Research showed that in Nordic countries, people were unaware of air quality being an issue of concern. The creative idea was to make air pollution visible by allowing people to visualize the air they breathe, bringing Blueair’s commitment of “Clean Air for Everyone” to life in a creative way that raised awareness and stimulated sales.

A unique interactive digital service called Air View was developed and designed to allow users to visualise air pollution in real-time at their exact location, so that users can see what they are breathing. To do this, the free easy-to use service (no registration needed) combines free air quality data collected from measuring stations and Google Street View.

The aim of the campaign’s PR activities was to drive visitors to the platform, and ensure they interacted with it. Extensive research to collect the views of stakeholders shaped the campaign’s PR activities and execution.

Engagement

To drive traffic to Air View, which was our overall objective. We worked with earned influencers and tier one environmental media as well as paid Facebook advertising in Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland during a two month campaign; November-December 2016.

Support sales

To support sales, we pitched Air View to the leading retail chain in the Nordics, Elkjop/Elgiganten, which as a result did its own promotional campaign around Air View and Blueair air purifiers ano financial investment from our side.

Key Opinion Leaders

To amplify the campaign’s awareness, partnerships were secured with key health authorities and opinion leaders such as the World Allergy Organization, Allergy and Asthma Network, and Global Allergy and Asthma Patient Platform.

Digital materials

An instructive film and creative social media adverts were developed to support the launch. These were used to create engagement on Facebook and for partners to use on their own channels.

Output

• Air View had 100,000 users in the first months.

• Users spent on average 2.3 minutes interacting with Air View.

• Top tier media covered the campaign in all Nordic countries.

Impact

• Environmental KOLs from across the globe recognized the service.

• The Nordics biggest retailer, Elgiganten, created its own promotional Facebook campaign for Air View and Blueair air purifiers, which helped drive sales at 0 advertising spend.

• Air View is used as a teaching material in schools thanks to online recommendations from UK teachers.

Business outcomes

• Sales of Blueair air purifiers increased by 61% during the campaign, reaching an all-time high in the Nordics.

• Downloads of Blueair’s air quality app tripled during the campaign period.

• Upon request, Air View has been translated into English, French, German and Chinese to be rolled-out in China, US, India, France, Germany and the UK.

The target group was the public in the Nordic countries. Our approach was based on insights from independent opinion polls, in-depth interviews, media analysis and desk-research. Findings showed that the campaign should be positive in tone, and at the same time informative and factual.

Visualize: we wanted to visually demonstrate the air, people in Nordic countries breathe, in a way that was informative, personalized and engaging.

Digital: people in the Nordics have among the highest internet penetration in the world. Hence our approach to create a digital platform.

Bring company’s purpose to life: reflect Blueair’s corporate purpose of bringing “Clean Air for Everyone”.

Design: reflect Blueair’s brand promise of innovative design.

Accessible: no barriers to enter such as registration or downloads.

Creative & Informative: develop a digital “service” where users could visualize the particles in the air, and at the same time be informative and engaging.

How do you sell clean air in the Nordics? Nine of 10 people in the world breathe polluted air. Yet, few people in the Nordics know that air pollution is ranked as the single biggest environmental threat to human health according to the World Health Organization.

Blueair, a leading manufacturer of air purifiers, wanted to create awareness in the Nordics of the prevalence and dangers of air pollution in order to support sales. The main challenge was that in the Nordics, contrary to many other countries, air pollution is an invisible problem – the objective was therefore, to stimulate sales by making an invisible problem visible.