1. Categorie:
Social campaigns
Title of campaign:
Fish Does Good
short common description of the campaign::
Studies showed that Estonians consume less fish products compared to other
maritime countries. While Finnish people eat 33kg of fish per person in a year,
then in Estonia the number was only 17kg. Estonians also suffer more cardio
vascular diseases. As there are vital minerals and omega3 oils in seafood, it should
be eaten more often. To increase consumption of fish products Estonian
Association of Fishery started a social campaign Fish does good! The integrated
campaign was co-financed by government and EU. The opportunity was seen, that
if people are better aware that fish products are healthy and given new cooking
ideas, they would eat more fish. Biggest challenge was to reach the whole society,
which was achieved with great success. The highlight of campaign was a
competition to select Estonian national fish. This creative approach made fish
spontaneous topic not only in local media, but the project reached international
news, including front page of Wall Street Journal and NYT.

2. research work done during the campaign:
While planning the campaign, a recent research about Estonians' fish consumption
habits was deeply studied. It appeared that people didn't like to eat fish, as cooking
it was considered too complicated, messy, smelly and time-consuming. People
knew how to cook only few kinds of fish. Fish was considered expensive, as
compared to meat. It was also studied who were decision makers and influencers
in families while compiling the menu. Research proved that special attention
should be paid to kids, as people take their childhood eating habits with them to
their adult lives. Based on the research, specific objectives and target groups were
identified.
Main communication objectives were:
raising awareness about fish as healthy food
teaching people to cook fish in different ways
introducing different kinds of fish
Target audience was whole society, but specific actions were planned for:
Women, as they usually make the shopping list
Children, as they can strongly influence mothers' decisions
Three groups of opinion leaders were involved:
Health specialists - fish as healthy food
Chefs - fish as delicious and easy-to-make food
Celebrities - how they cook fish

3. Main PR messages were:
Fish is healthy, keeps your heart in order
It is easy to cook fish
There is a variety of fish available, experiment more to find something
your family likes
Fish is relatively cheap - though per kg fish is more expensive than meat
its nutrition value is much higher.
strategy:
The following row of integrated communication activities were selected.
Campaign started with Opening Conference, where messages about fish as healthy
food were elaborated by health specialists. Sociologist introduced results of
survey, why Estonians don't like eating fish. Minister of Agriculture announced
national fish competition. During conference, people spontaneously started to vote
in Internet for national fish!
Estonian National Fish competition aimed to make people think about variety of
local fish, and get all social groups involved. Competition was in several phases.
During first months people could vote for any fish. After some months 5 finalists
were selected, which made the headlines again. During next months people voted
among finalists. 50000 votes were collected in this phase. The winner was

4. announced on Independence Day.
Fish Gala dinner ("Kala Gala") was held in the evening of opening conference.
Relevant decision makers and celebrities attended; objective was to get opinion
leaders involved since the beginning. Rooms' decorations, entertainment and food
were all related to seafood.
Website (www.kalateebhead.ee) was created as campaign's central communication
site, containing facts and articles about fish as healthy food, recipes of fish dishes,
information about events, competitions, photo galleries, voting system.
In summer 2007 fish tent events took place. Tents with campaign symbolic were
spectacular guests of all festivals. Special program was developed, including
checker on huge board played with fish cans, seafood cooking presentations by top
chefs, fish drawing and fishermen stories competitions. In total 8 festivals were
attended, longest of them lasting 5 days.
Public recipe competition's goal was to get amateur cooks come along, and share
their experience about cooking fish. 2 categories were announced - National Fish
and Other. Top chefs chose finalists, who bravely prepared their recipes in front of
audience in fish tent during biggest festival.
Variety of media coverage was initiated - health and nutrition related articles,
celebrities cooking fish, description of campaign events etc. National fish
competition was covered constantly.
Success of campaign was measured by media coverage, and raise of public
awareness about fish as healthy food. The effect was measured by number of
people coming along- visiting website, voting, participating recipe competition etc.
The impact of campaign was seen in increase of fish products consumption.
Fish competition became the highlight of campaign. It might seem at first, that this

5. had not much to do with eating habits, but PR strategy turned out to be very smart.
As the target group was whole society, this simple topic that was understandable to
all social groups, made people to become aware of the campaign and its messages.
This is perfect example to prove how a creative PR idea can guarantee huge public
attention while costs stay low.
Results of the campaign and evaluation::
Campaign got wide media coverage. Health related articles were initiated with
health specialist, magazines and TV cooking shows started to introduce fish dishes
spontaneously.
Competition topic reached all social groups. Discussion about favorite fish became
hot issue on routine social gatherings, leading conversation to fish eating habits.
Thanks to wide public response Baltic Herring was officially named National Fish.
It is a symbol in new encyclopedia.
Highlights:
Topic was many times in TV news and shows (humorous and serious), cartoons,
crosswords, poems with many comments and articles. Baltic Herring was Person
of the week in major weekly; usually important people are selected for that
column.

6. Baltic Herring as winner was announced before Independence Day and served at
Presidents' gala
Besides campaign website, many online-papers set up voting systems and
announced their readers' favorites.
Journalists found an exotic fish that colors copy the Estonian flag.
Competition became a topic at Parliament meetings.
Schools came along - sent their voting results. Kids TV-show did national fish
drawing competition.
Fish competition reached international news. It was covered on WSJ front page,
NYT, France Presse, BBC
During 1-year fish consumption increased 4kg/person that was more than planned.
Campaign was named best Estonian PR project in 2007 and was selected finalist in
IPRA Golden World Awards competition.