FAKE FAKE NEWS

Valters Jonāts, Head of Creative, McCANN Riga Anete Ķestere, Creative Director, McCANN Riga Kristaps Siliņš, CEO & Head of Strategy, McCANN Riga Tatjana Baranovska, Strategy Director, White Label Oskars Toms Lībers, Strategist, White Label Alise Baumane, Account Director, McCANN Riga Gatis Zēbergs, Head of Art, McCANN Riga Evija Banga, Designer, McCANN Riga Linda Justa, Designer, McCANN Riga Golin Riga, PR 

Situation Misinformation and fake news are a growing problem in the age of social media.  A 2020 Latvian study revealed that the number of people feel they can recognize false information is only 23%. The percentage had declined by 17% since the previous study in 2017. The Covid crisis had made the situation even worse. The brief Educate people in media literacy. Especially those who do not look for information on official channels. Challenge Reaching people with lower media literacy who don’t consume the mainstream media channels has traditionally been a pitfall of similar campaigns. Furthermore, it was clear that the audience wouldn’t be interested or wouldn’t even believe information from a government institution – the Ministry of Culture. Solution Fight fire with fire! In order to appeal to the hard-to-reach audience a campaign posing as fake news was developed.  #1 Ads looking like emotional, sensational, or shocking news articles were placed on Facebook and Google display network.  #2 When people clicked on them, they were brought to vizulitis.lv which said that they had fallen for a false article and media literacy tips were explained.  #3 Later these people were retargeted with banner ads reminding the 5 steps of media literacy. These banners followed them everywhere on the internet.  #4 A possibility to stop seeing the ads was available if people pledged to follow the 5 media literacy steps. Results The campaign was very effective and achieved amazing results despite a modest media budget. Total exposures: 6 008 021; 325% of population in Latvia (Facebook + Google) Unique users: 355 604; on Facebook, 539 417 on Google Clicks: 84 853 on Facebook, 44 075 on Google Cost per click: 0,02€ on Facebook (2025% cheaper than benchmark), 0,03€ on Google (650% cheaper than benchmark)