2009-11-09
The small paper mill in Dalecaria, Sweden shocks a very conservative b2b-business with a digital campaign for paper, donates money to four libraries in rural China and wins an international award for best campaign of the year.
The Grycksbo Paper G-Print “Paper Aid” campaign of 2009 did most certainly raise some eyebrows in the paper industry this fall. For a business that has seen profits fall for ten straight years, mostly due to the digitization of media, an online, viral digital campaign was at first viewed as ”Sleeping with the enemy”.
Sentiments shifted quickly when people realized that the main focus of the campaign was to raise the awareness of paper and spread the message that there is a future for paper in a digital era – not instead of everything digital, but rather as a vital and equal communication messenger. And that the campaign was pretty much unbranded and devoid of the normal paper industry bullit point claims and clichés. This was actually funny. Damn funny.
The campaign consists of a classic campaign site and six films that were distributed via a bulk mailing to 2.500 partners throughout Europe with the explicit instruction to forward the campaign to anyone within their own network.
The campaign was an immediate success in the industry and was nominated to “Campaign of the year” by the Paper & Pulp International Association. The event was held late October and the Paper Aid campaign won.
This from the jury: “This winning campaign has been described as outstanding and brilliant by the judges - an entry which shows an impressive marketing strategy, utilising digital media with confidence, while at the same time encouraging increased paper usage. It is a campaign with a clear target audience and specific messages which shows an outstanding breakaway approach."
Check out the campaign site and the films at www.gprint.com/paperaid