By 2050, the plastic polluting our oceans will outweigh the marine life. To highlight this environmental risk, WCRS created The Ocean’s Biggest Threat, a digital out of home campaign for Sky Ocean Rescue, to mark Plastic Bag Free World Day (Tuesday, July 3).  

 Conceived by WCRS, Engine’s creative agency, Sky Ocean Rescue: The Ocean’s Biggest Threat, won the commercial category in Ocean’s annual digital creative competition which fosters the creative potential of digital out of home.

The interactive campaign broke on July 3 at Westfield London with a domination of Ocean’s spectacular large format full motion digital out of home screen in Eat Street.

 The aim was to encourage passersby to discover what is the biggest danger lurking in the oceans by filling the screen with the silhouette of a menacing, deep sea creature, accompanied by the headline “Discover the ocean’s biggest threat”.

Participants were invited to use their mobile phones to connect with the screen via its free wifi.

 A combination of 3D technology, video and streamed data turned their phones into virtual torches which were used to detect what was really casting the shadow on the screen. At this point, the torches revealed that the biggest threat to our oceans isn’t sharks or sea-monsters, it's single-use plastic.

The fight against plastic is an issue particularly close to WCRS and Engine Group’s heart. The campaign allowed them to mix creativity, technology and data to push the boundaries of what is possible in modern billboards, using live high definition 3D rendering, layered video and streaming data connections that send the phone’s movements to the billboard in real-time.

The initiative was supported by Westfield London which held a plastic bag amnesty, encouraging visitors to say no to single use plastic bags for the day by accepting reusable non-plastic Sky Ocean Rescue totes instead. 

We’ve all become plastic addicts - it’s all over our food, drinks, clothes and a normalised part of the shopping experience. We hoped that with this interactive display would capture the attention of shoppers on International Plastic Bag Free Day and inspire them to pass on plastic. From using reusable shopping bags, coffee cups and water bottles, to simply choosing not to buy single-use plastic packaged items in the first place, we can all make simple changes to stop our oceans drowning in plastic.

The campaign was also carried by Ocean in Manchester (The Printworks) and Glasgow (St Enoch) and was amplified by social media.