Every year, we pledge a minimum 5% of our profits to environmental charities via our Your Planet Your Choice campaign. But in 2022, we wanted to do more. We’ve done a lot of work defining our values, and having publicly announced ourselves as a planet-first agency, so we figured it was time to truly put our money where our mouth is. That’s why this year, as well as pledging 5% of our profits to environmental charities, we partnered with one of those charities, providing them with around £80,000 of marketing support absolutely free. Yes… free. Pro bono. Gratis. On the house.

So, who did we choose and why?

International Animal Rescue

International Animal Rescue is a charity that works to protect animal habitats, rescue endangered animals, and rehome them whenever possible.

Back in March 2022, International Animal Rescue invited their frequent donors to a fundraising event in London. It was here that we first learned about COP15 (the UN Biodiversity Conference; more on this in a moment) and truly came to understand the looming biodiversity crisis. After speaking with IAR about the crisis and the imminent need to raise awareness about COP15, we instantly knew we wanted to help.

COP15 and Biodiversity

Remember the COP26 UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow last year? Leaders from around the world got together to discuss climate change and make pledges to reduce emissions. Thousands of regular people turned up to make their voices heard, and both the protests and the conference itself were all over the news. While pledges made could have been stronger, the level of coverage helped raise awareness of the issue and how seriously climate change should be taken.

Have you heard of COP15? No? Exactly.

COP15 is the UN Biodiversity Conference, happening in December 2022. It’s just as vital as the COP26 conference and yet there’s very little awareness of it. The conference has already been postponed several times, with no public uproar and very little public concern. And yet it’s incredibly important that it goes ahead.

Biodiversity is the term for the variety of life in an area or habitat. Good biodiversity means there’s all different kinds; a thriving, complex ecosystem with its naturally balanced food chain. Poor biodiversity means a lack of variety in a habitat. It means imbalance, and an imbalanced ecosystem is one that could spiral into destruction, even to extinction.

Because of that, maintaining good biodiversity is the lifeblood of just about everything us humans have got. That might sound like an exaggeration, but it’s true. Almost everything we eat, drink, and otherwise consume couldn’t exist without biodiversity. Biodiversity means healthier ecosystems, and healthier ecosystems mean more food for animals and humans alike, cleaner water, more carbon taken out of the air, livelihoods for local people, and more.

The tearing down of natural habitats to make way for unsustainable human endeavours needs to stop. It’s imperative, therefore, that COP15 isn’t postponed again, and that leaders from around the world attend and make biodiversity pledges.

Amplitude and International Animal Rescue

All of the pro bono marketing we’re providing to International Animal Rescue is focused towards raising awareness of COP15 and the biodiversity crisis.

Phase One of the COP15 project is the #AreYouListening campaign.

The aim here is to raise awareness through International Animal Rescue’s social media channels. After extensive research into previous campaigns (from both IAR and other environmental charities/initiatives) we developed art direction and a delivery strategy for first phase of the #AreYouListening? campaign.

The concept we came up with was striking, using a combination of saturated reds and white to catch and hold attention, with simple messaging that would be digestible to a wide range of people. Biodiversity can be hard for people to wrap their heads around, so we aimed to help people understand using infographic-style facts and figure comparisons.

We coupled these striking colours with bespoke animal illustrations and carefully selected imagery of endangered animals to evoke emotion and help people understand the significance of the biodiversity crisis. Partial desaturation of images helped tie all parts of the campaign together, and heightened emotion, as shown with the orangutan in the image below.

We did all of this with International Animal Rescue’s own branding in mind. We utilised their fonts and visual identity with new colours and imagery. This helped tie the campaign to IAR’s existing brand identity but also allowed us to create assets that stood out against everything else they’d created.

Alongside these still social assets, we provided web banners and simple animations, ensuring the consistency across all of International Animal Rescue’s channels.

These assets have just begun to appear to the public, and we’ve provided enough assets for several months of content. But that’s nowhere near all we’re producing for IAR…

Phase Two – Animated Campaign

All of the above forms Phase One of a two-part campaign, and Phase Two is already in production. While we can’t say too much about it yet, we’re aiming big, and it’s in Phase Two that most of our budget will be used.

What we can say is that it’ll include a full feature animation that’ll be launching in November 2022. One that we’re incredibly excited to be working on.

Find out more about COP15 through IAR’s dedicated landing page here. Sign up to take the biodiversity pledge here. And, if you’d like to work with an agency that’s unapologetically green, you can get in touch with us here.