Human Rights Festival is Sweden’s first festival focused on human rights and has been held every year since 2022. The festival aims to raise awareness of human rights and promote democratic values. It is organised by Altitude Meetings in collaboration with the Raoul Wallenberg Institute. As the festival’s sponsor and partner, Novus contributed a survey that shed light on Swedes’ views on the future of democracy. The survey formed the basis of an opinion piece on DN Debatt, in both the print and online editions. 

When Human Rights Festival wanted to highlight important democracy issues and understand how the public sees the future, Novus was the natural partner, says Anders Mildner, programme director of Human Rights Festival and head of opinion at Altitude Meetings. The collaboration resulted in a unique survey that gave the festival a fact-based foundation for discussions, which later led to an opinion piece in DN Debatt.  

“We benefited greatly from our collaboration with Novus. Because we work on building up large public gatherings and letting them grow, we are also interested in professionalising the meetings we organise and encouraging fact-based content. We wanted to see a development here, where the participants who own a programme item in a larger context understand that they can work more long-term by producing hard facts with the help of knowledge partners such as Novus.” 

Anders Mildner goes on to describe the benefits of the collaboration from a marketing perspective. 

“The survey’s wide impact also made it possible to write an opinion piece for DN Debatt. Beyond our main plan of carrying out a survey and developing questions for the festival, we had a strong wish to say something and to be widely visible with our work on democracy. The article helped bring the festival’s core issues into a broader public discussion, and the reliability of the survey played an important role in strengthening its impact,” says Anders Mildner. 

Novus meets all the policy requirements that the Swedish media have for reliable surveys. A news story or article based on a Novus survey therefore has great potential to make an impact and attract media attention. The opinion piece was published both in the print edition and online at DN.se. According to a media analysis, the article, at around 1,000 words, has an advertising value of SEK 240,000 for the online version and SEK 767,000 for the print edition.  

Promoting democracy 

The aim of the collaboration was to carry out a survey on democracy and optimism about the future. Initially, there was a broad idea of highlighting how people view the development of democracy. Through dialogue and advice from Novus Client Advisor Annelie Önnerud, specific questions were formulated that could provide insights both ahead of the EU elections and later, the US presidential election. 

“Novus is a knowledge partner that offers expertise in the form of advice that can help create media value and real impact, with the aim of tailoring surveys to each individual client. We are much more than a supplier of numbers. This type of visibility, which goes beyond traditional advertising, means greater awareness of Human Rights Festival and a long-term effect that puts facts and civic engagement at the centre.”

By carrying out the survey on two different occasions, before the EU elections and after the US election, we were able to capture shifts in public opinion and build engagement in democracy. The survey raised important questions and provided a solid basis for discussion, which meant that the festival could present up-to-date facts.  

“The survey was also widely shared during the festival itself, where several seminar participants highlighted the results, and the opinion piece, in their own programme items. We got discussion material that cannot be brushed aside,” says Anders Mildner.