Creative Execution

With opinion leaders and WWF promoting the app, along with the natural social sharing function built right in, it hit the ground running with thousands sharing before and after photos just the first couple of weeks. Then celebrity Li Bing Bing used the app’s real-time signing function, at the Beijing Earth Hour event, generating media coverage and social sharing. Following the celebrity hundreds of other signed the app, all collectively creating a blue sky on Asia's biggest screen.

The Blue Sky app gained popularity and media recognition on CCTV and other stations as well as countless blogs and other media, including Huffington Post and the Wall Street Journal. The sharing and media coverage got people thinking of smart new ways they could make a difference, individually and in groups. This was the first time the use of technology and social media in China have combined to put the environmental agenda in the hands of the people. “Imagine Beijing with endless blue skies. There’s an app for that” -Wall Street Journal “Ingenious . . . they were able to see an opportunity in all that gloom.” -Huffington Post

2013 broke all records in China for the worst air pollution ever, only to see records again broken the first few months of 2014. With the Beijing government showing little or no sign of doing much to reverse the hazardous trend, WWF China wanted to do something to have citizens to begin to take steps to make a difference With severe pollution getting even worse, the timing was perfect for an app that take peoples' normal photography habits and hijack it to make an interactive process go social. Sharing the before and after pictures was both utilitarian, as it allowed photos to look better, and environmentally important, as it enabled users to provide a statement of what should be with a simple post. The signing function also provided a way for citizens to collectively show their solidarity for the blue sky movement, and cleaner air to breath.