Greenpeace: Case study

Credits & Description:

TAGS: NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATIONS / CHARITIES / EDUCATION / GOVERNMENT
AGENCY: Ogilvy & Mather Polska / Warsaw
CLIENT: Greenpeace Poland
ART DIRECTOR: Mateus Cerqueira, Daniel Marciniak
WRITER: Wojciech Kowalik
PRODUCTION COMPANY: AIA ASE Pictures / Warsaw, AMP Polska / Warsaw, Expresso Post Production / Warsaw, Geoboxers / Valby, Shootme Visual Artists / Warsaw, Sounds Good / Warsaw
DIRECTOR: Aia Asé, Edward Porembny
PRODUCER: Piotr Bombol, Zuzanna Brzezińska-Mich, Łukasz Głombicki, Michał Kołodziej, Agnieszka Kroczewska, Michal Majewski, Michał Majewski, Tomasz Miecznikowski, Grzegorz Pastuszak, Inka Rotkiel, Olga Skowrońska, Karol Suchodolski, Łukasz Turkowski
AGENCY PRODUCER: Magdalena Efler, Małgorzata Leszkiewicz, Magdalena Maciejewska, Magdalena Myczko, Izabela Pawłowska, Zuzanna Warowna_Toruńska, Jan Wojtkowski
CONTENT STRATEGIST: Krzysztof Boboli
DIGITAL ARTIST / MULTIMEDIA: Malthe Kay Dalå, Alfred Bach, Kamma Bach, Mathias Bjerre, Tobias Kay Dalå, Inge Sole Dalå
EDITOR: Mateusz Gajewski, Ajith Krishnamoorthy-Nair, Rafał Paruszewski, Michał Żytkowski
EXECUTIVE CREATIVE DIRECTOR: Tytus Klepacz, Maciej Twardowski
MEDIA COMPANY: Facebook / Warsaw, Gameset / Warsaw, Lifetube / Warsaw
MUSIC & SOUND: Jakub Jerszyński
PHOTOGRAPHER: Paweł Fabjański, Karol Grygoruk, Zuzanna Krajewska
PRODUCT MANAGER, Nynne Sole Dalå
PROGRAMMER: Simon Lyngby Kokkendorff
, Thorbjørn Nielsen
SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER: Edyta Kotowicz, 
Bartosz Panawa
Synopsis:
To save the Białowieża Forest, Europe’s last lowland primeval forest and an UNESCO World Heritage site, Ogilvy partnered with Greenpeace Poland to do something crazy in a really epic way. The team seized upon satellite and paper maps of the forest’s over 700 square kilometers (435 square miles), laid those images over a 3-D topographical model, and rebuilt it 1:1 … within the video game Minecraft.
The 19GB map became an instant hit, its popularity bolstered by a team of famous Polish streamers and YouTube stars who helped get word out. When the viewing numbers hit their peak, the big moment was revealed: Gimper loaded into the massive map and all the trees were gone. 
There was one task: to find the last tree standing. The idea was to empower the children watching, to show that people can make a big change to the world when we pull together - a symbol of hope. 
Synopsis
The Polish Government started logging in the UNESCO protected area and the Europe's last lowland primeval forest. The protests coming from NGOs, scientists and concerned citizens were largely ignored and to hide their actions the Government even closed the forest down.
We needed to activate more of different kinds of protesters, but at the time the subject of logging was already very political so the people wanted to stay away from it. The apathy was even stronger as in Poland protecting the environment is considered "leftist" and not everyone wants to be labelled as such.
In this context, the campaign's main objective was to depolarise the subject and provide a neutral space for people to get involved, to educate themselves about the situation, and to feel inspired to voice their concerns about the future of the Bialowieza Forest.
Strategy
We focused on the gamers because more often than not, they are young and not politically involved yet, so their voice would be clearly heard. The online petitions in Poland can signed by people as young as 13 years old.
It’s estimated that the gaming community in Poland amounts to approx. 8 million people of which approx. 800 thousand play Minecraft on a daily basis. Many more people watch the other people play - on Twitch and on Youtube.
Those young people, even though they have limited power now, in just few years will be voting in the elections, and educating them about environmentalism this way and this early will impact their future choices positively.
Our media strategy focused on creating amazing Minecraft content, gaming-world celebrities endorsement, mix of Twitch / Youtube / Facebook / Blogs executions and creative activations provoking media’s coverage time and time again.
Relevancy
The Greenpeace is a highly polarising brand by default. However, it is also very youthful and very inclusive. Our campaign made the brand look more friendly, less politically oriented and more fun. Thanks to speaking to the audience in their own language and using cleverly adapted touchpoints, we managed to get an overwhelming response from the gaming community not only in Poland but worldwide.
Outcome
We estimate the campaign reach as over 100 million people worldwide
The campaign helped reach the 170 000 signatures under petition to increase the size of the National Park
Thanks to massive effort of ordinary people, NGO campaigners, media and our campaign, the Minister of Environment, responsible for green-lighting the logging, was dismissed and the logging itself has been suspended.
Execution
The campaign launched on 27/06/17 and went on for 3 weeks, however the map still lives on.
We launched it with three tactical executions:
- online video made on our Minecraft Map and narrated by Poland's most iconic wildlife documentary film voice artist
- a group show of 12 best Polish photographers who exhibited the screenshots from our map as "landscapes from Bialowieza Forest"
- gaming influencers Youtube gameplay-videos who created over 6 hours content
It was followed by a premiere od 28-minutes-long documentary film about the Bia?owie?a Forest's current situation led by a famous Polish actor. The premiere took place in a cinema theatre and was live-streamed on Facebook.
In the end, we hosted a Twitch live-event where we had shown our map with all the trees, but one, logged down (#1 twitch event in Poland, #4 in Europe).
The game's producer - Microsoft - endorsed the campaign globally.
Campaign Description
We turned the Bialowieza Forest into an irresistible piece of Minecraft content - a 1:1 scale, accurate digital back-up copy of the entire, 700 square kilometres large Polish side of the forest, open to public for exploration. The map was a way attract as many young people as possible in order to introduce them to the problem of logging, free of politics but full of fun. It became a hit almost instantly, and just when it was praised all over, we replaced it with a new version where all of the 7 million trees except for - The Last Tree Standing - was cut down. The simulation of feeling of loss proved enough to propel the audience towards voicing their concern.