FRIENDS OF THE SWIFTS NPO: THE SOUND BIRD SURVEY

Credits & Description:

Category: Environmental PR

Advertiser: FRIENDS OF THE SWIFTS NPO

Product/Service: THE SWIFT BIRD

Agency: DRAFTFCB + SHIMONI FINKELSTEIN BARKI

Executive Creative Director: Kobi Barki (Draftfcb / Shimoni Finkelstein Barki)

Creative Director: Kobi Barki (Draftfcb / Shimoni Finkelstein Barki)

Associate Creative Director: Tomer Ciubotaru (Draftfcb / Shimoni Finkelstein Barki)

Group Account Director: Yosefa Galante (Draftfcb / Shimoni Finkelstein Barki)

Interactive Director: Racheli Ben Avi (Draftfcb / Shimoni Finkelstein Barki)

Copywriter: Kobi Barki/Tomer Ciubotaru (Draftfcb / Shimoni Finkelstein Barki)

Art Director: Ravit Sahar (Draftfcb / Shimoni Finkelstein Barki)

Flash Designer: Shimi Kuperly (Draftfcb / Shimoni Finkelstein Barki)

Account Manager: Shany Marinberg (Draftfcb / Shimoni Finkelstein Barki)

Producer: Eti Naaman (Draftfcb / Shimoni Finkelstein Barki)

Media placement: TV Item - Channel 10 - 12 April 2011

Media placement: Radio Item - 90FM, 96FM, 99FM, 100FM,102FM, 107.5FM - 12 April 2011

Media placement: Digital PR - Ynet, News1, Nana10,TheEpochTime,teva.org.il/ - 12 April 2011



Summary of the Campaign

'Friends of the Swifts’ are an environmental charity on a mission to save swifts by providing nests in strategic locations. Our client's goal was to install artificial nests in areas with large numbers ofsSwifts, providing a suitable space for them to land and nest.



The challenge:

How do you locate the swift populations quickly, across a wide geography.

We came up with an innovative plan: to recruit the general public (not just bird lovers) to help locate places around the country with high concentrations of swifts.



Our strategy:

Use sound. We created a new methodology for spotting birds by sound rather than sight. Our plan was to transform radio listeners into active bird-sound spotters. We recorded the sound of the swifts and broadcast it for 2 weeks on 6 of the country's leading FM radio stations. The radio messages asked listeners to simply text their location when they heard the sound.



Massive free media on 6 leading radio stations: 90FM, 96FM, 99FM, 100FM,102FM, 107.5FM and accompanying national press, TV and digital PR coverage enabled us to create the country's biggest ever public bird survey, resulting in identifying thousands of birds and mapping over 200 swift concentrations nationwide. With $0 media spend, we succeeded in getting the general public involved in an important environmental issue, changing behaviours and creating an unprecedented bird-spotting survey.



The Situation

Swifts are amazing birds living most of their lives in flight, landing only to nest. For Swifts migrating from Africa to Europe, Israel is an important stopover. However, due to modernisation of buildings and fewer places to nest, the swift population in Israel has decreased by 47%. 'Friends of the Swifts’ are an environmental charity on a mission to save Swifts birds by providing nests in strategic locations. The problem is that there is no existing data available for Swift locations. Like many local environmental charities, the charity has lofty ambitions but very limited funds, and no money for communication.



The Goal

Our client's goal was to install artificial nests in areas with large numbers of Swifts, providing suitable spaces for them to land and nest. The logistical challenge: How do you locate the swift populations quickly, across a wide geography?



We decided to recruit the general public (not just bird lovers) to help locate places around the country with high concentrations of swifts. To make this happen we would need to find a simple and fast way to make the public participate. In addition, we needed to break through the narrow confines of the green circle and win over mainstream media support.



The Strategy

Our strategy: use sound.

We created a way to spot birds by sound rather than sight. The plan was to teach audiences to identify the distinctive 'screaming' sound that Swifts make and to notify us whenever they heard Swifts in their local area. Thus, regular radio listeners would become active bird-sound spotters.



Notifications would build a dynamic, geographical map of Swift concentrations around the country, enabling 'Friends of Swifts' to install new nests where most needed.



Since our plan was totally dependent on audio media, we made the decision to focus our PR strategy on approaching media outlets in a less conventional way. We would invite them to become integral partners in our mission to save the swifts. This gamble would pay off beyond our expectations with 6 leading radio stations joining the cause and offering to broadcast our bird-sound messages - giving us broad impact and national exposure.



Execution

On April 14th, people all over the country heard an unusual request on the radio:



"If this sound sounds familiar, it means you can help us save the Swift birds that are facing extinction. So the next time you hear (SFX swift) SMS the word swift and your location to 3090 and the Friends of the Swifts Association will set up a nest there. Participants will get a special swifts ringtone for free."



We recorded the sound of the swift birds and broadcast it for 2 weeks with six of the country's leading FM radio stations. The radio asked listeners to simply text their location when they heard the sound. These texts were fed in real-time to a Google Map based mini-site that we developed specially for the campaign. The map started to show our client exactly where the swifts were gathering.



Documented Results

Massive free media on 6 leading radio stations: 90FM, 96FM, 99FM, 100FM,102FM, 107.5FM and accompanying national press, TV and digital PR coverage (see documents 1-9) enabled us to create the country's biggest ever public bird survey, resulting in identifying thousands of birds and mapping over 200 Swift concentrations nationwide(see document 10). All that was left to do was to install additional nests where needed.



With $0 media spend, we succeeded in getting the general public involved in an important environmental issue, changing behaviours and creating an unprecedented bird-spotting survey.



Last but not least, we provided 'Friends of Swifts' with a new bird-spotting methodology that will allow them to safeguard Swifts in Israel for years to come.