIS EDUARDO LORÍA ROJAS

Product/Service: FISCAL PLAN

Agency: FATHER COSTA RICA

Director General Creativo: Giovanni Bulgarelli (Father Costa Rica)

Director Creativo: Huelander Pega (Father Costa Rica)

Director De Arte: Daniel Montiel (Father Costa Rica)

Productor: Christian Bulgarelli (Son)

Director De Cuenta: Max Borge (Father Costa Rica)

Asistente Director: Jeffry Salas (Son)

Director: Giovanni Bulgarelli (Father Costa Rica)

Media placement: Website - Http://republicadecostarisa.com - November 2, 2011



Summary of the Campaign



Politicians in Costa Rica usually make decisions thinking about their own benefit first, until the thought of becoming unpopular hits them. The fiscal plan discussion was something only politicians and journalists talked about. But, none of them, including the opposition, ever proposed it to the average Costa Rican citizen.



So both unpopularity and the average citizen were the triggers of the concept’s strategy.



How to affect politicians with the ghost of unpopularity? By proving that the corruption, poor administration for resources, excesses and parties’ pacts only benefit them.



How to deal with it to make it interesting and easy to understand for Costa Ricans? Through a simple analogy with strong roots in the social lexicon.



How do you make a message, with no broadcasting budget, be so powerful so that citizens and the media distribute it? By thinking not only about a powerful idea but, also about production possibilities, in multiples versions, in long stories that are entertaining and shocking, and emphasise a harsh reality.



In a circus country, clowns are in charge.



The Situation

For quite a while, Costa Rica has been dragging a high fiscal deficit due to the waste, corruption and poor management of the government’s funds. In 2011, Costa Rica’s government tries to pass a fiscal plan called 'tributary solidarity' consisting of a huge increase on taxes.



The Goal

Stop the Fiscal Plan before it gets voted in Congress (we only had 45 days to accomplish it)



The Strategy

We needed to change the perception built by the government that this was a 'rich versus poor' plan and positioned it as a 'politicians versus the people' matter.



Execution

We created Costa Risa, which is a game of words similar to Costa Rica, which translates into English as 'Costa Laugh' (the name of a circus-like country governed by foolish leaders, a phrase we invented. The commercial was launched via the internet and on the first day it had 800,000 views. It was all over national and international news media.



We created República de Costa Risa’s website with everything a country has: a national tree, coat of arms, and national emblems. This website was constantly updated with news in which the state’s incompetence was shown. There was also an option of sending an e-mail to the congress men and women to put pressure on them.



We proposed Costa Rica’s government to change the country’s name to Costa Risa by means of a Habeas Corpus. We still haven’t received any response from them.



Documented Results

The best result of all is that in December 2011 we could stop the Fiscal Plan.



In March 2011, only 39% of Costa Ricans knew what the Fiscal Plan was. After the campaign, by January 2012, we got the number up to 75%.



Costa Risa got to CNN, Univisión, and The Wall Street Journal making Costa Rica’s government’s inefficiency known worldwide.



We got more than 3m views in a country with only 1,500,000 people active in social networks.



We got to be the Tender Topic during November in Costa Rica



We didn’t spend a dime all through the advertising campaign, and generated publicity for $338,417.