"Adopt a Humpback" Best Green Direct Mail Case Study
The 2008 Green Award for the Best Direct Mail Campaign went to IFAW (International Fund for Animal Welfare) for their “Adopt a Humpback” campaign.
The overall aim of this campaign was to stop Japanese whalers from carrying out their threat to kill humpback whales in a sanctuary in Antarctica. By “adopting” named whales for all UK MPs, we hoped to engage and motivate them to do all they could to deter Japan from killing these 50 humpbacks – a vulnerable species decimated by whaling in the last century.
One of IFAW’s key international campaigns is to end commercial or so-called “scientific” whaling and protect whales. We hoped MPs would support our work and continue lobbying against whaling at the annual International Whaling Commission (IWC) meeting.
The Adopt a Humpback campaign was a UK element of IFAW’s international work to protect whales from the many threats they face, including whaling.
In order to deliver our message and asks in a suitably creative and unusual way, while using few materials to ensure minimal impact on the environment, IFAW worked with GREEN, the sustainability focused communications consultancy, who came up with the creative concept for both the adoption and IWC map (follow-up) mail packs.
The first element of this campaign was to grab MPs’ attention so they would want to find out more about the threat to humpbacks and become motivated to help.
To do this we “personalised” the campaign, choosing identified and named whales adopted on their behalf. Knowing MPs receive up to 100 letters a day, our adoption packs needed to be unusual and eye-catching. Instead of a standard letter, each fold-out pack carried a teaser message, such as “Congratulations Mr Cameron, you’re about to enter a relationship with a 64,000 lb female…” These opened out to include a whale biography, a Polaroid-style photograph of their whale and several campaign asks, including writing to the Foreign Secretary and Japanese Ambassador in London, and attending a Westminster photo-call.
At the photo-call MPs received adoption certificates from a costumed “whale” along with photos and press releases for use with local and regional media to maximise media coverage and inform and engage the public.
MPs received further updates, including tailored press releases praising their efforts after the humpbacks were saved and a follow-up mailing asking them to write to certain countries, ensuring they do not vote to overturn the whaling ban.
Our direct target audience was UK MPs, all of whom received a personalised whale adoption pack and follow-up correspondence. By providing a photo opportunity, tailored press releases and photographs, we reached two of our other key audiences – the media and public.
Knowing that many MPs would be keen to receive some positive media coverage in their local constituencies, we were also able to communicate the urgent threat to humpback whales. The media and public were asked to visit IFAW’s whaling microsite – www.stopwhaling.org to find out more and to take action themselves.
When Japan bowed to pressure and announced a reprieve for the humpbacks, we informed MPs, the media and public about the victory. However, Japan continued to target almost 1,000 other whales that season. Indirectly, another target audience for this campaign was the Japanese government and the whalers. However, the intense pressure from UK politicians, the media and public forced the Japanese government and whalers to bow to their demands.
Minimum materials were used – two self mailers, both printed digitally on recycled paper.
Campaign Objectives and Results:
The overall campaign objective behind the Adopt a Humpback project was achieved, as a few weeks after the campaign was launched, Japan announced that it would not kill any humpback whales during the 2007/early 2008 whaling season in Antarctica’s Southern Ocean Sanctuary. There has been no clear indication since as to when Japan intends to resume the hunt for these whales.
In August 2008, IFAW welcomed the news that the status of humpback whales on the world’s Red List of endangered species has been moved from “vulnerable” to “least concern” after the population made a considerable recovery since the moratorium on commercial whaling came into effect in 1986.
Another aim of the campaign, to engage and motivate MPs to protect the humpbacks and to be active on the whaling issue generally, was also achieved. 154 MPs responded to the adoption pack, with 63 attending the photo call and a further 91 requesting press releases so they could highlight the issue with their local and regional media despite not being able to attend the photo call. Many MPs also used a follow-up press release revealing that the humpbacks were no longer being targeted. More than 100 newspaper stories appeared on the MP humpback adoption campaign, as well as a small amount of radio coverage. In addition, many MPs responded to our request to write to the Foreign Secretary and the Japanese Ambassador on the issue.
The next time we needed MPs to be really active on the whaling issue – in the run-up to this year’s IWC meeting – we sent another eye-catching mailing. This one was designed to build on the interest from the humpback adoption and encourage MPs to write to countries we feared may vote with the pro-whalers in favour of overturning the ban on commercial whaling.
To make this issue as interesting as possible, as well as being informative, we sent them another foldout pack with a teaser message. The outside read “one person” and as it was folded out continued with “influencing one minister”, “can swing one vote”, eventually showing a map of the world with pro-whaling nations, anti-whaling nations and others. It urged MPs to target five countries in particular, and to push for the creation of a new whale sanctuary in the South Atlantic.
Campaign recognition surveys of MPs have shown widespread recognition of IFAW's Adopt a Humpback campaign and also indicated whaling was one of the issues they received most correspondence about from constituents. In previous years, MPs had told us whaling was not an issue which their constituents often raised with them.
The overall budget for the Adopt a Humpback adoption pack was £5,077.98.
There are a number of factors that make this campaign special. The overall campaign objective was met, which in this case meant that 50 humpback whales were saved from being harpooned.
MPs were motivated to take the actions we desperately needed them to take, but much more than this, many became engaged with whales and the whaling issue on an emotional level and were obviously moved by what they learnt about the threat to “their” whale and others like it. When we staged the photocall at Westminster, several MPs arrived carrying the photos of their adopted whales in their jacket pockets.
We received extremely positive feedback from MPs on the issue itself and also on IFAW’s approach. One wrote “I have told so many people about my unsolicited whale. From Chairs/CEOs of big media efforts to my constituents. I think (for what it’s worth) that this idea is the best I’ve seen in my modest seven years as an MP. I doubt it’s had an impact with the otherwise sound, in many ways, Japanese government."
The judges especially liked the clever and noble way the winner of the direct mail category dealt with a serious and distressing issue.
Sasha Hughes Online Campaigns & Marketing Coordinator, IFAW UK