To promote Belong’s Carbon Neutral mobile network, we used online media to weigh the internet in carbon emissions to the nearest gram.

By creating a way to calculate the carbon emissions from individual’s data usage we alerted people to the environmental impacts of their media consumption as they were consuming it.

This use of digital media not only visualised the problem, but gave people a direct way to the solution; click and switch to Belong’s Carbon Neutral Network.

Belong are Australia’s first Carbon Neutral Broadband and Mobile provider. Our brief was to take to market the carbon neutral message in a way that was engaging and would drive behavior change. However, this is not a straightforward challenge.

It is estimated that Australian mobile data networks create more than half a million tonnes of carbon dioxide each year (using approximately 10% of all energy in Australia), but less than ten percent of Australians realize they contribute to carbon emissions in the first place.

So first we needed to make consumers aware of the problem, and then make them care. In an environment where the threat of climate change has almost become white noise and those huge environmental numbers that should be shocking are no longer, we wanted to bring the message to life before people's eyes and in that moment drive direct sales.

We created the Carbon Thumbprint; a measurement of the carbon emissions created by an individual’s mobile and internet data usage.

Whilst environmental considerations were a key factor in consumer preference, research showed us that our audience had little to no awareness of the carbon emissions created by their mobile data usage. Furthermore, environmental statistics had proven to be difficult to relate to or understand in a personal context.

It was clear that we needed a media led execution that enabled our audience to understand the impact of their actions in that moment. Whilst the carbon emissions created from one action are relatively small, we also needed to execute this campaign across a fully integrated media mix that really brought home the accumulative total of your carbon emissions when on your phone.

We began to show the Carbon Thumbprint of all online media, in placements around that content.

The Carbon Thumbprint had two target audiences. A primary audience of environmentally engaged consumers that we knew would be active and open to our message.

We first targeted these with an ATL campaign that highlighted the carbon emissions created by mobile data usage and asked Australians “What’s your carbon Thumbprint?”. This activity was designed to drive the audience towards our Carbon Thumbprint app and calculator where they could find their total emissions for the year. This content was then encouraged to be shared, using influencers we created a social swell and PR buzz to seed the vernacular and gain salience of the Carbon Thumbprint.

Our secondary, mass audience, was then targeted through a fully integrated digital buy of pre-rolls, audio, gaming, and banner placements in the most popular mobile media segments.

We used integrated media to motivate every Australian to calculate their Carbon Thumbprint. We chose a media mix that was relevant to our audience’s online habits, gave them direct opportunity to switch but also that contributed to the largest amount of carbon emissions.

To reach a mass online audience pre-rolls showed the carbon thumbprint of online streaming, in game adverts weighed gaming data, audio adverts weighed podcasts and Spotify and banners weighed the webpages they were placed on.

We then targeted a smaller but more engaged audience to calculate their carbon thumbprint through an AR app, which visualised the amount as a carbon block. This shareable content helped create brand advocates that went on to amplify the Carbon Thumbprint through social.

Each media execution not only created a compelling case for people to switch to Belong’s carbon neutral mobile network but a way in which to do so.

Carbon Thumbprint is now recognised as an environmental measure by domestic telco regulators in Australia. It has also been used and reported upon by media outlets around the globe.

Consumer surveys now suggest that over 40% of Australian’s understand that mobile data usage has an environmental impact. 37 % are also confident they can explain what a Carbon Thumbprint is. Of those 67% said it will influence how they choose to select their Internet.

Since the campaign, Belong has increased the pace of customer acquisition, attracting over 95,000 new customers, helping offset over 135,000 tonnes of Co2 emissions.