CHALLENGE
Bulgaria is in cross-roads of old and new: Traditional values of orthodox church clash with the model digitally empowered generations living in urban centers. Nevertheless, homosexuality has been legal since 1968, discrimination on basis of sexual orientation was banned in 2004 and same-sex marriages are finally legal since 2019, like most of the countries in Eastern Europe, Bulgaria hold socially conservative attitudes in such matters.
In a country where public attention has been drawn into the rising cost of living, energy crises, Ukrainian war, political uproar and pandemic, it is hard to get any other issues to the public discussion.
Diversity, Equality and Inclusion are the key forces for any great business, and dentsu as well. We wanted to make a strong statement with our partners and clients in Bulgaria towards more equal society, where diversity is celebrated and seen as a force for businesses.
We knew our statement alone would not make a difference, so we needed to convince multiple clients, partners and organizations to campaign with us to get more attention to the pride month in Bulgaria, June 2022. Pride is a LGBTIQA+ movement where diversity is celebrated across the globe.
SOLUTION
Dentsu is the signatory and member of Diversity Charter in Bulgaria. All signatories share the passion for rising the issues of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), so we started our hunt for partners for the campaign first among the signatories and local Pride Movement supporters.
We also sought after our own clients which had a mention of DEI in their company declarations. As the cause was bigger than any business issue we might have, we also bravely sought companionships among our own competitors.
With a long list or partners, we started to contact them with one by one with basic information of the campaign, and some visualization examples of how it would look like.
At the same time, we knew that only digital or print applications of the campaign would not make as impactful of a statement we could. Therefore, we opted for Out-Of-Home formats: the bigger, the better, and the busier location the more perfect for the campaign.
EXECUTION
Campaign idea originates from dentsu Italy, where the first ‘dentsu & Friends’ campaign was executed in 2021, but with the ‘old’ pride flag design.
Slogan of the campaign in English is: ‘Diversity makes everything beautiful. Even an ad.” The visual identity of the Bulgarian campaign borrows from the Progress Pride Flag, also called ‘new pride flag’, a more inclusive design. Compared to the old, more familiar Rainbow symbol of LGBTIQA+ community, the new design has added symbolism for black, indigenous, trans, transitioning, intersex and outside of gender binary people.
Brands that were in the campaign were Absolute, Accenture, Economedia, EY, Hewlett Packard, Ingram Micro, JCDecaux, Mastercard, Merkle, Metroreklama, Paysafe, and Sutherland.
The collaboration partner who assisted in every step of the campaign is GLAS Foundation, a non-governmental organization, striving to bring forth a positive change to the lives of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people in Bulgaria, guarantying them full equality and protection from all forms of discrimination.
The key to the campaign success was to get a massive visibility to the campaign through great negotiations with outdoor advertising providers and is a true testament to the trusting relationship we have with our media partners in Bulgaria.
Dentsu Bulgaria: Pride
We supported Pride month in Bulgaria in summer 2022 together with our friends to be a good ally for LGBTQ+ community.
Carat Romania: Mastercard Roadside Market
Mastercard launched Roadside Market in 2021, a campaign that promotes equal access to market for small vendors across Romania. Mastercard turned roadside sellers into small businesses by connect...
Apipet Lead Generation records
An underdog of the pet care industry, start-up Apipet was able to grow beyond objectives with smart strategy and sharp tactics in performance marketing. Ambitious goal was set at growing the rev...
Growth machine for Würth
Since 2018, we had been growing The Würth Group, world market leader in assembly and fastening materials, webshop to be a sales machine with focusing on the lower funnel and optimizing conversio...
The Code / dentsu Bulgaria
Our dentsu Team in Bulgaria executed The Code program as part of our social impact program. The initiative won “Greenest Educational campaign of the year” in Bulgaria at the B2B Media Awards 202...
Bonduelle influencer marketing
We worked with the 92 years old champion Elena Pagu to talk about healthy food & lifestyle. Campaign was for Bonduelle, crafted by Isobar Romania.
Dentsu Creative Bulgaria: Starobrno digital gallery
The beer brand Starobrno created a unique digital exhibition dedicated to urban creativity, portraying the brand’s new visual identity among works of famous local artists to bring much needed in...
Dentsu Creative Romania: H.ELL Cyber Cursed
We created a unique creative solution for a client with specific audience to cut through in cluttered media space.
dentsu x: No Name
No name is a line of grocery and household items sold by Loblaw Companies Limited, a Canadian company with stores available across the country. The brand provides an assortment of products high ...
Isobar: Volkswagen
Isobar created a location-based interactive audiobook to transform car rides into magical journeys
Merkle: Magpie
We built a fully realised, custom campaign management tool, Magpie, that uses bespoke AI, artificial intelligence, to analyse trending topics in real-time, and curate personalised trend recommen...
Wurth eCommerce strategy
B2B auto part provider Würth wanted to grow their webshop in Croatia. To be efficient, we crafted a strategy that kept B2C buyers out of the shop and grew sales in B2B target group.
Tourism campaign for Tele2 Croatia
iProspect Croatia designed a new strategy to sell more tourism packages. Surf & Call campaign broke the sales record of Croatian Tele2.
Dentsu Croatia: Wolt
Our strategy for the launch of Wolt in Croatia was chose as the best strategy in the annual Mixx awards.
BWM Dentsu: Project Revoice
Activating silent voices with a program to digitally clone ALS patients’ voices so they can keep communicating as themselves even after they can no longer physically speak.
dentsu X: Sberbank
dentsu X used outdoor ads and unique online banners to drive applications for small business loans and provide communities with the services and shops needed in their area.
Vizeum: GhanaPostGPS
Generating conversion for GhanaPostGPS through early engagement, awareness and measurable customer actions.
Isobar: Aeronaut
Driving engagement with William Patrick Corgan's new single through a blend of creativity and technology to create a world-first VR experience.
BC&F Dentsu: Heart Foundation
Everyone thinks they know what a heart attack looks like, but they’re almost always wrong. This campaign drew attention to the subtle warning signs and actually saved a life.