The Brief

Although Delhi is one of the greenest capitals in the world, it was fast losing its green cover due to infrastructure development and mushrooming of housing colonies in every corner. Our client Help Delhi Breathe wanted us to initiate a campaign for garnering public support to stop the unrestricted cutting of trees in Delhi.

Describe how the promotion developed from concept to implementation

To make people aware of the life-saving benefits of trees by showing them the true value of those trees which they otherwise take for granted. We calculated the implicit value of all the benefits of common roadside trees in Delhi. Then we put those values on oversized price tags and tied them to around 400 trees across Delhi. The tags also informed people about the abysmally small sum required to cut that tree. To save the trees, people were asked to visit our website or SMS to sign and support the petition asking the government to make necessary amendments.

Describe the success of the promotion with both client and consumer including some quantifiable results

4756 people signed the online petition and 27,000 sent SMS to save trees. The petition was then sent to the Hon'ble Chief Minister of Delhi. The activation caught the attention of TV channels and print newspapers. Bloggers supported the cause online. The issue was taken up by prominent environmentalists in important national forums. All these activities galvanized the government to act. Finally, after 4 months, the Government hiked the security deposit for cutting a tree from Rs. 1000 to Rs. 28,000 and made compensatory plantation compulsory. Thus, the price tags had revealed the true value of trees.

Explain why the method of promotion was most relevant to the product or service

Millions of trees are cut across Delhi to make parking bays, housing colonies, commercial complex, etc, without a thought. That's because no one attaches any value to them. The benefits that we derive from these common roadside trees are taken for granted. So what better way to remind people about the benefits of common trees than show them their true value on oversized price tags. Because by seeing the price tags people will automatically start attaching value to these trees and want to preserve them.