The Market
VMLY&R COMMERCE Germany
The Challenge
In 2020, the LGBT+ community faced an unprecedented challenge. The effects of COVID-19 on the LGBTQ+ community has been widespread – with healthcare discrimination, Corona-related xenophobia, racism and more. With pandemic confining everyone to their homes, large-scale Pride parades throughout the world were quickly cancelled, robbing the community of their most important stage.
How could we enable them to reclaim visibility?
The Idea
We activated the community to bring the Pride movement back to people’s minds. Together with CSD Germany and our media partners Pro7 and Instagram, we turned GAY PRIDE into #STAYPRIDE – a digital form of protest from the safety of your own bed. Bed-ins for Pride, a modern reinterpretation of John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s iconic Bed-Ins for Peace, was a contemporary answer to an unprecedented challenge. An alternative form of protest taking place behind closed doors, but to which everyone had access, and which could be seen by everyone.
For the perfect backdrop, we even designed a limited bed linen collection featuring powerful #STAYPRIDE messages: The Christopher Sheets. To kickstart the campaign, the Christopher Sheets were sent to selected influencers and supporters contactless – in a specially designed packaging that delivered everything you need to protest from your home without ever leaving it. After opening and fully unfolding it, the packaging could be disassembled into a protest sign and twelve different Pride flags. Their backsides also served as stencils for statements.
Armed with demonstration posters, impressive Pride makeup and our bed linen specially designed for the occasion, the LGBT+ community publicly professed their lifestyle and love, shared motivating stories and continue to fight for their concerns under one hashtag on Instagram – at the largest Bed-In for Pride that has ever existed.
Growth
#STAYPRIDE has achieved a remarkable interaction rate of 400% above Instagram average and a reach of over 8 million –at a budget of just € 2.500. Thanks to our activating social media strategy, #STAYPRIDE became much more than just an alternative to physical parades. Every picture posted from the bed was a protest participation and call to action at the same time – a great advantage in comparison to physical parades and the start on a year round initiative to keep Pride conversations front and center.
