The Campaign

To promote personal responsibility and encourage sustainable actions, a bold, permanent new entry visa process was created. All arriving visitors MUST now sign a pledge, stamped in their passports, to be good environmental stewards. This mandatory agreement, dedicated to Palau’s children, needs to be signed before an officer. Visitors are required to sign the agreement in front of the officer to gain entry. The agency worked with government, industry, airlines, and citizens to change immigration laws and customs processes. The Pledge was issued in English, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. A range of communications, including passport brochure, airport posters, signage around the island, and a website, formed a comprehensive informational ecosystem, ensuring the Pledge was fully accessible to all. In Palau, a business accreditation system was developed and education programs created to empower tourism businesses and residents.

Execution

We launched the Pledge to global media while engaging international opinion leaders in politics, conservation, tourism, and culture, to promote it via social media. Promoters of the Pledge (unpaid) include Leonardo DiCaprio, former US Secretary of State, John Kerry, and the Rolling Stones. These influencers, among others, signed the Pledge and inspired others to do so via a website tool at PalauPledge.com. As part of our launch, we leveraged the Palauan President as a spokesperson. He was interviewed live on global TV networks including the BBC and CNN. In markets including Australia, we engaged primary schools to provide the Pledge as an educational case study. We encouraged children to sign the Pledge and show support for their peers in Palau, provoking media conversation about the positive effects that sustainable tourism can have around the world and how the Pledge can take a significant step towards a more environmentally conscious planet.

Announced at the UN by the President of Palau, the Palau Pledge garnered enormous, positive coverage for Palau’s conservation efforts and the cause of global conservation. Today, Palau is the only country to incorporate environmental practices into its immigration laws. The Pledge has been endorsed by major organisations including the UN, the World Economic Forum, Greenpeace, World Wildlife Fund, and Conservation International, to name a few. They have promoted it through their own channels. In the first four weeks of its launch, the Pledge garnered 1.7 billion media impressions with thousands of global media items in more than 30 countries. Highly influential media such as The Guardian, Forbes, China Daily, Straits Times, Chosun Ilbo and BBC all covered our story in depth. In addition hundreds of global influencers and well-known organisations and businesses have signed the Pledge. Most significantly, it is projected that over 2 million tourists will sign the Pledge within its first 10 years. This world-first is now being used as a best practice example of sustainable tourism around the world.

The Situation

The Republic of Palau is a beautiful small-island group in the Western Pacific. Scenically magical for such a tiny area, it's hard not to be overwhelmed by its array of natural wonders. With tourism on the rise, the government needed to maintain the islands beauty whilst encouraging visitors to act in a way which preserves Palau’s natural environment, avoiding significant environmental damage and cultural disruption. We needed a world-first creative idea which held individuals visiting the small-island accountable, and we needed to do so with impact through earned PR channels creating an ownable story that would result in behavioural change.

The Strategy

Key target markets for the campaign were: 1. Chinese, Japanese, and Korean tourists - the largest groups of tourists come from these countries. 2. Local Palauan residents, including tour operators, in order to garner their support. The strategy was to ensure that enforcement and encouragement is seen as being everyone’s job. We set out to develop a world-first initiative that would mitigate the cumulative effects of tourism and provide a solution to sustainably managing Palau’s expanding tourist population – crucial to its economic development. By reaching visitors as soon as they entered the country, we could: capture their attention to set the agenda for their stay; and encourage them to consider their behaviour and make a conscious decision to protect the Palauan environment and respect the island culture.