Knowing it’s human nature to care for animals that are charismatic or majestic, we asked “Would people notice vultures if they were ‘beautiful’ or new and exciting?”

Our idea was to test this notion by inventing a new species.

Introducing the Tuluver: a fictitious bird invented to help draw attention to the real bird whose plight has gone unnoticed.

Using a photo of a vulture, we digitally altered the image to create a new bird, named it the ‘Tuluver’ (anagram for vulture), and fabricated the story of its discovery.

One week before International Vulture Awareness Day, BirdLife announced the Tuluver’s discovery.

Once we had the public's attention, we would reveal all in an online video showing the new bird discovery was in fact an endangered vulture.

Our message was simple: “If we can get this passionate about discovering a new species, why can't we get as passionate about losing one?"

29 AUGUST: BirdLife South Africa announces ‘discovery’ of the Tuluver, sharing the digitally-altered image and press release via Facebook. Simultaneously, the story breaks in the Saturday Star and a press release of the discovery is distributed to media contacts. We wait for the reaction. The public goes crazy, with 250 000 Facebook shares in the first 48 hours alone.

02 SEPTEMBER: BirdLife reveals the stunt is in aid of International Vulture Awareness Day via an online video, shared on its Facebook page via YouTube. The video had a simple message: “If we can get this passionate about discovering a new species, why can’t we get as passionate about losing one?” A follow-up press release is distributed to media contacts and an emailer goes out to 9000 BirdLife subscribers.

03 - 05 SEPTEMBER: Social media fact cards are released in the run up to International Vulture Awareness Day.

People the world over loved the campaign and applauded its thought-provoking message, with 18 000 YouTube views in the first five days, 83.1 million opportunities to see and free earned media worth R19, 175, 000, firmly landing International Vulture Awareness Day on the calendar.

Add to this mass exposure the campaign has generated for both the birds and brand alike in what has been BirdLife South Africa’s biggest awareness campaign to date.

Now that initial awareness has been achieved, BirdLife is in a strong position for future donation drives.

What does it all mean?

We sparked massive debate, mobilised the community, created brand ambassadors and successfully converted “vulture haters” into “die-hard vulture lovers”.

Most importantly, hundreds of thousands of people, arguably most of whom were unaware of this important species’ plight, are now aware.

All it took, was a single photo.