Excessive deforestation in New South Wales has left our iconic koalas with nowhere to go. Tree clearance has increased by 800% over the last five years, and with upcoming state and federal elections WWF-Australia needed to create a groundswell of popular support to influence state politicians. Otherwise koalas are on track to be extinct in the state by 2050.

WWF-Australia’s brief was to gain free exposure for the cause by asking for charitable donations of media space, to be used to advertise koalas’ plight with the objective of gaining 500 petition signatures.

With 71% of Aussies living in urban areas, the risk to koalas is largely invisible. In Sydney, our tourist-hungry state capital, images of koalas are everywhere. A 2017 WWF study found that Australians are more likely to support causes that affect their children’s future. If we could make the future threat real, humans’ instinctive aversion to loss could turn this latent support into immediate action. Our Experience benchmarks highlighted that real-life experience would have the most positive and persuasive impact on people’s actions. We needed to create something for people to do, and make it easy to share that they have done so. In order to create maximum momentum for political change, this action had to be worth talking about on national news.

Our focus was create a media response that earned exponentially more media. We needed to create an idea that brought the loss of koalas to life, and that taking part in would inform the news narrative to build political momentum. We created The Koala Museum (established 2050). This pop-up museum transported visitors forward to a time where we could only remember Koalas as if they were extinct. Our extinction fiction was fully equipped with stuffed animals, video presentations, histories of declining habitat, and of course the story of the easy steps that Australians neglected to take back in the early 21st century in order to safeguard koalas’ future.

The experience was designed as a series of stages:

1. Activate supporters

2. Make it easy for the crowd to make media

3. Invite the media to tell the story to people who weren't there

with each stage amplifying the impact of the last until we reached the evening news. We raised a crowd in the days to the event prior by targeting WWF supporters with hard-hitting social and EDM content. The museum was positioning in Sydney’s iconic Circular Quay, maximising weekend foot traffic, and we made it easy for every visitor to show their support with not just a campaign petition signature, but also a video booth with scripts and backgrounds to upload straight into their friends' newsfeeds. WWF-Australia spokespeople were on hand to talk to news crews with the museum backdrop

The media brief targeted 500 signatures. We generated 3000, and made sure that they in turn created 6.3m social and 9.5m PR impressions in Australia. We gained coverage on Australian national network news (ABC, SBS, Seven, 10) and major news publishers (Daily Mail Australia, Guardian Australia): the place where politicians can’t ignore a groundswell.

And they didn't: “The campaign was a proven success in raising awareness of the imminent danger facing NSW koalas from excessive tree-clearing and what people could do to help The outpouring of community concern was effective in helping WWF-Australia secure the attention of key politicians, who responded with new commitments providing additional protections… the campaign has put the agenda on the table and opened the door for further meaningful dialogue”

Paul Toni, Conservation Director, Sustainable Futures, WWF-Australia

Already we've gone a long way to ensuring that we'll never have to build a Koala Museum in 2050.