Superb feedback

February 12, 2014

Over 250,000 have so far participated in Dagbladet and Amnesty's campaign to paint Russia with the Rainbow Flag. As a global digital petition, Dagbladet , in collaboration with Amnesty, launched a digital map before the Olympics that allows users to sign up and be assigned a small colorful part of the map. The aim is to highlight human rights violations in Russia.

- Dagbladet has always been the newspaper for the little man and woman, and Norwegians know that. But if we were to give the campaign real credibility internationally, we needed a major partner. There was never any doubt that Amnesty was at the top of our list, they have many of the same core values as Dagbladet, explains Platform Manager for the digital services at Dagbladet, Eugene Brandal Laran, about the choice of partner.

He adds that one of the most fun things has been how positive and creative the developers and designers behind the campaign have been:
- They have lifted torussiawithlove.no to become an international success.

Spread on social media
The editor-in-chief of Dagbladet, John Arne Markussen, predicted before the map was launched that it would have a huge reach via Dagbladet and social media, far beyond Norway's borders. Shortly after the launch, the map has received over 250,000 signatures, and you can clearly see the Rainbow Flag, the well-known symbol of the LGBT movement, covering Russia.

- "When we launched, around 90 percent of the traffic came from Dagbladet, and the rest from social media. We were clear that we weren't satisfied until we had turned those numbers around," Laran emphasizes.

Targeted work resulted in that already two evenings later, the share of traffic from social media had increased to 95 percent.

- "We who have worked on the campaign sat and sent cheering emails to each other until late at night. The feedback from readers has been great. I've probably read 300-400 messages on Twitter, Tumblr and Facebook, and the response from all over the world has been so positive that it's really warming," says Laran.

- "This is the most exciting project I've worked on in a long time. I am very happy that there is room in Dagbladet for such campaigns. This is the Dagbla' soul as it looks in the digital age," he concludes.