In The Company of Huskies Tackles Racism with ‘Change Is at Your Fingertips'

GroupM Ireland and In The Company of Huskies have partnered together to develop a through the line campaign for INAR (Irish Network Against Racism). The campaign launch is timed in-line with Anti-Racism Month and is aimed at driving awareness about the iReport.ie, an app and website that is a tool for people across Ireland to share racist incidents confidentially. 

The data collection here is used to help lobby for better protection against racism on the local, national and international level. The data capture also helps understanding racism and its patterns specific to Ireland as a growing international community. 

The campaign 'Change is at your Fingertips' is based around a fundamental idea that communication in its latest guise of ‘tapping’ through your finger on a device could make all the difference. Reporting incidents and supplying that data to the relevant governing authorities gives Ireland a chance to improve its legislation and support minorities across the country. 

GroupM Ireland and Huskies have invested time and resources through its employees, partners and suppliers in order to make sure that this campaign gets the visibility it requires. Media has spanned across national radio, digital audio, outdoor, bus branding, print advertising, digital display and social media advertising.

Shane O’Curry, director at INAR says: "We are really thrilled with the boost that this campaign has given to iReport.ie and the work that we do with it to foreground peoples direct experiences of racism as we inform the national conversation. Ordinarily, we could only have hoped to get the kind of high-quality publicity and reach that this generous partnership has given us. But the journey that colleagues in Group M, and In the Company of Huskies have taken us on has been delightful and inspiring. The care, thought and effort invested by all of these creative people has been really inspiring, and the campaign they produced, bringing INAR along at every step on the road, has surpassed even the high expectations we had of collaboration. I would like to thank the innumerable people who contributed in so many ways to making this tremendous campaign work so well. We are absolutely delighted."

Amar Jacob, social and content director at GroupM says: “Since the Black Lives Matter Movement restarted the conversation globally around ‘racism’ in 2020 I have been working within the industry to make fundamental change in the way we work and approach campaigns by making them more inclusive to the country we live in. The seedlings for this campaign started back then when I was part of the Huskies team and with their continued support, we have been able to bring this campaign to life through combined efforts from a group of people across agencies. Having been at the centre of this campaign right from its inception and as an immigrant to this country - it’s a proud moment to see this campaign go live that can raise awareness, education and drive change for all of Ireland.”

Bill Kinlay, CEO at GroupM says: “We’re really happy to have had the chance to work on this vitally important campaign and to have the opportunity to highlight a problem that we all need to be more aware of. Racism in all its guises is wrong and this campaign is an important next step in improving the situation. The work that has gone into getting this campaign live from a wide team across GroupM, our partner agencies and our media partners has been exceptional. There’s a lot more work to be done but at least this is a start on the right path”.

Udi Ovadia, senior art director at Huskies says: “Reporting racist incidents is a fundamental step in tackling racism in public spaces. Our campaign is based on the idea that with just a tap of your finger, each of us witnessing a racist incident can actually make a difference. In our ads, we see a huge, oversized finger intervening during a racist incident. In our radio ads, we hear people in various public spaces using aggressive, racist language. As the abuse reaches its peak, it is drowned out by the sound of typing and a message being sent to highlight that with a tap of their finger, people can report a racist incident on the iReport.ie app and make real change happen.”