Berørt/Touched – an artistic & collaborative response to the Pandemic

Baggrund

Since the foundation of Coop in 1866, we have always believed that our ‘co-operative’ mantra has played a vital role in Danish society. We created a ‘co-operative’ owned by the Danes to secure better quality and healthy food products at lower prices for all Danes. With a strong community of almost 2 mio. Danes as Coop members we have been able to invest in ecology development for 30 years, product innovation to lower dangerous food chemicals & sustainability by lowering food waste – and a whole lot more. Every time to strengthen our unity around the greater good in our society.

In a year of a health crisis Coop wanted to give something back to not only it’s 2 mio. members but every Dane in order to strengthen our unity in difficult times.

On 11. marts 2020 Denmark went into total lockdown to protect it’s citizens from COVID-19. And to this day we continue to experience being ’’Sammen hver for sig” or “Together, apart”.

We, Coop, being Denmarks biggest supermarket, played an important role in securing our ‘food chain’, but in a time of crisis and great uncertainty, it was also important to bolster our mental resilliance by reminding the Danes that physical separation is no barrier to our unity.

As human beings, we crave physical touch. From the moment we are born it is important to us. The coronavirus made our hands something to be sanitized and almost feared. If Danes couldn’t touch physically, we needed to do the next best thing, and give them a way to touch emotionally.

Løsning

“Touched” - an interactive experience that allowed the Danish people to use their hands for good, without physically touching (www.beroert.dk).

For each hand contributed to “Touched”, Coop donated 5 kr to Red Cross’ Coronavirus relief efforts. So by taking a picture of your hand and uploading it with a message of how the COVID-19 had affected you, you would automatically help those in need. The hands also became part of an Interactive 3D monument that serves as a time capsule for future generations.

This technological first embraced the latest advances in Artificial intelligence to create a completely unique interactive digital experience. Powering the project is a unique, mobile and web-based platform where the uploaded hands are graphically assembled using the latest advancements in AI to bring Danes' contributions to life. Based on generative artificial intelligence, the solution can manage millions of 'hands' to create an animated 3D masterpiece. And with generative AI, the process takes only 10 milliseconds.

Working closely with the world-renowned National Gallery of Denmark (SMK), 3 specifically chosen artists used the digital manifestation as inspiration for their own artistic visions, serving as physical monuments of our unity. The second phase of the project has already been established, as the chosen artists artistic response can be visited in the Garden of the National Gallery of Denmark until the 2nd of May. After, the artpieces will travel around Denmark.

During Corona, the Danish people have experienced anything from helplessness to anxiety and hope. The changing behaviors, such as the inability to physically touch, inspired us to help Danes find comfort in this challenging time, by allowing them to use their hands for good without physically touching.

To generate awareness and participation for the campaign without any media budget we followed 4 activation tactics:
1. Utilization of owned channels: E-mail, App & SoMe activation of membership data- and fan bases across Red Cross, Coop and the National Gallery of Denmark
2. Key Opinion Leader (KOL) activation: Based on our KOL Brand Fit process we identified & collaborated with +30 of Denmarks most renowned KOL’s across actors, musicians, artists & politicians to create a ‘digital movement’ and buzz (eg. Pilou Asbæk, Kasper Eistrup, Lars Løkke, Brian Mikkelsen, Lina Rafn, Claus Meyer etc.).
3. PR: A targeted PR effort ranging from broad mass media to niche radio-programs
Touched has been running in the period of May 12th 2020 to August 2020.