Taking its cue from successful socialmedia, wildlife charity WWF developed a campaign over Christmas that paired free viewing online of the film, March of the Penguins, with a call to action to support WWF and adopt a penguin.
Created by digital agency i-level, the film and the adopt-a-penguin scheme was hosted on online video site Blinkbox. Additional wildlife video was produced and made available, with cross-promotion on Blinkbox and Twitter.
"The aim was for WWF to give something of value back in a surprising and thought-provoking way at a time when it's more difficult to get people to donate to charity," says Oliver Newton, head of emerging platforms at i-level.
The results outpaced those of prior campaigns that had used conventional online banners and placed the charity's TV ads online. Of the 32,000 visitors to the WWF's Blinkbox page, an unprecedented 17% then clicked through to the WWF site for more information over the four weeks of the campaign.
"Advertisers must give value in exchange for audience attention online," Newton says. "Social media shows value can be created in many different forms, not just financial. The value WWF provided was Oscar-winning entertainment."
