Title	THE VANISHING COLOR
Brand	GIUSEPPE E PERICLE LAVAZZA FOUNDATION
Product/Service	LAVAZZA FOUNDATION
Category	E05. Sponsorship & Brand Partnership
Entrant	WE ARE SOCIAL Milan, ITALY
Idea Creation	WE ARE SOCIAL Milan, ITALY

Name	Company	Position
Alessandro Sciarpelletti	We Are Social	Executive Creative Director
Daniele Piazza	We Are Social	Executive Creative Production Director:
Paulo Gonzalez	We Are Social	Creative Director
mattia Lacchini	We Are Social	Creative Director
Michele Vicari	We Are Social	Creative Supervisor
Paolo Palazzo	We Are Social	Art Director
marta Berardini	We Are Social	Creative
Alessandro Romeo	We Are Social	Editor Supervisor
Emma Topham	We Are Social	Writer
Mattia Marzulli	We Are Social	Content Specialist
Margherita Benzoni	We Are Social	Content Specialist
Luca Damiani	We Are Social	Content Specialist
Miguel Lima	We Are Social	Head of Client Services
Paola Tonetti	We Are Social	Account Director
Camilla Beghi	We Are Social	Account Manager
Dagoberto Belloni	We Are Social	Account Executive
Sabrina Varaldo	We Are Social	PR Manager

Why is this work relevant for PR?

The problem of deforestation is one of the biggest problems that the human being is facing: more than 1M trees are destroyed every day, yet many people are still not aware of it. The Lavazza Foundation, which is committed to reforest the Peruvian Amazon, wanted to highlight the problem. That’s why we partnered with the Pantone Institute to create a unique color that symbolizes the shades of the Amazon Rainforest which are vanishing too quickly. #TheVanishingColor became the foundation of a PR campaign that was launched on International Earth Day 2021, being immediately highlighted in Italian’s and global lifestyle.

Background

The Lavazza Foundation is actively engaged in creating and promoting economic, social and environmental sustainability projects alongside coffee producing communities around the world. In the Peruvian Amazon, the Lavazza Foundation is committed to the protection of the environmental heritage of the Rainforest, together with the ONG Cesvi and the local indigenous communities, through consistent reforestation of the Madre de Dios region. However, most of the people do not know this important work by Lavazza and, even worse, they do not even know the extent of the problem of deforestation. More than 1M trees are destroyed every day and the real risk we are running is the disappearance of forests in the Amazon, which are a fundamental asset because they clean the air, absorb emissions and stabilize the climate. That’s why Lavazza decided to do its part in making people more aware of the Amazon deforestation.

Describe the creative idea (20% of vote)

In order to show the Lavazza Foundation's commitment and to raise awareness about deforestation, we partnered with the Pantone Institute to create a unique color that symbolizes the shades of the Amazon Rainforest: The Vanishing Color, a color that is in danger and will disappear if we don't take action now. On International Earth Day, the Lavazza logo featured in the profile photo of all the brand's Instagram and Facebook channels was dyed with the Vanishing Color. At the same time, a series of contents showing the official color of the Amazon rainforest threatened by the signs of deforestation were published on the Lavazza official profiles.

Describe the PR strategy (30% of vote)

The severity of the disappearance of forests in the Amazon, which are a fundamental asset for the life of the Planet, is something the public is unaware of. Therefore, people and institutions aren’t encouraged to act. That’s why we created The Vanishing Color, a unique color that symbolizes the shades of the Amazon Rainforest. To develop the new color, we turned to the Pantone Color Institute, recognized globally as a leading source of color expertise. By exploiting its authority in terms of colors and its communication channels, we were able to generate relevant news worldwide, making the public more aware of the problem of deforestation and the related data. At the same time, we brought people to discuss the topic and to discover the important work that the Lavazza Foundation is doing to protect the environmental heritage of the Rainforest.

Describe the PR execution (20% of vote)

The research & development of the new color in collaboration with the Pantone Color Institute was inspired by the characteristic shades of the vegetation of the Amazon rainforest, which are vanishing too quickly and we risk losing forever. The new color was then launched as a PR campaign, through the publication of a series of contents on both the official Lavazza and Pantone social channels. These contents simultaneously raised awareness about the importance of preserving the Amazon and invited the public to take action by sharing the Vanishing Color on their social properties. As a result, people immediately joined the campaign in more than 100 countries, painting Instagram with The Vanishing Color and opening the discussion about deforestation.

List the results (30% of vote)

The Vanishing Color was the most hyped campaign in Italy on the International Earth Day 2021. In terms of PR we got more than 18.000.000 organic impressions, that meant 130.000€ of earned media value. The new color and the environmental topic of deforestation was picked up in both Italian and international media outlets, making a global impact. The special color became a trend. Fashion and lifestyle magazines, like Vanity Fair, as well as important art and visual culture magazines, like Collateral, started talking about it as a new shade inspired by the vegetation of the Amazon rainforest and invited everybody to use it and wear it in order to spread the message. Regarding social media, the reach was over 9 millions and there was an engagement of + 2390% on Lavazza’s social properties. From the brand’s perspective, there was an astonishing result: + 4200% organic search on Instagram. But above all, now Lavazza has a simple but powerful symbol to deal with the theme of deforestation, which it will use during 2021 for new communication campaigns to raise awareness about the issues related to the Amazon Forest among a wider and wider audience.