The UN Global Goals, established in 2015, is the most ambitious agreement for sustainable development that world leaders have ever made. The Global Goals integrate all three aspects of sustainable development; social, economic and environmental. Participating countries were given a 15-year timeline to mobilize efforts to end all forms of poverty, fight inequalities and tackle climate change, while ensuring that no one is left behind.

Our challenge was to get millennials who are interested in environmental and global causes to feel empowered and informed to do their part in driving positive change for Global Goal 12: Responsible Consumption and Production. Our planet has provided us with an abundance of natural resources, but we currently consume far beyond what our planet can provide. We need to teach people how to use and produce in sustainable ways that will reverse the harm that we have inflicted on the planet.

To motivate the overwhelmed millennial audience to put their beliefs into practice we came up with a concept to ask them to do just one thing - nothing. That’s right. Nothing. Buy Nothing Waste Nothing. Do Nothing to save the planet.

The concept demonstrated that if we do just a little bit less in our day, we could actually have a positive impact on the planet. Less showering, less washing, less cooking, and of course, less wasting. For an audience that felt daunted by how they could contribute in a meaningful way to the sustainable consumption and production goal, we made it incredibly simple for them to learn how and apply it to their lifestyle.

When it comes to sustainable consumption, millennial's display a cognitive dissonance in which their beliefs are at odds with their behaviors. This “say / do” syndrome means that, while millennial's lead all other generations in their awareness and belief in the importance of sustainability, they fall short of changing their behaviors.

Despite its importance, factors such as price, quality and convenience keep them from living a more sustainable lifestyle. To find ways to live sustainably without compromising on their needs, they turn to the internet for guidance. But the plethora of information available is complex and daunting. This leaves them feeling a sense of guilt and anxiety.

How could we get millennial's who already believe in the importance of sustainable consumption to acknowledge the contradiction of their beliefs vs. actions by helping them embrace easier trade-offs that help the planet while still fitting into their day-to-day lives?

With our concept running exclusively via sequential media on YouTube, storytelling as a creative device was key in bringing the idea to life. To amplify the tone of our somewhat ironic campaign, we partnered with comedians well known to our millennial audience.

Humor as a storytelling device was leveraged not only to retain the attention of our audience, but also as a mechanism for video ad sequencing, where we delivered a message tailored to the viewers behavior (skip or no skip). If viewers skipped an asset, the next video served would be a “roast” from one of our comedians. If viewers did not skip throughout the sequencing journey, they were rewarded with longer entertaining content from our comedians.

We shot the campaign in a comedy club and leveraged consistent visual cues like the stage background to help drive consideration throughout the sequencing flight.

The video campaign ran for 30 days.

Our campaign success was measured through YouTube brand lift study. We drove a 2.7% lift in consideration among our millennial audience. Proving that the “Do Nothing” concept was positively impacting our audience’s understanding of how they can better contribute to Global Goal 12. The lift was driven by our use of consistent and visible brand iconography.

Viewer Retention - the first skippable ad within our sequence had an above average view retention (88% avg view %), which is a reflection both on the relevance of the campaign and the success of the tease approach used in our launch asset. We saw viewers behavior change based on the video they received. For example, those who skipped an asset and received our “Roast” content then watched the next video served at a 90% average view rate.

We were able to net 16.7 million impressions and 3.1 million views in 30 days.