The Campaign

Even though the Chinese White Dolphin (CWD) is the mascot of Hong Kong (HK), the vast majority of the HK public did not know about the threats and dangers that these beautiful creatures face. Because only a small portion of HK’s waters are Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), the local population of CWDs has steadily been dropping. In the past 10 years, the number in HK waters has dropped by 61%- from 158 down to 61 dolphins- and at this rate, the number would reach zero by the year 2019. The Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) HK needed to lobby the HK government to expand these MPAs. This is hard work, requiring not only petition signatures from the public, but also funding for extensive research and marketing costs. We had to raise awareness and educate the public, all with a non-existent budget. We decided to enter a CWD named Ruby into the Miss HK beauty pageant. This move catapulted the cause of the CWD to public awareness and mobilized unprecedented support for the cause in HK. “Vote Ruby” was a fully integrated campaign underpinned by a strong media relations component and on-the-ground activities that were fully supported by the various digital and social media campaign platforms. The result exceeded all measurement benchmarks and expectations. We needed to capture 15,000 petition signatures. We captured over 52,000. We also achieved the added bonus of increasing donations to WWF.

The Brief

Our campaign objectives were to build more HK-wide support for WWF to lobby the Government by: 1. Spreading awareness of the plight of the Chinese White Dolphins, and hence; 2. Capture petition signatures. Donations were not a primary objective, but if we saw a lift in this area, it would be a welcome bonus. Our key benchmark KPI was to surpass 15,000 petitions, which was the highest number of petitions for any campaign run by WWF HK for an equivalent duration (about 2 months). We targeted all Hong Kong residents – especially those aged 18-34 – the primary users of social networks.

Results

We reached 3.8 million+ people – over half of HK’s population. Exceeding the campaign KPIs, we collected 52,508 signatures (highest WWF HK campaign to-date). Total Individual Donations also increased 19%. We secured 50+ pieces of earned media coverage, educating 3,050,094 HKers through print media alone. The microsite had 51,703 visits from 40,032 unique visitors, who on average read on for 3 minutes and 21 seconds. With only 24 campaign posts, we reached over 734,000 Facebook users. In just two months, WWF HK’s Facebook fan base increased 18.3%, from 21,394 to 25,302. The second-screen experience’s average session lasted 9.3 minutes, which, considering 60% of YouTube viewers abandon videos within 2 minutes, is remarkable. The signatures represented 892,636 citizens (1 out of 8 HKers), based on the multiplier-of-17 used by both the HK Government and WWF. This would have been enough to crown Ruby Miss HK, as the winner had only 174,000 votes.

Execution

Just like any hopeful pageant’s PR team, we ensured Ruby was continually under the spotlight. We added credibility to our media outreach with the latest research report highlighting declining CWD numbers, together with the support of celebrity endorsers. Thanks to a donated newspaper ad space, donated social media reach of the WWF community (via Thunderclap); as well as donated budget for Facebook paid media, we broke the unsurprising news that Ruby was rejected. We drove supporters to her fansite, which invited users to sign the petition and donate. This subsequently became the landing page for all campaign communications. Art installations, street murals and excursion trips also helped us gain the necessary on-ground exposure. This also provided an opportunity to collect signatures in person. Lastly, we created a comedic “second screen” experience on YouTube (accessible online through various devices) which educated viewers about the cause simultaneous to the broadcasted TV show.

The Situation

WWF is a NGO working on the conservation, research and restoration of the environment. They needed to raise awareness of the dolphins’ plight urgently. WWF faced four key challenges: 1. The CWD’s plight had no seemingly visible impact to HKers and thus had low media interest 2. Over 7,500 charities fight for the attention of HK’s population of 7 million 3. The percentage of those making charitable donations dropped from 74% in 2011 to 63% in 2013. HK’s ranking in the World Giving Index dropped from 11th place in 2011 to 17th place in 2013 4. WWF had no budget

The Strategy

To create awareness with limited resources we needed to do something completely unexpected. One of city’s major broadcasted beauty pageant shows, Miss HK, catapults girls to fame and fortune. Seeing that CWDs were beautiful, intelligent, and already an official symbol of HK, why shouldn’t a dolphin win the title? We strategically phased campaign activities around Miss HK’s key milestones: nominations; semi-finalists announcements; and final pageant show as these were natural points of interest for both HKers and media. We kick-started the “Vote Ruby” campaign when nominations opened. We entered Ruby, a 19-year-old CWD, into the pageant, complete with her own bio and portraits. She then became the personal voice to the entire campaign and became a spokesperson for all of HK’s dolphins. It was Ruby’s home being destroyed by man-made habitat threats; it was Ruby and her kind who were being injured when boats travelled recklessly in the HK waters.