Earth Hour has set its sights on convincing one billion people in 1000 cities to switch off their lights for one hour on 28 March, as the three-year old movement against climate change goes truly global in 2009.
Co-creator of Earth Hour and advertising partner Leo Burnett has created the global “Vote Earth” advertising campaign, launched this week. It revolves around what organisers are calling the “world’s first global election”.
People around the world are being asked to “Vote Earth” by switching off their lights for one hour in a global show of support for the planet. Leaving lights on is a vote for global warming.
The result of the “vote” will be presented to world leaders at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December to push for a commitment to more aggressive emissions targets.
The “Vote Earth” concept was devised by Leo Burnett creatives Michael Canning and Kieran Anthill, and the campaign is currently being translated into Spanish, French, Mandarin and a myriad of other languages, and rolled out around the world.
“The reality is, if we want to make a difference and create a visual mandate, it needs to be a global campaign,” Earth Hour global executive director Andy Ridley said. “It needs to be on a scale never seen before. It’s kind of terrifying.”
At time of press, almost 700 cities around the world have signed up for Earth Hour 2009, with a month still to go before the big night. Las Vegas’s neon will shut off, while the Eiffel Tower’s brilliant lights will disappear.
Earth Hour’s 2009 official video is currently being viewed once every 15 seconds on YouTube. Earth Hour has more than 220,000 friends and followers on social networking sites, and the term “Earth Hour” is mentioned online every seven seconds.
Leo Burnett collaborated with Curious Films, animator Syd Garron, and artist Shepard Fairey to create print, poster and TV advertisements, with Coldplay lending the song “Fix You” as a soundtrack to the TVC and Cate Blanchett providing a voiceover. Starcom MediaVest has arranged pro bono media placements, while online will play a vital role in the marketing mix, with Google and YouTube signing up to provide groundbreaking technologies to help spread the word as far as possible.
“It is only with partners like YouTube and Google that we will be able to get the quantifiable results the World Wildlife Fund needs to tell world leaders we need to make a change now,” Leo Burnett joint executive creative director Andy DiLallo said.
Social networking will play a vital role after Earth Hour in helping to collate people’s “votes” in preparation for Copenhagen.
Getting a billion people involved in Earth Hour 2009 is “an extremely ambitious target”, Ridley admitted, adding that world leaders agreeing on a plan to tackle climate change is “not the likeliest scenario”.
“They need the mandate,” he said. “They’re under a lot of short-term political pressure. But it’s not about politics, it’s about a goal of trying to deal with climate change.
“The madness and beauty of it is that the ad world is probably going to be the key driver in this,” Ridley said. “But it makes sense. It’s where some of the most creative people are.”
Leo Burnett chief executive Todd Sampson was with Ridley at the Hilton Hotel three years ago when the concept of “Earth Hour” was born. “From that very first day, to go from nothing and to see it become a multimillion person brand around the world [and] to be a co-creator of it is really quite amazing,” Sampson said.
The very nature of the Earth Hour movement has meant Leo Burnett has had to let go of some typical advertising rules of thumb. The “open source” approach to the campaign, whereby Leo Burnett’s creative concept has been appropriated and localised in various markets, has led to some tough lessons for the agency.
“The hardest part is letting go, letting the idea belong to other people,” Sampson said.
“Usually brand management is about controlling a brand, a message. There are agencies we don’t even know working on Earth Hour. We’re all focused on the same ambition.”
Nikki MacLennan
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