What Are Examples of Well-Designed Campaigns?

Great question! It always helps to have a source of inspiration to start drumming up your own advocacy. 

A shining example would be Greenpeace’s To the Last Tree Standing campaign, which launched in 2017. It aimed to unite Polish citizens and remove the political stigma of protecting the country’s forests. It wanted to offer people a neutral space to learn more about the worsening over-logging issue in the Białowieża Forest and encourage them to raise their concerns about its future. To do this, they recreated Białowieża Forest on a 1:1 scale on Minecraft, essentially producing an accurate digital copy of all 700 square kilometers of the Polish side of the forest! Right when it went viral, they uploaded a new version in which only one tree–The Last Tree Standing–remained. The simulated feeling of loss was enough to compel people to start sharing their worries about the forest’s fate.

An example of a campaign that combined art with storytelling to fuel awareness is the collaboration of Where to Next and Forest Foundation Philippines, who created the Places That Move Us journal. An undated journal meant for those inquisitive about nature, it encouraged people to reflect on their daily activities and called attention to practicing mindfulness with the environment. Fifty percent of each purchase went to NTFP-EP Philippines, and they collectively raised PHP 23,521.94. The money co-funded the Sitio Impahanong Rainforestation Plan, which will help rebuild their community tree nursery to assist their Citronella essential oil production.

Meanwhile, the Ateneo Wild is a program established in 2018 that has dedicated itself to advocating for citizen science and honoring the biodiversity found in the Ateneo de Manila University. While Jesuit residents, students, employees, and other contributors shared their appreciation of campus wildlife through the program’s social media pages, the Ateneo Wild is more than that. It offers several different activities like exhibits, guided bird or nature walks, and even scientific data collection to take inventory of the campus’s diverse flora and fauna.

These campaigns show that there’s no singular way to unite people and make meaningful change; there are many ways to create a movement based on your talents, which you can use to spread awareness on an issue you’re passionate about.