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THE CHALLENGE

In 72 countries, LGBTQIA+ people are discriminated against by law. In six of these countries, homosexuality is a crime punishable by death. How do you highlight the plight of people living in these countries when identifying them could lead to their persecution?

Federación Estatal de Lesbianas, Gays, Transexuales y Bisexuales (FELGTB) is a 25-year-old Spanish movement, that brings together 55+ LGTBQIA+ entities from across the Spanish territories, to fight for LGTBQIA+ rights. In 2021, due to pandemic lockdowns, FELGTB couldn’t manifest as before. They asked us to help them show up for Pride from home.

In privileged countries, we take freedom of expression for granted but for some, declaring an LGBTQIA+ identity is a death sentence. Could we get people all over the free world to stand up for LGBTQIA+ rights and give a voice to the voiceless, by the lending them the very thing those people can’t show: their faces?

THE STRATEGY

Pride Month is a symbolic event that honours the historical Stonewall riots; a pivotal moment in LGBTQIA+ history. This was the key moment to leverage for campaign impact.

In lieu of Madrid’s Pride Parade, which is usually one of the biggest in the world, with thousands of people taking the streets, we decided to take to the virtual streets instead. The streets of TikTok.

By using the TikTok lip-sync function, we were able to enter a worldwide, virtual space where LGTBQIA+ people from oppressed countries could parade freely and proudly express themselves, without danger of persecution. It also provided a huge audience to spread awareness of the rights violations and lack of freedoms in some countries.

Enabling the oppressed to speak their truth through the mouths of others would make it safe for them to share their real voices for the first time and allow a worldwide community to stand in solidarity with them.

THE EXECUTION

We identified real stories by contacting LBTBQIA+ collective advocacy institutions around the world. From there, we compiled the stories in audio and uploaded them on the FELGTB profile on TikTok. Through a simple button on the TikTok interface, anyone can use the audio from a video to create a new one, allowing people to Lip-Sync on the platform.

We invited several influencers from the LGTBQIA+ collective to join the cause and kick-off the social activation. Each influencer selected one of our voices and created a video doing Lip-Sync. Their videos quickly gained a large audience, so the algorithm started to suggest it to more and more people. Those people started making their own videos and that’s how a huge chain began to form.

The campaign took place during Pride Week and ran for one month, but as the voices are still online, it lives on organically and continues to grow daily.

THE OUTCOME

TikTok results:

• 3.7M+ views
• 12M+ impressions
• 500K+ interactions

Coverage:

• Picked up in 37 countries
• 70M+ media impressions in earned media

Top coverage across relevant outlets, including three national, public TV channels (TVE, TeleCinco, LaSexta news dailies), news agencies, such as Europa Press, general online newspapers such as 20 Minutos, LGTBI community magazines, such as Shangay International. As well as campaign recognition in trade press, including Ad Age.