Background

Korea’s marine stock is on the brink of depletion, with one of the biggest causes being the overfishing of immature fish. Even in these adverse circumstances, fishing is increasingly gaining popularity in Korea. With their number mushrooming, the number of anglers is estimated at nearly 10 million. The problem is that anglers mostly don’t know about the definition and sizes of immature fish and end up capturing them inadvertently. While the Korean government issued a chart for the minimum legal size of capture to conserve immature fish, the chart was too large and information-dense to be carried around or memorized. Against such a backdrop, the campaign for the conservation of immature fish necessitated a tool that can drive changes in the behavior of anglers and be produced with small costs, rather than high-budget mass media communication that is conveyed one-sidedly to unspecified audiences.

Describe the creative idea (40% of vote)

We saw the increasing number of anglers as an opportunity. 10 million anglers can become 10 million guardians for immature fish. We decided to make design merchandise that ticks all these boxes: it is portable; it can be used instantly as a tool to protect immature fish at the moment of the capture; it makes people want to own and wear it because it is fashionable. Therefore, we extracted data for the most frequently caught species from the minimum legal size chart and created FishLove Band, a universally portable wristband that measures the size of immature fish. Coming in 7 different shades and designs, this versatile everyday fashion item can be used to measure the size of your capture when you go fishing. and let it go if it is smaller than the marked size.

Describe the execution (40% of vote)

FishLove Band is a slap bracelet that wraps around the wrist when slapped against it. This is because I wanted to add more fun to the design of the slap band that everyone played with when they were kids. Even if you're not fishing, you want to wear it on a regular basis, we designed it more like a fashion item than a fishing tool. So on a 25-centimeter wristband, focusing on 7 simple and cute fish illustrations, colors, lines and dots were also given seven different variations. And all of these design elements are contained in eco-certified materials.(SGS certificate) The band package is also made of MSC-certified paper. The campaign was launched in the fall, the peak season for fishing in Korea, on October 20th. 22,000 bands were distributed via both face-to-face and online channels, and distributed at major fishing spots across the country.

List the results (20% of vote)

TV exposure counts 3,634,800 Online exposure counts 4,744,233 Online posts and views 496,191 Offline exposure counts 10,650 Compared to before the campaign, the traffic of WWF Korea’s website increase by 566%, the traffic of the campaign’s Facebook page by 239%. and views of campaign-related blog posts by 216% This led to over 8,900,000 media impressions. Furthermore, scores of celebrities voluntarily joined the campaign, along with anglers and non-anglers. The biggest gleaning was that in the post-campaign survey, 89.7% of anglers responded they would not capture immature fish, as opposed to 96.6% ignorant about immature fish before the campaign, proving a significant improvement in the awareness on immature fish. Lastly, during the October parliamentary audit, the Minister of Oceans and Fisheries and parliamentarians wore FishLove and introduced the campaign. Their discussion on a policy obliging FishLove for fishermen was broadcasted live on TV.