The Challenge

It’s too easy to switch off

Our challenge was to encourage New Zealanders to think about and then reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. We also needed to show that Genesis Energy was making a positive difference to climate change — and improve perceptions of Genesis Energy as a socially responsible company.

New Zealanders were bombarded with ‘green’ messages and it was too easy to switch off. So we avoided the ubiquitous carbon calculator — and also steered clear of obvious messages such as ‘turn out the lights’.

Research told us that people don’t want to be told how ‘bad’ they are. Instead, they want to be encouraged and helped to make changes.

So rather than focus on the damage that’s already been done, we focused on the good that can be done in the immediate future.

Our Solution

An online community of little doers

We created Tree People, an interactive website designed specifically for kids. It was an online community that helped visualise and reward efforts against climate change. The name implies belonging to a club — and everyone can relate to trees and how they grow.

Tree People was different because it focused on the positive changes that we can all make, and it encouraged us to keep making those positive changes. Most important of all, this website rewarded small, simple pledges — and visualise their powerful cumulative effect.

On the website, we created a remarkably detailed online forest, complete with its own miniature eco-system. You started by adopting one of four native trees, and when you made pledges — small changes to your lifestyle — your tree grew according to a sophisticated algorithm.

You could also create and join groups, give gifts to trees owned by your friends, and win prizes. The constantly changing online environment around the trees gave members a powerful incentive to return to the website and renew their pledges.

All other campaign elements were tightly integrated. The TV spots enhanced the mystic aspect of native trees, with a voiceover reminiscent of a wise man. The press ads featured the child star of the TVCs in a tree with her laptop.

Even the direct mail pack sent to Genesis Energy’s stakeholders echoed the theme: it was an audio CD of New Zealand birdcall and bush ambience, with information about treepeople.co.nz contained in the ‘liner notes’.

The Result

A positive result for the environment

The treepeople.co.nz campaign took off very quickly.

After five months, around 24,000 people were nurturing their online trees. They’d made over 90,000 measurable pledges.

These pledges equated to a saving of over 16,000 tonnes of carbon. This is not an abstract figure: it’s defined in consultation with PricewaterhouseCoopers, using a methodology provided by that firm.

The CO2 saving per participant equalled 0.6634 tonnes. This put us on track to reach 1.59 tonnes per participant per year — a 59% increase over target.

To put this in ‘real terms’, burning one gallon of petrol creates 8.8 kg of carbon dioxide. A saving of 16,000 tonnes in five months is equivalent to 1.81 million gallons of petrol not being burnt — and that’s a wonderful result for New Zealand environment.