Ahead of this year's Cannes Lions Festival, we're once again sharing our admiration for brands that celebrate their charisma through great creativity. Whether it’s capturing the attention of consumers or the eyes of judges through a ground breaking ad campaign, insightful activation or innovative design solution, brand charisma delivers the magnetism that attracts. It enables a brand to connect with people by communicating its unique story in a compelling and engaging way, at every opportunity. First up, it’s The Swedish number.
251 years ago, Sweden abolished censorship. It was the first country in the world to constitutionally do so. To celebrate that milestone, the Swedish Tourist Association launched Sweden’s very own telephone line that anyone in the world could call to be connected to ‘a random Swede’. No training, no filters, no guidelines. No censorship.
It’s perfect. It’s poetic. It’s powerful. But there are 3 things that I think catapult it into the realm of genius:
Its scalability
Of all the award-winning work at Cannes, not much of it is remotely scalable. Some of it is never even made, but let’s not get into that. And none of it has the reach that The Swedish Number has: this initiative was truly global, truly scalable, truly democratic. Pleasingly, the technology that enabled its reach was not digital. It was just a good old fashioned telephone.
Its simplicity
All I had to do was punch some numbers into a phone, and I was part of the action. There was no offline activation with QR codes that I had to scan that took me to a site where I could connect to a specific Swede, then a mechanic whereby I could share the dialogue with said Swede on social media with the hashtag #VisitSweden / #ZeroCensorship / #YaySwedes, then post my own suggestions for topics to discuss to #JointheConversation. Sweden seems to understand my inner conflict: that although I want to be included in the action, I am fundamentally lazy. #HumanTruth.
Its balls
The Swedish Number had no bland KOLs, no overpriced celebrities and no buy-outs in perpetuity for a cast of actors. Sweden co-opted ordinary Swedes to sell for them. And the unspoken understanding is that very few countries would have the confidnece to let ordindary people represent it on the world stage. Which makes Sweden appear even more amazing in the eyes of the world – populated as it is by friendly, articulate and tolerant real-life ambassadors.
Have I visited Sweden as a result? Not yet. But it certainly reinforced my positive associations for the country. And when one day I do visit, I hope I get to speak to that random Swede I spoke to – a lovely 65 year old university lecturer who lives just outside Stockholm and who chops her own wood. She was ace.
By Katie Ewer, Strategy Director, jkr Singapore
The Swedish Number, Swedish Tourist Association, INGO (Cannes Lions Winner 2016)