An Escape Room to raise awareness about loneliness, the Manifesto proposal for the laCaixa Foundation

Jane Anderson
Jane Anderson
el salón de una casa típica de una persona mayor

Around 3 million older people in Spain feel unwanted loneliness in your day to day life. With the aim of making society visible and aware of this problem, the Manifiesto agency has devised for the ”la Caixa” Foundation the Escape Room Soledadan immersive experience that has been active for a month in L’Hospitalet de Llobregat (Barcelona), allowing participants to put themselves in the shoes of an elderly person who suffers from loneliness. “A physical space where you can experience fear, frustration and darkness firsthand, but also the hope of knowing that it is possible to “escape” from it.”they explain from the agency in a statement.

The first season of this experience has had passes every 30 minutes from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. from Monday to Friday for fifteen days. As explained to us by the agency reason.Why the public’s reception has exceeded expectations – a total of 300 people have had this experience – and the Foundation is already studying a traveling version in the main cities where the “Always Accompanying” program operates.

The Escape Room Soledad is framed within the concept “Loneliness is not seen, it is felt”

And the Soledad Escape Room is framed within the concept “Loneliness is not seen, it is felt”with which ”la Caixa” Foundation and Manifesto have been working together since last year to publicize the Foundation’s “Always Accompanying” program.

To create the Soledad Escape Room, more than 10 hours of interviews were carried out with the protagonists of the story: Carmen, Pedro and Silvia, who shared their testimonies, which have served to recreate each space of the Escape Room. Intensive sessions were also held with all the professionals of the “Always Accompanying” program to document the daily habits, emotions and thoughts that invade older people when they suffer. a situation of unwanted loneliness. As a result, a feeling was detected that was repeated in all people: the feeling of being trapped in a reality from which there seemed to be no way out. Hence, the Manifesto proposal involved the creation of a different Escape Room that, far from offering a recreational experience, seeks to raise awareness about unwanted loneliness through the metaphor about the feeling of emotional confinement.

To achieve a greater connection with the attendees, the voice-over of the actress Mercedes Samprieto guided and accompanied through the different rooms of the house (hall, living room, bedroom…) and in each of them a specific idea was worked on, such as the alteration of time perception.

In the words of Albert Buisan, Creative Supervisor of Manifesto, the agency identified that this should be a campaign committed to the essence of the ”la Caixa” Foundation, which is nothing more than doing, instead of saying. Under that premise, the creative team questioned what was the way to make it possible for people to experience some of that loneliness. “The Escape Room emerged as a natural response. Seeing how Carmen, Pedro and Silvia opened up to share their experience and months later discovered it converted into an immersive experience capable of moving visitors has made this a therapeutic project for everyone”.

“Communication has the power to touch hearts and awaken consciences. At the ”la Caixa” Foundation we know that behind every figure about the loneliness suffered by older people there is a real story that deserves to be told, and that only when we make society feel what these people feel in their daily lives will we be able to generate real change”said Montse Blanco, Director of the Marketing Area of ​​the ”la Caixa” Foundation, about the experience.

Part of the campaign is also the possibility of living the experience through a virtual tour that can be accessed from a specific landing page launched by the ”la Caixa” Foundation.

TECHNICAL SHEET

  • Agency: Manifest
  • Advertiser: “la Caixa” Foundation
  • Client contact: Montse Blanco, Nuria Torres, Alba Colomer
  • General Manager: Kelya Ramirez
  • Business Leader: Amanda Bellart
  • Business Executive: Irene Jurado and Mariona Pascual
  • Creative general director: Sebastián Sánchez
  • Creative Supervisor: Albert Buisan
  • Creative: Nando Sanz
  • Art director: Laura Mora
  • Creative copy: Nuria Rabassa
  • Video support: Miguel Tresguerres
  • Producer: Blua
  • Director: Cristina Tomás
  • Executive producer: Juan Blanco, Eugenia Esquerdo
  • Producer: Diana Asenjo
  • Edition: David Táboas