In August 2019 the world watched in disbelief as severe wildfires ravaged the Amazon rainforest. Even though it’s thousands of miles from the country we call home, we were horrified at the environmental and humanitarian implications of it, and decided we wanted to draw attention to this crisis. 

We partnered with The Amazon Rainforest Conservancy (ARC), a registered charity that works to purchase, preserve and protect land in the Amazon, to help them address this desperate situation. The catastrophe dominated global headlines for a while but was quickly left behind in the news cycle despite the fact that the fires continued to burn and cause environmental devastation not just to Brazil but to the whole planet. To keep the rain forest crisis top-of-mind we decided to fight fire with fire. 

The campaign ran at the end of the year – a time when many people look back on the last 12 months, and take the opportunity to make charitable donations. 

Inspired by the looped yule-log crackling on TV during the holiday season, the campaign centered on a live stream with real footage of the Amazon burning deployed across social channels to parallel the fact that every second, the Amazon still burns.  

The campaign launched with www.rainforestfirechannel.com as the central point hosting the livestream. The site also included a short PSA video that ran in TV and cinema which juxtaposed the yule-log with footage of the Amazon burning. The core message: This holiday, there’s one fire we should all be watching closely. 

OOH gained over 25 million impressions and generated engagement rates double industry standards at 7.6%. Donations year-over-year have increased a record and astonishing 875%, with unique donations increasing by 313%. All the donations will be used by ARC to purchase and protect land in the Amazon.