PAINT IT BACK

Short List
TitlePAINT IT BACK
BrandSCOUTS OF CROATIA
Product/ServiceAFFORESTATION OF CROATIA
Category A12. Not-for-profit / Charity / Government
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

Why is this work relevant for PR?

This work is relevant for PR because the campaign reached out to national influencers including artists, musicians, athletes, public figures who joined the good cause and helped us push the message ultimately changing perceptions and behaviors of the public and introducing the national issue of afforestation even into the Croatian parliament.

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 strategy

People are usually shocked by fires and very willing to help with fire extinguishing but don’t have a habit or opportunity to replant the tree. Our strategy was to give them the simple possible and very motivating way to help nature and to become the part of the biggest afforestation ever.

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

Simple black crayons painted back burned forest areas with more than 60.000 trees. More than 5.000 volunteers joined the campaign in 45 days of afforestation. This was the biggest afforestation in Croatian history and it pushed the topic in all relevant national news and portals.? Numerous corporations from diverse industries joined the cause - from large telecoms (Tele2), banks (OTP bank), car manufacturers (Dacia), national post, beer producers (HEINEKEN) and many more (Jamnica, Weiner Osiguranje, Pivac, Hrvatska lutrija, Arriva,...). Not that they just donated money for new tree plants, but their employees also participated in the afforestation action. The campaign received support from multiple European and national ministries and institutions including the European Parliament, Ministry of agriculture, Ministry of environmental protection and energy, Ministry of knowledge and education etc. These institutions helped us push the project into schools and kindergartens, resulting in thousands of educational workshops throughout the nation. Many famous musicans(Neno Belan, Damir Kedžo, Petar Grašo...), artists (Stipan Tadic, Tomislav Torjanac, Eugen Varzic...), athlets (Dino Rada, Ivano Balic, Perica Bukic... ), and public figures joined the Boranka mission. The campaign even made its way to Croatian parliament assembly where the topic of afforestation is finally receiving its deserved attention, pushing the discussion about making this project even bigger for next year. The “Boranka” campaign even touched the Croatian prime minister Adnrej Plenkovic who highlighted his support by planting some of the first trees in one of the burned areas in Croatia.