Korea’s marine stock is on the brink of depletion, with one of the biggest causes being the overfishing of immature fish.

Even in these adverse circumstances, fishing is increasingly gaining popularity in Korea.

With their number mushrooming, the number of anglers is estimated at nearly 10 million.

The problem is that anglers mostly don’t know about the definition and sizes of immature fish and end up capturing them inadvertently.

While the Korean government issued a chart for the minimum legal size of capture to conserve immature fish, the chart was too large and information-dense to be carried around or memorized.

Against such a backdrop, the campaign for the conservation of immature fish necessitated a tool that can drive changes in the behavior of anglers and be produced with small costs, rather than high-budget mass media communication that is conveyed one-sidedly to unspecified audiences.

We saw the increasing number of anglers as an opportunity.

10 million anglers can become 10 million guardians for immature fish.

We decided to make design merchandise that ticks all these boxes: it is portable; it can be used instantly as a tool to protect immature fish at the moment of the capture; it makes people want to own and wear it because it is fashionable.

Therefore, we extracted data for the most frequently caught species from the minimum legal size chart and created FishLove Band, a universally portable wristband that measures the size of immature fish.

Coming in 7 different shades and designs, this versatile everyday fashion item can be used to measure the size of your capture when you go fishing; you can simply let go of the catch if it is smaller than the marked size.

If a small idea can bring about far-reaching changes, 10 million anglers can eventually become 10 million guardians for immature fish.

To promote the awareness about immature fish and elicit fundamental behavior changes from anglers who are not even familiar with the concept of immature fish, we established that the best idea would be the “merchandise for anglers.”

This led to the birth of FishLove Band, a fish-measuring wristband that can be worn everyday and during fishing.

We decided to distribute products through face-to-face channels, including key fishing sites and fisheries-related events, and online channels, mostly online fishing communities. Furthermore, we established the PR and viral strategy capitalizing on media outlets and social media.

To maximize the impact of the campaign, the campaign was launched in the fall, the peak season for fishing in Korea.

We effectively used offline and online channels at the same time, for a wristband (which, itself, is a communication medium) can be disseminated among many people and create compelling media exposure effects.

22,000 FishLove Bands were distributed via both face-to-face and online channels, including at major fishing spots across the country and several fisheries-related events.

Celebrities posted their photos and videos with the band.

Their followers reshared the posts on social media, and diverse media outlets covered the launch of the campaign on their TV, newspaper and online.

To enable the campaign to be voluntarily shared among anglers, the main target population of the campaign, the campaign video, news articles, and application link were shared in online fishing communities.

TV exposure counts 3,634,800

Online exposure counts 4,744,233

Online posts and views 496,191

Offline exposure counts 10,650

Compared to before the campaign,

the traffic of WWF Korea’s website increased by 566%,

the traffic of the campaign’s Facebook page by 239%.

and views of campaign-related blog posts by 216%.

This led to over 8,900,000 media impressions.

Furthermore, scores of celebrities voluntarily joined the campaign, along with anglers and non-anglers.

The biggest gleaning was that in the post-campaign survey, 89.7% of anglers responded they would not capture immature fish, as opposed to the 96.6% responded rate who ignorant about immature fish before the campaign, proving a significant improvement in the awareness on juvenile fish conversation.

Lastly, during the October parliamentary audit, the Minister of Oceans and Fisheries and parliamentarians wore FishLove and introduced the campaign. Their discussion on a policy obliging FishLove for fishermen was broadcasted

live on TV.