Bees are dying all over the world. As pollinator insects, they play a critical role in global food production and biodiversity : 75% of the food we eat is the direct result of bees pollinating plants. Without them, we would miss a good portion of fruits and vegetables, but also meat and dairy (livestock feed), chocolate, coffee… 46% of wild and domestic bee species are on the verge of extinction, because of intensive agriculture, pesticides, and monoculture which destroys bees habitat and food sources. The heart of the matter : money. Saving bees costs a lot, because we need to finance farmers conversion to bee-friendly agriculture, rebuild bee-habitats, finance research. Fondation de France – Involved for 50 years in collecting donations for biodiversity issues – needed an idea to raise awareness, mobilize a wider audience and raise money for the cause.

With Fondation de France, we reinvented how to raise awareness and money for a cause, by creating the first bee influencer: @bee_nfluencer. An influencer who wants to become famous and raise money for her cause, by earning money in the same way regular influencers do, by creating and monetizing their audience through paid brand partnerships.

On her Instagram B. is an ambassador for the bees 'cause. Sharing her daily life via posts and stories mixing educational content and anecdotes to recruit followers and educate them on what to do at their level. The public loves her. She uses her influence to mobilize her audience and raise money. Soon enough, brands contact her to do paid partnerships: the more followers, the more money. The money earned&raised goes to her BEEFUND, financing 3types of actions: 1Financing farmers' conversion to Bee-friendly agriculture. 2Restoring bee habitats. 3Funding independent pesticide control and promote research.

At the heart of the strategy: a social concept to engage a general audience and brands with social media (followers & shares), other Influencers (share & engage) and PR (media & social editors), with zero media spend.

We designed the cutest influencer ever, created her looks and tone of voice to appeal to all demographics around the world. We created a dedicated fund inside the Fondation de France: The BEEFUND, to make sure followers understood where the money went.

We rolled out a PR & Digital influence campaign to make B a famous influencer.

With a clear call-to-action: follow to support, Instagram’s follow button becomes a new way to act. B benefits from her influence and money earned through paid brands partnerships to support the cause and educate her community. “The more you follow, the more brands will pay to save bees.”

#1 - We designed the cutest influencer ever, created her CGI look, her tone-of-voice, to appeal to all demographics around the world.

We designed her personality at the crossroads of 3 archetypes: the bee, the influencer, and the activist.

The bee: she is busy and hardworking like a bee.

The influencer: she uses their codes and set-ups.

The activist: she is committed and a fighter.

#2 - Managing the account day-to-day: we developed real-time contextual content in line with the storytelling of her bee-influencer-activist character. All the posts and stories were inspired by the trends we saw emerging on social media. The content told the story of her life as an influencer with lifestyle content. She has a tiny modern apartment (a real apartment made by a specialist of miniature models), a boyfriend and she loves going out with her friends. But B. was also showing her fight through pedagogical posts and her life as a bee with several Q&A's receiving thousands of questions from the followers.

In order to create a real and lasting relationship between B. and her followers, we answered the most relevant comments as well as the many private messages she received. Even though she is a CGI bee made specially to fit her character, the objective was to create real storytelling, to develop B.'s story, and to offer the most realistic experience possible, the one that followers have with influencers.

We rolled out a PR & Digital influence campaign to make B a famous influencer. With a clear call-to-action: follow to support. Thanks to B., Instagram’s follow button becomes a new way to act.“The more you follow, the more brands will pay to save bees.”

-Reach: In 2 years, 600,000people followed B thanks to an outstanding media coverage. The media positioned B. as the IT-girl to follow. +250influencers committed to the cause, +570clippings, 70% online/30% print, 4TVs shows, 100%positive coverage. A socialmedia &media coverage that amounted to 240,317,694 impressions, with a total reach of 23,269,871 (excluding B.'s own account).

-Engagement: 600,000 followers over 2 years (272k today) engaged with the 769posts/stories shared on her account. With4,137,376engagement, 3,106,922likes, 40,609,380impressions, B mobilized an international community with a 8% engagement rate, 4times superior than average.

- Money: With her growing influence, 13 committed brands worked with B on paid-partnerships: Ricola, LaPoste, Burt’sBees, AirBnb, Guerlain, Axa etc. She even became the Galeries Lafayette’s Christmas muse. Raising 200,000€ for bee preservation. With total impressions = 280 927 074

Total engagement = 4 137 376

0Media spend.