Malaysian Nature Society wanted a unique way to engage Malaysians to conserve our forests in a country that ranks 8th in deforestation globally. So we took what all Malaysians are familiar with – classic fairy tales – and reimagined them in a world without trees in Unfortunate Tales of a Treeless World. These tales served as a conversation starter to show how deforestation can ruin these stories, as well as ours.

The stories were brought to life on our microsite, where users could learn more about the effects of deforestation, learn about the NGO’s conservation efforts, as well as take action by donating, signing up as a member, or purchasing notebooks and soundtracks inspired by our tales. Users were driven to the site through our on-ground event at Publika, posters, print, mobile mechanised booths, as well as through MNS-owned platforms such as their Facebook Page and website.

Our quest to develop an online experience started offline. We composed four tales reimagined in a treeless world. We then handcrafted these tales with mixed media, using reclaimed materials whenever possible, and combined them with digital illustration to create visual content with a raw, rustic look that couldn’t be replicated by illustration alone.

The stories were brought to life using written content, and were made even more immersive by bringing our visuals to life with CSS3 keyframe animations as well as a specially composed music track inspired by our unfortunate tales. As they read every story, users could discover how deforestation also affects us in the real world, and what MNS and its volunteers are doing to stop it. Users could then sign-up, donate as well as purchase notebooks and music inspired by the tales, with funds going towards MNS.

As the campaign was recently launched, we’re still collecting the results, but so far the response has been encouraging. Both young and old responded positively to our campaign. Unfortunatetales.com received 6,523 visits in a few days, with an average of 8 minutes spent engaging with our content. The microsite played a key role in our campaign’s success, which helped increase deforestation awareness by 48%, contributed to our notebooks and CDs selling out within 36 hours, raised over RM45,000 within the first week of launch. More importantly, Malaysians were encouraged to join MNS in its quest to rewrite nature’s unfortunate tale in the real world.