PAINT IT BACK

Short List
TitlePAINT IT BACK
BrandSCOUTS OF CROATIA
Product/ServiceAFFORESTATION OF CROATIA
Category F02. Environmental / Social Impact
Entrant IMAGO Zagreb, CROATIA
Idea Creation IMAGO Zagreb, CROATIA
Additional Company BORNFIGHT Zagreb, CROATIA
Credits
Name Company Position
Igor Mladinović Imago Ogilvy Chief Creative Director
Darko Bosnar Imago Ogilvy Creative Director
Hiam Hamed Imago Ogilvy Account Executive
Ivana Mlinarić Imago Ogilvy Account Executive
Gordana Golik Imago Ogilvy Art Director
Damir Cimperšak Panorama production Producer
Anita Nadj Red rings production Cinematographer
Roko Vidaković Red Rings production Video editor
BooBoo Tannenbaum - Illustrator
Guy Hancock - Visual effects
Dan Špicer Scouts of Croatia Director

Background

Every year huge wildfires in Croatia turn green forests into black burned areas. Nature is unable to renew by itself, so it needs our help. Scouts of Croatia wanted to organize the afforestation of those burned areas so they came to us to help them create a campaign.

Describe the creative idea

Tons of burned ash is left behind huge forest fires every year. Our idea was to use this ash to recreate life on that areas and to paint black burned areas into green again. So we created unique ash crayon made from burned trees ash and use it to start the biggest afforestation in the country.

Describe the execution

From black ash of burned trees we created unique ash crayons. We distributed more than 100.000 crayons via national daily newspaper. With those crayons people could draw a tree, upload it on the PaintItBack website and with a donation of 1EUR a virtual tree became a real one, planted by volunteers on burned areas.

List the results

More than 5.000 volunteers joined the campaign in 45 days of afforestation planting over 60000 trees. Numerous corporations joined the cause: from large telecoms, banks, national post, beer producers and many more. Aside from donating money for new tree plants, their employees also participated in the afforestation. The campaign received support from relevant European ministries and institutions. They helped us push the project into schools and kindergartens, resulting in thousands of educational workshops throughout the nation. Famous artists, athlets, and public figures joined the mission. The campaign even made its way to Croatian parliament assembly where the topic of afforestation finally received its deserved attention, pushing the discussion about making this project even bigger next year. The PaintItBack campaign even touched the Croatian prime minister who showed his support by planting the first tree in one of the burned areas in Croatia. This was the biggest afforestation in Croatian history.