Case Study: Go back to Africa
The internet is an excellent source of information and inspiration, offering up a window into another world, or perhaps another continent. But it's also home to countless instances of hate speech and trolling, angry people hiding behind the anonymity of screens.
Go Back to Africa is a D&AD Impact White Pencil winner from FCB/SIX that aims to erase and displace this hate over social. The tech-driven call to action turns negativity into a rallying campaign message for Black & Abroad, an African tourist bureau that curates experiences for black travellers.
The idea
According to the team at FCB/SIX, "it all started when Frederick Nduna immigrated from Zambia to Canada as a teenager and heard the phrase, "Go back to Africa!" being used as a racial slur. He thought, "What are you talking about?? Africa's great!"
Many years later whilst working at FCB/SIX as an advertising copywriter, it occurred to him that it could be flipped, and so the idea for a positive tourism campaign built on that racial slur was born.
They took the concept to founders of Black & Abroad Eric Martin and Kent Johnson, and the team ran with it.
Go Back to Africa / White Pencil / Impact / Campaign / Equality and Diversity / 2019
How it works
Working with a social listening company, they were able to see how often the phrase was being used negatively on various sites - around 4,500 times a month.
"When we first started telling people the number of times the phrase was used, they didn't believe us, so to have President Trump say essentially 'go back to where you came from,' it gave some credence to what we have been doing with this campaign", said Black & Abroad co-founder Eric Martin.
They created a system that would hijack all this hate in real-time and turn it on its head. Every time someone used the phrase on Instagram or Twitter, they would automatically respond, redacting any context and pairing it with beautiful images from all over the continent.
Development
"In addition to a strong campaign idea, there were also powerful ideas at the heart of the Black & Abroad brand itself, such as issues of representation in mainstream travel imagery," said FCB/SIX. The team found that when you searched for "Africa" on stock image sites, the results that came up only really showed caucasian travellers. For black people to want to go back to Africa, they need to be able to see themselves there.
An algorithm using GoogleVision AI was developed that scanned thousands of images over social and found the ones most likely to contain black travellers. Once identified, these were analysed and tagged so they could be pulled into a new social sourced content platform gobacktoafrica.com showcasing all the incredible experiences the continent could offer.
With this all in place, the team could action another layer of the campaign - a completely custom programmatic influencer marketing campaign based on millennial users' likes and dislikes.
Go Back to Africa / White Pencil / Impact / Campaign / Equality and Diversity / 2019
Results
Not only did the campaign have a 315% increase in brand visibility, but it also demonstrated the galvanising power of words and how their meaning is not always set. When we reframe things in this way, we strip away the perceived power of oppressors, subvert hateful messaging and reclaim our words as our own.
The work was a defiant and clear message of positivity and love in a time of hate that looked to inform and celebrate all that Africa has to offer.
As the team at Black & Abroad puts it, "we can't just erase 400 years of hate but we can take back what it means to go back to Africa".