Nature’s Closing Down Sale
Born Free
Issue 58 | March 2021
Agency
ENGINE
Creative Team
Creative Directors Katy Hopkins, Steve Hawthorne Art Directors Jason Keet, Alicia Job Copywriters James Hodson, Jessica Watson
Production Team
Agency Producers Laura Melville, Henry Davies Production Co Private Island Photographers George Logan, Martin Harvey
Other Credits
Account Directors Owen Keating, Tom Butler Planners Rob Jennings
Date
December 2020
Background
Will Travers OBE, President and Co-Founder of Born Free, has said: “Nature is in big trouble. More than 1,000,000 species face extinction. But we’re not going to let nature ‘close down’.
Idea
Adopting the style and approach of sales advertising and applying it to the natural world, ‘Nature’s Closing Down Sale’ urged people to adopt an endangered animal while they still could.
Timed to coincide with Black Friday, the campaign launched with a film featuring larger-than-life salesman Harry Peacock, highlighting how wild animal populations have declined by 70% in 50 years with the numbers of tigers, elephants and rhinos -now dangerously low and falling still.
Archive footage of endangered species being attacked was overlaid with bouncing sales graphics.
The film, on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, was supported by OOH donated by Jack and Ocean Outdoor.
In addition, a digital pop-up Instagram shop was created, where users could click through any of a dozen campaign-related posts to adopt an animal for as little as £3 a month.
People could also adopt an animal at the Born Free website.
Results
The film generated 230k views, with 232,893 unique visitors to the website.
Overall the campaign led to adoptions totalling £315,032.46 - an increase of 44% on the previous year.
Our Thoughts
Born Free has been particularly active in the last year (See ‘Creature Discomforts’ in Directory Issue 56). I presume this is because they are increasingly desperate for funds, which have been drying up in the pandemic. While some governments have made emergency funds available to charities, animal welfare groups have not been beneficiaries. Born Free needs all the help it can get. It’s encouraging to see influencers such as Amanda Holden lending support. I’m with Kirsty Gallacher who tweeted, ‘Heartbreaking but such a clever campaign.’