OUGD503 (Collaborative) - D&AD - WWF - The Brief and Proposal

The Brief

For my collaborative brief I'll be working with Jamie on the WWF brief. The brief was about relaying the message of the Living Planet Report to 14-24 year olds, with the intention of involving them with WWF more and to get them to engage with the changes that the report has told us we need to make. The main focus of the report is that:

• Wildlife populations worldwide have declined 52% since 1970.
• We are living as if we have more than one planet at our disposal.
• By taking more than nature can replenish, we are jeopardising our own future.

Our Approach

Because of the seriousness of the issues that are presented in the report, we felt that the best way to engage younger people with it was to produce a campaign that was light-hearted and engages young people in a way which benefits them so they see it as a two-way street, not just them giving something up or making difficult or inconvenient changes to their lifestyle.

We decided to focus more on the decline of wildlife populations, because animals are living things they can connect to people on an emotional level, which makes for an easier appeal that asking people to change their lifestyles. By relating this to popular and well-recognised exotic animals in particular, it will potentially be more interesting and engaging.

Proposal

We decided to base our project around a range of WWF condoms, as the younger end of the age range will find it funny, whereas the older end could use them as a novelty if the project was done in a funny way. That said, it'd have to be done tastefully because of how the project is related to WWF.

Solving the brief in this way will make the people that interact with the campaign feel like they're getting something back, rather than just giving. We thought condoms would be a good way to familiarise people with the report in a positive and non-depressing way. They have the potential for viral advertising, and play off the wild and instinctive connotations of animals.

The project will consist of the branding and packaging for the condoms as well as advertising/promotion for them, which we hope will include a mix of print and screen.

A solution like this could become quite immature and distasteful quite quickly. Jamie and I are on similar wavelengths because we've lived together for 18 months, but at the same time our personalities differ enough to the point where between us, we'd know if the project was getting too serious or too immature, which will really help the tone of voice.