Coral Crafters
Microsoft / Minecraft
Issue 48 | September 2018
Agency
215 McCann
Creative Team
Chief Creative Officer Scott Duchon Creative Director Neil Bruce ACD / Art Director Alper Kologlu Copywriter Andy Holdeman
Production Team
Director of Integrated Production Alex Spahr Associate Producer Christina Chin Vice President for Design, Power & IT Thomas Sarkisian Project Management and Coordination Marcia Cristina Tessis Engineering and Fabrication Global Coral Reef Alliance Animator Carson Bell
Other Credits
Director of Business Affairs Mary Beth Barney Business Director Peter Goldstein Senior Account Executive Sam Brody Assistant Account Executive Robbie Kalish Director of Strategy Brian Wakabayashi Strategy Director Cassidy Wilber President and Founder Global Coral Reef Foundation Thomas Goreau, PhD
Date
June 2018
Background
With more than 100 million players of Minecraft, the game is the #3 best-selling video game in history. In 2018, Minecraft announced it was going to fill its oceans with life. What were previously mostly empty waters were now to be filled with multiple species of digital fish and coral around shipwrecks and underwater ruins. The ask was to raise awareness of this update and get both current and new players excited to explore the seas within Minecraft.
Idea
At the same time that Minecraft was bringing life to its virtual oceans, the real oceans of planet Earth were increasingly threatened. 75% of coral reefs could disappear by 2020. So instead of announcing the update through the typical videogame trailer, Minecraft started a movement to bring life back to real-world oceans.
The Minecraft community was invited to design real-life sculptures which, when placed off the coast of Cozumel, Mexico, would help regrow the coral there. Six sculptures were chosen. Using Biorock technology, which puts a low- voltage electrical charge through the structures, limescale was encouraged to develop and that, in its turn, helped corals grow at record speeds.
At the same time, Minecraft made a Coral Crafter Skin Pack available for the game, the profits going to The Nature Conservancy.
When 10 million coral blocks have been placed underwater in the game, Minecraft will donate $100,000 to the NGO.
Results
Early results show that video completion rate was very high for the long-form content, supporting the hypothesis that long-form story telling of a relevant and engaging subject performs very well with the Minecraft community.
There were also very strong engagement rates across their social channels, and encouraging signs in terms of update take- up since launch.
Our Thoughts
One of the most inspiring ideas in this issue of Directory, we think. It taps into the creativity of Minecrafters, teaching gamers about the terrible things that are happening to coral reefs around the globe as well as offering practical solutions that they can be part of. But all with commercial purpose, to broaden interest in the game and sell more skin packs.
It uses Minecraft YouTubers brilliantly (Logdotzip has 2.5 million subscribers, stacyplays has 1.8 million) to get gamers involved in the issue and then in voting for a winning sculpture.
My only question is, what’s keeping us from putting more Biorock structures to more reefs elsewhere?