WHY? WHY NOT?

TitleWHY? WHY NOT?
BrandCLIMATE REALITY PROJECT
Product / ServiceCLIMATE CHANGE
CategoryA01. Creative Effectiveness
EntrantGPY&R Sydney, AUSTRALIA
Idea Creation GPY&R Sydney, AUSTRALIA
Media MAXUS GLOBAL London, UNITED KINGDOM
PR PPR SYDNEY Sydney, AUSTRALIA
Production BLUE STATE DIGITAL Washington, USA
Production 2 VICE MEDIA Brooklyn, USA
Contributing 2 GLOVER PARK GROUP Washington DC, USA
Contributing THE FUTURES COMPANY London, UNITED KINGDOM
Contributing 3 GREY LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM
Contributing 4 HOGARTH WORLDWIDE New York, USA
Contributing 5 J. WALTER THOMPSON New York, USA
Contributing 6 OGILVY & MATHER SHANGHAI, CHINA
Contributing 7 WPP London, UNITED KINGDOM
Contributing 8 Y&R NEW YORK, USA

Credits

Name Company Position
Ben Coulson GPY&R ANZ Chief Creative Officer
Sam Yeomans George Patterson Y&R Agency Producer
David Joubert George Patterson Y&R Executive Creative Director
Bart Pawlak George Patterson Y&R Executive Creative Director
Jon Steel GPY&R ANZ Chief Strategy Officer
Lucielle Vardy George Patterson Y&R Strategic Director
Kate Kopperman GPY&R ANZ Planner
Vivian Xie George Patterson Y&R Creative Services Manager
David Sharrod Y&R Client Service Director
Melissa Parsey JWT Group Planning Director
Kiernan Schmitt Blue State Digital Strategic Director
Andrew Dowling George Patterson Y&R Group Managing Director
Alex Stanton Blue State Digital Vice President
Alex Mather Blue State Digital Account Director
Alex Legberg Blue State Digital Senior Designer
Stephanie Cohen Blue State Digital Project Manager
Nick Vale Maxus Global Global Planning Director
Tom Dunn Maxus UK Digital Strategy Director
Katie Newport Blue State Digital Senior Social Media Strategist
Elissa Maine George Patterson Y&R Head of Content

Brief Explanation

On the 23rd of September 2014, the world’s leaders gathered in New York, to attend the United Nations Climate Summit. On behalf of Climate Reality Project we created a campaign designed to make it unlike any other global Summit before. For the first time ever, we gave a voice to a group that has the most to win or lose from the discussions and decisions that are ultimately made – our kids. In keeping with CRPs mission, strategy was to put pressure on world leaders to commit to carbon emission reductions. Appealing to them as parents, not merely as politicians. The relationship of the target audience with the brand wasn’t as important as it’s relationship with the issue of climate change. Our target audience was twofold – the world’s children and the world’s leaders. Both, audiences needed to be inspired, but for different reasons. The world’s leaders needed to be inspired to commit to meaningful climate action. And, to inspire them effectively, we needed to galvanise the generation with the most to win or lose from the leaders’ decisions, our kids, into a united and universal voice. With a limited media budget and an ambition to reach youth in 7 markets, we partnered with 7 YouTube vloggers, to produce videos in their own style, encouraging fans to get involved. The vloggers were selected according to their reach in target markets, their ability to produce videos quickly and their compatibility with our message. The bulk of the media comprised of paid-for search, recruitment videos on YouTube and Facebook promoted posts driving traffic to the www.askwhywhynot.org website. As far as media that specifically targets the most powerful decision-makers in the world goes, the United Nations was the obvious choice. Despite not using any traditional media, the campaign attracted global media attention reaching 95 million people. The Youtube recruitment and vlogger films alone reached 10 million views in the first four days. The AskWhyWhyNot? landing page received more than 2 million clicks and the online activity, over 450 million impressions. It armed a 400,000-strong rally that stretched 80 blocks of Manhattan in the days before the Summit. And, gave birth to an ideology of interrogation, spearheaded by future generations and directed at climate inaction.