The Campaign

Plastic containers full of chemicals. We buy millions of them every year. Their manufacture and disposal puts pressure on our already beleaguered environment. So we decided to create a range of natural, alternative products, free from wasteful packaging and chemicals called just*. Made on behalf of WWF, the just* range features common, natural ingredients – already found in most households - that can easily replace more wasteful and chemically heavy products. For example lemons can become glass cleaner, grapefruit a bath cleaner and oats a skincare product. Available at markets and specially designed interactive billboards all our communication led to the just* website that featured a range of ‘how to’ demonstration videos. With the objective to drive positive sentiment and maximum views of those videos on YouTube, our PR strategy focused on provoking people to think about the environment, by demonstrating how simple daily acts can be turned into positive & sustainable choices that lead to real change. The PR challenge was to communicate the complexities of over consumption in a simple and tangible way to media and consumers that educated and created awareness for natural alternatives to wasteful and toxic products. To achieve this, we used Australian media to spread the story to a mass audience; ensuring all stories drove traffic back to the just* microsite. We tapped into our strong relationships with local journalists and staged a media call, offering them a chance to interact with the range, experience how-to-demonstrations and conduct interviews with the Australian WWF CEO.

The Brief

WWF’s overarching goal is to stop the degradation of the planet’s natural environment and to build a future in which humans live in harmony with nature As a direct answer to the result of the WWF’s Living Planet 2014 Report our goal was to change Australian consumer behaviour to a more sustainable one by creating awareness for natural alternatives to wasteful and toxic products to reduce our impact on the environment. To achieve these goals we researched for the most effective and natural alternatives to replace some of the most popular chemical everyday products.

Results

A fresh, new approach that has successfully engaged participants to actively change their own consuming behaviour for the better. Our simple but powerful message grabbed people’s imagination and just* was featured by various media outlets across the country and worldwide. Results in first 2 weeks: $550,000+ earned media coverage Campaign reach of over 23 million people 18 million media impressions. Over 11,000 visits to our market stores in 4 days 73,000 organic social interactions 100% positive sentiment 800kg of alternative product distributed The campaign has been so well received that WWF-Australia are looking to rollout the campaign internationally across their global network.

Execution

By creating just*, a brand that educates people about natural alternatives to over packaged products, we reinforced WWF’s message to stop the degradation of the planet’s natural environment and to build a future in which humans live in harmony with nature, while showing a way to consume more sustainably. just* was available at local markets where natural products are sold, so people could immediately start switching to all natural. People could also pick up just* in return for sharing their experience on social media to encourage more people to use just natural alternatives. In addition, specially designed interactive billboards with live just* dispensers roamed Sydney, distributing natural everyday alternatives. A website featured ‘how to’ demonstration videos and encouraged people to share their own ideas for additional just* sustainable alternatives through social media. All media we to spread the story to a mass audience; drove traffic back to the just* microsite

The Situation

In 2014 WWF’s Living-Planet-Report revealed that Australia has one of the world’s largest ecological footprints per capita. If the rest of the world lived like we do, the regenerative capacity of 3.6 earths is needed to sustain our demands on nature. In order to create awareness for these alarming results and WWF’s core message in a different way we created our own range of sustainable products for WWF called just* and used them as our PR vehicle. just* products are natural alternatives found in every household. By educating people about their existence and how to use them we could make people rethink how the consume to reduce their negative impact they have on the environment.

The Strategy

As the world's largest conservation organization WWF is known for addressing the big environmental issues facing humanity as a whole. But it is often hard for people to see how they, as individuals, can play a part in helping to solve these bigger-than-life problems. So in order to make WWF’s core message more relatable to our Australian target audience we brought it into their everyday lives by creating natural alternatives to products Australians use everyday. Our PR strategy was to make Australians think about how they consume and show them how small changes can help solve the bigger issues we all face together.