L'ENFANT BLEU
THE FORTNITE UNDERCOVER AVATAR
THE CASE
OBJECTIVES
​
​
During the first wave of COVID-19, French authorities noticed a decrease in domestic violence directed to children in France, but that was not a positive KPI… it only meant that abuse that could normally be detected by teachers and other adults, was no longer visible, we decided to help. 
INSIGHTS
​
​
According to UNESCO, as more than 188 countries closed their educational centres at all levels during the COVID-19 pandemic to stop the spread of the virus, most countries experienced a decrease in child abuse hotline calls, France was no exception. While normally this would be welcomed news, it did not bode well during COVID-19 stay-at-home orders.
Specialists knew that with the arrival of the coronavirus pandemic, the instances where trouble might be noticed by teachers and other educators disappeared overnight.
We decided to put the creative power of our colleagues in the agency behind this problematic and we got in touch with L’Enfant Bleu, a French association that is involved in safeguarding the welfare of French children.
We wanted to find a way to reach children that were confined at home in a discrete way, and therefore we thought of video games, when forced to stay indoors children are most likely going to be playing video games.
Video games would be our new channel to allow children to express themselves, a universe where they already feel confident and right at home, but most importantly, a universe that is still a mystery to most parents.
IDEA & STRATEGY
​
​
We chose the biggest game, one with more than 380 million players registered: Fortnite, a game where 53% of players are aged between 10 and 25 years old, and we inserted an undercover avatar that allowed young players to confide without arousing suspicion of those abusing them. 
Our comms strategy was based on 2 phases:   
​
The first that was more secretive so parents and guardians would not notice anything… and the last and second phase where we let the world know about the initiative once the avatar was deactivated.  
​
Gamers and lifestyle influencers sent out Instagram stories, Tweets, YouTube videos and Twitch to reach their young fans.  
​
Once the Avatar was offline, we launched the PR campaign that involved some of the most popular French Newspapers, TV networks and radio stations. Even AFT sent an alert to all their subscribers.  We let all of France and the whole world know about the initiative and about L’Enfant Bleu. 
EXECUTION
​
​
We started by creating a working group bringing together the French Authorities in charge of child protection and representatives of L’Enfant Bleu Association.
Once the idea was accepted by all, our game developers got to work and created out the character that would be the confident of young children on Fortnite.
We created the first in-game character whose mission was not to win the game but to listen to abused children and help them get help quickly. The character remained online 7 days a week and 24 hours a day.
The first phase, the most delicate needed to be secretive, at least to parents and guardians… During the month that the campaign lasted, we had to aim very carefully and only reach children.
In this first phase we managed to get two very famous French eSports teams gamers and lifestyle influencers behind us. The eSports teams used the power of their network to disseminate information about the initiative, together they commanded more than 500K followers on their social media accounts.
​
The second phase was a massive PR initiative that would be activated after the first month, once the campaign ended, and it was designed to let the world know about the initiative, in case it could inspire similar initiatives around the world, and to bring awareness to L’Enfant Bleu, a French charity that helps children who feel they are in trouble, in danger or affected by domestic violence.
RESULTS
​
​
While our Fortnite character was online, we received 1200 friend requests from kids. 30% of these requests were related to dangerous situations asking for urgent preventive treatments. 
​
The day we released the project on phase 2, we got more than 50 million PR impressions. Even the French Minister was interviewed on a major French Radio. 
​
For an Association such as L’Enfant Bleu, the main KPI is awareness and top of mind, we achieved both and brought visibility of their cause.  Undercover Avatar generated more than 700 million media impression thanks to all press coverage. 
​
Impact was so strong that French government through the competent authorities decided to set up a specific task force gathering gaming publishers, French Justice and French Police in order to work on solutions to turn video games into a new way to identify abused kid. Even French Police mentioned that this campaign was recognized by their US colleagues from FBI.