Title	STOP THE MASSACRE! SAVE OUR SONGBIRDS!
Brand	THE ROMANIAN ORNITHOLOGICAL SOCIETY
Product/Service	BIRD CONSERVATION
Category	B04. Charities, Public Health, Safety & Awareness Messages
Entrant Company	ROGALSKI-DAMASCHIN Bucharest, ROMANIA
Advertising Agency	ROGALSKI-DAMASCHIN Bucharest, ROMANIA
Production Company	FACTOR Bucharest, ROMANIA
Production Company 2	PUKKA Bucharest, ROMANIA

Name	Company	Position
Valentin Suciu	Jazz Communication	Creative Director/Director
Andreea Ghenoiu	Jazz Communication	Group Creative Director/Copywriter
Raluca Matei	Jazz Communication	Art Director
Mario Niculae	Jazz Communication	Illustrator/Typo
Irina Pencea	Jazz Communication	Client Service/Creative Catalyst
Alina Damaschin	Rogalski Damaschin Public Relations	Creative Leader
Eliza Rogalski	Rogalski Damaschin Public Relations	Pr Director
Dorian Ilie	Rogalski Damaschin Public Relations	Client Service/Campaign Director
Cristina Lica	Rogalski Damaschin Public Relations	Media Relations Manager
Cristiana Andrei	Rogalski Damaschin Public Relations	Social Media Director

The Campaign

In March 2015, the Romanian Parliament passed a bill potentially leading to a massacre among songbirds. Despite a long opposition from the civil society and a vocal rejection of the bill from Romania’s President, the bill didn’t attract any attention from people during the legislative process. After months of communication efforts initiated by the civil society with no results, people were far from being aware that the bill could have generated a rapid and irreversible extinction of Romania’s iconic songbird: the skylark. This case truly demonstrates that creativity can stir revolutions and change politicians’ minds: in 40 days a powerful and emotional idea made people aware and empowered to change a criminal bill. We simply dramatized the consequences of killing skylarks, the bird who inspired Romanian composers and singers for generations by staging the slaughter of a Romanian beloved opera singer while she performed on the stage. The video went viral in just 2 hours, followed by a tremendous wave of media coverage, both national and international. We initiated a public petition to stop the bill in the form the Parliament wanted it passed and mobilized people sign it and show protest against the law. We pitched artists to “donate” trillfies – short songs imitating birds that went viral on internet together with their invitation that artists join the revolution. After just 40 days, the Parliament accepted the amendments of the civil society who saved Romania’s most beloved songbird.

The Brief

The overarching goal of the campaign was to stop the bill from being passed by the Chamber of Deputies in the proposed form and hopefully introduce additional amendments put forth by the civil society and environmental activists that aim at a better conservation of birds. We needed to engage the mass-media, key opinion leaders, the civil society, nature lovers and the general public in such a manner that the skylark and the other songbirds became the most important topic on the public agenda. The skylark and the songbirds needed friends and support and we had to call the people to action.

Execution

We started by creating a powerful, shocking and emotional video featuring one of the most famous opera singers in Romania being shot on stage to symbolize the death of the skylark. That was the moment when we captured the attention of the mass-media and key opinion leaders. People were outraged by the proposed bill and we started to channel this energy through a wide array of instruments: website, online petition, Facebook page, media and blogger relations. After the first weeks of the campaign the topic of the skylark was the hottest, most debated social issue in the mass-media and online. To continue putting pressure on politicians we engaged celebrities and artists to endorse the campaign by asking them to sing like the skylark to draw more attention to our cause. Singers, pop artists, TV hosts joined in and upheld the importance and necessity of action to be taken.

Launched exclusively in online, with a zero budget, the “Stop the Massacre, Save the Skylark” campaign spread in all media in a flash; that very night, the prime time news shows in Romania began with the shocking clip. • The video spot had more than 300,000 views on Romania’s largest news site, www.hotnews.ro • More than 170 media hits, of which 15 were extensive TV reports • More than 35,000 organic views of the video spot on YouTube • An organic reach of more than 90,000 on Facebook and more than 290,000 views on the campaign’s Facebook page The NGOs were then called for negotiations, the proposed version of the hunting bill was repealed and a new bill that incorporated amendments from the civil society ran through the Parliament and was subsequently adopted.

The Strategy

The strategy of the campaign was to turn up the heat on politicians through mass-media and public engagement so that the issue of protecting the skylark and the other threatened birds became the hottest trending topic in Romania. Following a creative and emotional mix of elements we had to raise awareness among journalists and the people in social media about the importance of the skylark and the other songbird species, but also position them in a broader cultural, social, and environmental context. Skylarks and songbirds are important not because they are birds, but because they represent the health of ecosystems, they have been an inspiration for musicians for centuries and for sure can inspire the future generations.