Title	BIRDS WILL BE BACK
Brand	RECKITT BENCKISER TURKEY
Product/Service	FINISH
Category	B02. Use of Ambient Media: Large Scale
Entrant	HAVAS TURKEY Istanbul, TURKEY
Idea Creation	HAVAS TURKEY Istanbul, TURKEY
Media Placement	HAVAS MEDIA TURKEY Istanbul, TURKEY
PR	CORA COMMUNICATIONS İstanbul, TURKEY

Name	Company	Position
Ergin Binyıldız	Havas Istanbul	Chief Creative Officer
Volkan Dalkılıç	Havas Istanbul	Executive Creative Director
Anıl Süleyman Çınar	Havas İstanbul	Senior Copywriter
Serhan Koçak	Havas İstanbul	Senior Art Director
Sezgin Bulut	Havas İstanbul	Art Director
Dilara Tuncer	Havas İstanbul	Art Director
Ozan Yücekuş	Havas İstanbul	Copywriter
Berk Yılmaz	Havas İstanbul	Client Services Director
Hare Lilya Ganiç	Havas İstanbul	Account Supervisor
İrem Pusal	Havas İstanbul	Account Executive
Asya Biçer	Havas İstanbul	Account Executive
Doğuş Savu	Havas İstanbul	Social Media Manager
İrem Aycı	Havas İstanbul	Jr. Account Executive
Sıla Salgın	Havas İstanbul	Agency Producer
Gözde Bilir	Havas İstanbul	Agency Producer
Zihni Başsaray	Havas İstanbul	Digital Group Head

Why is this work relevant for Brand Experience & Activation?

In consideration of its execution, cultural basis, audience and the brand purpose; "Birds Will Be Back" is a one-of-a-kind experience caused by a brand. It’s a project that takes whole village as a medium to strike the good news about Kuyucuk Lake's revival. A 24 hour audio track of birds, which imitates the old days of Kuyucuk also known as bird paradise, aired through mosques of the village and became a harbinger of good days for the inhabitants. The project offering an unforgettable experience to the villagers was powerful enough to reach millions with a TV spot based on Kuyucuk.

Background

Turkey is becoming a water poor country. Finish has been drawing attention to the problem for two years. As a proof of diminishing water, demonstrating dried up lakes has been an essential part of the campaign so far. In 2020, to raise hope, it was time to revive one. Dried up Kuyucuk Lake, the home thousands of birds, and a victim of wrong irrigation methods was picked as the target.

Describe the creative idea (20% of vote)

"Birds Will Be Back" is part of a vast integrated campaign. In an effort to bring the brand, consumer, government and ngo's together, several pieces of communication was designed. Including a 24 hour audio track of birds, to be aired through mosques of Kuyucuk village, as a harbinger of good days for the habitants. Village with 284 inhabitants experienced a full day, like the birds never left. The whole process was filmed, aired and reached millions, inviting them to save water.

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

The whole campaign on saving Kuyucuk Lake was about being local, real and sincere. As Turkey is becoming a water poor country, reviving a lake was much more powerful to raise hope than saying fancy words. When we succeded on our extraordinary purpose, we needed an extraordinary, real and as local as possible harbinger to announce it. That’s why we created an 24 hour audio track with 233 bird sounds and decided to use minarets as a medium, turned the harbinger into an experience.

Describe the execution (30% of vote)

We mined the sounds of 233 different species. Different birds chirp at different times of the day. So we allocated the sounds to relevant time slots in consideration of all information we got from nature associations and villagers. We created a 24 hour audio track. There were two different mosques in the village. To reach whole village in a subtle way we used the minarets of the mosques as a medium to air our audio track. We made the final touches with audio engineers to make the audio track sound as natural as possible when the it is aired through mosques.

List the results (30% of vote)

As a result of our cooperation with our consumers and the government, we have managed to save Kuyucuk Lake. 900 million liters of water reached the lake. Currently, 20% of the lake is waterlogged. More than 10,000 birds belonging to more than 100 species returned to Kuyucuk this summer. For the first time, Turkey established a Meteorology Station for a lake. This station delivers instant weather changes online to the center. “The first brand associated with water preservation” is Finish with a 43% rate. Last but not least, we reached every one of 284 inhabitants of the village with our project and created a common feeling about that good old days will be back.