A Voice for Songbirds #saveoursongbirds is the first communication campaign that changed a law project in Romania, with 1 opera singer and 0 budget. The campaign was the only Romanian campaign in 2016 to be featured in The Gunn Report,winning a Gold Lion and a Gold Effie.

March 2015 – Romania is about to legally become the heaven of hunters. This would be the outcome of a new Hunting Law project secretly prepared by the Romanian Deputy Chamber. No media mentioned it at that time. While in Europe, all countries would abolish hunting or would protect more and more species, in Romania, the new law project was pledging the opposite - higher quotas and longer periods of time for hunting songbirds and other species.

At first, the NGOs rallied under Coalition Natura 2000 and asked the Romanian newly elected president to reject the proposal and avoid a slaughter. By the end of the month, the President had rejected the law proposal, sending it back for re-assessment to the Senate. This was no victory, but only a few days won by the civil society.

We had to instigate media and as many people as possible to become a voice that the Senate would listen to.

The Idea:

Romanians are proud. The lark is the symbol of Romanian music. It has inspired generations of composers and singers. If we, Romanians, let them kill our songbirds, we let them kill our music, our traditions, our heritage, icons and pride.

Since the lark was the icon of Romanian music, she needed a powerful voice. And that voice was given to the lark by the beautiful mezzo-soprano Andreea Ilie and her trills. She beautifully impersonated the lark in the video that made Romania aware about what was going on. While Andreea was trilling about her cruel fate – the chosen aria was Let Me Cry by Handel – she was shot on stage by hunters. The shocking video redirected people on the website where they could find out more about the changes in the Hunting Law and sign the petition against it. A few days later, several artists joined our cause and donated songs for the lark, asking their fans to sign the petition against the law.

In one month we generated so much public pressure that the law project changed, now protecting songbirds and others species.

1. Engagement figures:

• 11,822 unique visitors on www.salveazaciocarlia.ro (Source Google Analytics)

• Over 35,000 views on YouTube

• Over 2,368 de shares on Facebook

• 92,408 organic reach on Facebook

• 293,205 views on the campaign Facebook page

2. Free media exposure figures:

• Around 700,000 euro rate card value

• over 300,000 views of the online video on Hotnews.ro platform

• 15 news and editorial materials on TV and radio, including 1 prime-time news on Pro TV

• 129 articles in online media and blogs

• 16 articles in press

• more than 5 articles in international media

All of these with NO media investment.