The Serbian Kaktus Festival chose The great Croatian naives as one of the examples of good practice of campaigns dealing with media and digital literacy, and for a review on this topic they chose our Head of Creative Jurica.
Why is it important for brands to include media and digital literacy in their campaigns?
As much of our lives have moved online even before this “stay-at-home pandemic,” the number of occasions where people may fall prey to scams or malicious misinformation is increasing every day. From suspicious Instagram ads for discounts on Ray Ban sunglasses to emails announcing delivery you never ordered, to fake news content that affects elections in the world's largest countries - there are many situations that play on naivety and lack of skepticism of consumers of that content.
Today people expect brands to work for the betterment of society, so the topic of media and digital literacy is a good opportunity for brands to do something good, both for society and for themselves. I’m sure that Ray Ban has an interested that someone buy their original, not fake glasses.
Why is The great Croatian naive campaign different from others?
Users who are not digitally native view Internet content with the same level of skepticism as they looked at “older” media that has undergone serious fact checking - hence very little. If it’s on the internet, then it’s certainly true, as it used to be on television or in newspapers.
That is why in the campaign we reduced the terms that are otherwise communicated in a very technical language (phishing, ransomware, hoax, etc.) to concrete examples through a creative concept understandable to everyone who finished primary school in Croatia. Who as a child didn’t wonder why these naive painters are so “naive”? That’s why we wanted them now to interact with digital content to always ask themselves if something is true, well-intentioned, and accurate.
What are the results of this campaign and are there any concrete changes after it?
The number of reported incidents compared to the same period before the campaign jumped by as much as 60% (which means that users recognize CERT.hr as a relevant institution for online security), while activity on CERT's social networks during the campaign jumped by 260 %. CERT from other countries such as Austria, Romania, Latvia and Slovenia also asked us for advice. We hope that they also have naive art, but not a naive population.
The text was originally published on the Marketing mreža.