Anti Whaling Campaign (charity)

Background:

At the end of 2007, Japan intended to start whaling again. The hunting of these magnificent creatures has been banned all over the world for over 40 years. Many of the countries who signed the ban still support it, but a few have begun to reconsider. At the beginning of 2007 The Environmental Investigation Agency found that the governments of six Caribbean countries (Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia and St Vincent and the Grenadines) were being 'supported' by the Japanese government to vote AGAINST the ban in Caribbean waters at the annual International Whaling Commission convention held between the 28th and 31st May 2007, to allow Japan to kill 50 humpback whales in their waters next year.

In a timely, and low cost manner, Cheeze were asked raise the profile of the EIA and their campaign, to an online audience in the UK, the USA and Japan before the vote took place.
 
Deliverables:

•    Campaign startup – Cheeze were informed the campaign needed to be online within a week from brief.
•    Campaign end date - 31st May (after IWC vote).
•    Work within a media budget of £15,000.
•    Target active anti-whaling supporters.
•    Target environmental campaigners.
•    Create dialogue with opinion formers – educated and opinionated adults in the UK, US & Japan.
•    Engage social networkers –evangelists for people power in the UK, US & Japan.
•    A short but highly weighted online banner campaign across global news, politics and information sites, these included:

o    Reuters
o    Sky News
o    Yahoo

All media linked through to the site www.caribbeanwhalefriends.org built by Inbox. All creative executions were tagged so that we could track user movement from their banner clicks, site navigation and the all important – ‘take action’ page.


Results:

The International Whaling Commission (IWC) voted to uphold its moratorium on commercial whaling on the 31st May. Whilst the direct Caribbean threat was not resolved, the IWC passed a resolution that reaffirmed the need to maintain the commercial whaling ban and called on CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species) to maintain its restrictions on the whale trade.

Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) voted on the 6th June 2007 to reject an effort by whaling nations to undermine a related ban on international trade in whale products. The proposal, brought by Japan, was seen as a first step in rolling back protections for the great whale species protected from international trade by CITES. It was resoundingly rejected.

"The message to Japan and its pro-whaling allies is unequivocal.  "Both the IWC and CITES have spoken in favor of whale protection and conservation," said Kitty Block, director Treaty Law of Humane Society International, "It is clear that there is no international will to resume commercial whaling or international trade in their parts."


•    The campaign delivered over 2.5 million impressions across all three sites. With an average frequency of c. 2.5 the reach of this campaign was over 1 million people in the target countries.

•    The campaign had 4,091 clicks and of the 3,310 who arrived at the homepage a further 131 people went on to “Take Action”. This is a stunning arrival to action conversion of 4%.

•    Myspace.com/helpthewhales site received over 16,000 views, achieving 1,148 “friends” to date and the Myspace community invited 7,267 others to help with the cause.

•    There were over 1,280 messages sent to the Caribbean governments urging them not to vote against the ban.

Cheeze negotiated on average 15% extra inventory free across all media bookings.

Case Studies