Awareness Campaign: Immigrant Workers in São Paulo (ILO)

The agency was invited by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) to plan and execute a campaign with the potential to raise awareness of migrant workers in São Paulo about the social risks involved in immigration, as well as their rights and duties in the country of destination.

The campaign design included messages and concepts, distribution channels, products and languages better suited to the target audience. To obtain inputs for the creation of the pieces, two rounds of interviews and coordination with ILO partners engaged with the agenda of combating slave labour were conducted. In October 2018 and April 2019, Forest spoke with experts and migrant workers about communication strategies.

We identified that there were 300,000 Bolivian immigrants in São Paulo. 90% of those were working in sewing workshops and around 60% were women. The level of education was heterogeneous and the vast majority of this group did not speak Portuguese, with the language being a barrier to accessing public services. However, in terms of media, the group used WhatsApp frequently and listened to community and online radios.

Based on this information, Forest developed a visual identity valuing elements of the work environment and the potential for transformation with education, entrepreneurship and other market opportunities. This identity permeated the pieces designed for the campaign: the booklet ¡Soy inmigrante, tengo derechos! (I’m an immigrant, I have rights!), seven webcards and audio spots on health, education, work, and women’s and children’s rights. The content was distributed through partner organizations, as well as online radios and social media profiles (with a mostly immigrant audience).

In order to generate metrics and indicators to evaluate the campaign, links on bit.ly were included in the booklet and in social media messages. In this way, it was possible to monitor which topics were most sought after by the target audience.

Finally, as all campaign files were delivered open, the ILO and its partners were able to adapt the material to other media.