Once Extinct
RSPB
Issue 2 | July 2008
Agency
FEEL / BLAC
Creative Team
Chris Arnold - Executive Creative Director;Victoria Gallardo - Creative Director;Sam Cunningham, Marisa Davies - Creative Team;Campbell Haig - Designer;Natalia Wilkoszewska - Website design
Production Team
Paul Tully - Production Director
Other Credits
Rebecca Webber - Account Director;The children from Thorpe Hall School
Date
October 2006
Background
The ‘Save the Albatross’ campaign was designed to make people more aware of the fact that the albatross was on the edge of extinction. It was also intended to expand the RSPB’s membership and supporter base by repositioning it as Europe’s leading conservation organisation rather than just a charity for bird watchers.
Idea
The creative idea for the campaign was born out of interviews with school children. When asked what they thought an albatross was, the answers they gave were highly imaginative. The idea was therefore a simple insight: if the albatross becomes extinct our children will never see a real one. This thought created the line ‘once extinct, you can only imagine’. The video interviews and pictures the children produced were so powerful they featured in the campaign. The DM pack used them in the context of the school - starting with the satchel envelope, a text book and a letter, which was written by the school rather than the charity.
In addition to direct mail, the integrated campaign used a wide mix of media including TV ‘bumper’ commercials on Sky One featuring interviews with the children, posters, press, short commercials on transvision screens in key London stations - the first time a charity had used bluecasting - and digital (banners, podcasts and viral drivers at the website www.onceextinct.com). This was the first time that the RSPB had targeted a younger, urbanite audience and the mailpack was sent to more than 600,000 people, made up of profiled current look-a-likes, younger potential donors and people with a high propensity to donate.
Results
Detailed results are confidential but it has helped change perceptions of the brand among a younger audience and the DM was one of the best RSPB donation packs to date.
Target Audience
Cultured, affluent, urbanite, mixed gender; a mixture of 55+ and 25 to 45-year-olds. The integrated campaign ran predominantly in the London area.
Size
600,000 packs. Multi-media across London - posters, tube cards, transvision - plus TV (bumpers on SKY). Supported by a dedicated website (www.onceextinct.com)
Our Thoughts
Beautifully crafted piece based on a powerful insight, that if it becomes extinct our kids won’t know what an albatross ever looked like. To nit-pick a bit, the school exercise book is an idea we’ve seen elsewhere but the lapel-badge of the sort of hook that’s killing thousands of birds was a great demonstration of cause and effect.