Deforestation is one of the hot topics in Romania.

In May 2015 the biggest manifestation as of yet has been scheduled against abusive tree cutting.

Elefant.ro, Romania’s biggest online book seller, decided to take a stand in the fight against deforestation. In April 2015, it launched the first digital revolution led by the trees themselves - the Read a Tree app. Using your smartphone, you can scan any tree in the world and receive a free e-book in return. No QR codes, no fancy markers are needed.

Read a Tree quickly became a trending app both on Play Store and App Store with an average of 200 downloads per day in the first month. Media and bloggers promote it even further, generating earned media to the value of 1.6 million EUR.

The deforestation context presented itself as an opportunity for Elefant to claim its role as the main promoter of digital books on the Romanian market while supporting the environmental cause.

Elefant launched the first digital revolution led by the trees themselves - Read a Tree app. During one week at the beginning of April 2015, trees were covered in a message that asked people not to cut them, but instead to scan them using the app. In return, they received a free e-book.

Anyone using it would promote the fight against deforestation, but also endorse Elefant’s brand point of view.

In the first week, the app was downloaded over 5,000 times. During the first month, 200 books were downloaded each day. 50,000 trees were scanned and counting.

Read a Tree quickly became a trending app on Play Store and App Store, as more and more people were curious to see if it really worked. Online and media coverage soon followed, generating earned media to the value of 1.6 million EUR.

With a single, clever app, Elefant secured its leadership in the e-book market while promoting the fight against deforestation.