Belgian Federal Government: PICK A PRIZE WITH ECOLABEL

Credits & Description:

Category: Environmental PR

Advertiser: FEDERAL GOVERNMENT BELGIUM

Product/Service: ECOLABEL

Agency: THESE DAYS

Creative Director: Samuel De Volder (These Days)

Art Director/Designer: Reginald Van De Velde (These Days)

Copywriter: Luk Catrysse/Vincent Daenen (These Days)

Art Director: Guido Goffeau (These Days)

Account Direction: Gio Canini/Annemie Vandeweerdt (These Days)

Project Management: Christophe Mes/Stefanie De Preter (These Days)

Technical Project Management: Pieter Helsen (These Days)

Head Of Strategy: Karin De Bruyn (These Days)

Strategic Planning: Tim Willems/Tomas Van Gastel (These Days)

Development: Xavier Vermeiren/Sven Dens (These Days)

Development: Kathy Van De Gaer/Katrien Delarue/Geert Barzin (These Days)

Analytics: Christophe Neys (These Days)

Media Planning: Ivana Vilusic (These Days)

: Bruno Dejonghe

Event Manager: Dimitri Barbe (Brand Senses)

Media placement: Website - - 28/08/2011

Media placement: Facebook - - 28/08/2011

Media placement: Print Ad - Ecology Section Of National Newspapers - 28/08/2011

Media placement: Banner - - 28/08/2011

Media placement: Retail Folder - 4 major retailers - 01/09/2011

Media placement: Press conference - - 28/08/2011



Summary of the Campaign

The EU Ecolabel indicates low environmental impact and is granted to ecofriendly products and services. It reassures the environmentally conscious shoppers. Since it's hardly known within that target group, we needed to create awareness for the Ecolabel logo.



To achieve the goal of spreading the Ecolabel Logo we created a fun and entertaining live event contest based on the principles of ecology and sustainability.



The concept consisted of planting 10,000 flowers in an ecologically certified greenhouse surrounded with 23 camera’s and 2 webcams. One flower was granted to each participant who answered the contest questions correctly. The prize you won depended on the colour of the flower. So the participants had to follow their flower on-line during a period of 2 weeks to know what prize they won. And each visit the participants were exposed to the Ecolabel logo, as it was planted amidst the flowers. When the flower blossomed the participants needed to claim their Eco-labeled prize.



The results largely exceeded the initial goal:



The Ecolabel was viewed more than 50m times during the campaign through the website, Facebook and Twitter, paid media on-and offline and more importantly via earned media as well as in print, brochures, TV, websites and blogs. The PR elements and earned media were crucial as the media budget was very limited. On top of that the target group is very vocal and we counted on them to help spread the message. Game participants saw the logo on average 17 times.



The Situation

The Belgian Federal Government – the department for the environment – expressed the need of an awareness campaign for the Ecolabel Logo. The Ecolabel Logo was launched in 1992 by the European commission and is granted to Eco-friendly products and services, e.g Plasma screens, holidays, cleaning products etc. It acts as a beacon for those who want to shop in an eco-friendly way. The problem was that the logo was not known by Eco-buyers.



The Goal

The Belgian Government decided to launch a campaign within the target group with the clear goal of creating awareness and recognizability for the Ecolabel. Since the campaign had a very small media budget - €100,000 - earned media was part of the target to be reached.



The Strategy

Obviously multiple exposures to the logo are necessary to create awareness. Keeping this in mind we set the aim of the game to follow the blossom of your flower during 2 weeks: the colour of the flower was the key to the prize. Since one had to claim his prize when the colour of the flower was revealed, the participants had to visit the site several times during the contest. At each visit the Ecolabel Logo was clearly exposed.



For the communication and PR strategy we implemented:

- The website (enter the contest and keep track of the blossoming of your flower)

- Facebook page (same goal and reach within friends of the participants)

- Twitter page (engaging conversations and creating a wide spreading reach)

- Paid online media reaching the targeted public

- Paid offline media: print and public transport

- Press conference



Execution

Filling the glasshouse with 10,000 flowers in 5 colours was the first step. Each plant was individually labelled and every 2 hours cameras snapped the blossom of each plan resulting in 2.5m pictures.



In the middle of the field the Ecolabel logo was planted. This way participants were exposed to it every time they checked if their flower revealed its colour.



Participants could check their flower via the site and Facebook so the logo was shared with their friends at multiple moments during the contest.



Once the flower was visible, the participants had to claim their prize that was determined by the colour of the flower. Both paid and earned media led to the contest website where the contest questions had to be answered correctly before a plant was granted.



Although this was an 'organic' campaign, the original campaign could be executed as planned.



Documented Results

Online the action resorted in 17m impressions. 30,395,820 readerships were counted in offline advertising. 15,000 unique participants entered and generated 3082 branded interaction hours (54% of visits lasted up to 30 minutes) (not bad for a country with less inhabitants than Paris). On average each player was exposed 17 times to the logo.



The original effort led to a lot of earned media: 23.5% registered via a referral site. All this generated 75,590 Facebook posts and 4,185 Facebook and Twitter shares. The major distribution companies (Intermarché, Colruyt, Delhaize) decided to create their own Ecolabel product page in their weekly folder referring to the contest. The action resulted in 3 items on national television, 7 articles in the national and specialised press. 32 local blogs and websites reported on this innovative contest. During 4 trade fairs we received unexpected attention with an extra 170,000 visitors being exposed to the logo.