Shortlisted work at Eurobest Young Creatives 2024.

The Team

My role: Creative; Strategist, Copywriter, Art Director

Partner: Fanny Belaieff, Creative; Strategist, Copywriter, Art Director

Client: SMH, Salvamento Marítimo Humanitario

The Brief

Immigrants and refugees crossing European borders by sea face horrific conditions. SMH not only responds to emergencies at sea, but also advocates for collective responsibility, solidarity, and justice at the institutional level. To sustain this work, societal collaboration is essential.

The goal is to increase the number of individual members who financially contribute annually and show their support for the right to mobility. The client aims to reach 1 500 members in three years, generating 75 000 € in donations per year. The target audience is adults aged 30 and above, across Europe.

Our challenge was to create an integrated advertising campaign that raises awareness, drives membership, and communicates SMH’s mission across multiple channels—while remaining sensitive to the gravity of the issue.

Our Response

Millions of people travel to and within Europe daily – easily crossing borders with a ticket. When crossing, you receive a roaming notification from your network operator. Millions of notifications are sent daily; and since we are so dependent on the internet while traveling, people impatiently wait for it.

For migrants and refugees however, entering Europe is lined with a much more serious problem than awaiting internet access: having their human rights violated. For some, crossing the European border is even a deathtrap.

Our Idea

On World Refugee Day, SMH collaborates with mobile network operators to send roaming notifications to tourists crossing borders. This time, the notification contains something different than the usual welcome: it encourages to save lives.

Targeting Spain, Italy, Greece, and Malta – popular summer tourist destinations facing significant humanitarian challenges – we raise awareness and encourages donations in a faster pace than ever. The campaign also spreads through SMH’s website, social and earned media. We target all travelers entering the countries mentioned above to maximize awareness. SMH’s goal will be achieved if less than 1% of people reached by the campaign message joins the organization.