This highly effective campaign was a outcome of strenuous R&D that resulted to a totally original output, breaking new ground in how the medium and the process can facilitate the message.

The impossibility of the craftmanship (stop motion with ice) as well as the medium itself (real, fast-melting ice) reflected and enhanced the message (rapidly-melting Arctic) resulting in a campaign that went viral, communicating a message that raised awareness and helped people engage, during the two historical weeks of COP26.

WWF needed to:

1. raise awareness about the devastating destruction of the Arctic and

2. how this destruction affects the rest of the planet.

The campaign would launch on the first day of COP26 to add to the global pressure to world leaders during the COP26 negotiations.

The world’s leaders gathered to COP26 to negotiate what their exact targets should be but in the meantime Arctic ice is already melting and it will continue to melt until there is no ice left.

Working with the idea that "You can’t negotiate the melting point of ice" we created an emotional film that highlights the urgency of the matter by communicating that time is running out. We used the natural properties of ice to create a stop motion film that is, itself, melting away.

The film was created entirely using real, melting ice.

The values of our target demographic mean that they care about the Arctic destruction and are eager to engage and help raise awareness.

However the Arctic destruction can feel distant to audiences that are geographically far from the Arctic. This can lead to lack of engagement and inaction.

Using real, melting ice as the medium of a film that highlights the urgency of the melting Arctic created a shocking visual narrative that engages the audiences both emotionally and intellectually, helping them to react and raise awareness about the issue.

It took a year of R&D to come up with the innovative combination of 3D-Printing, Mould-Making, and Ice-sculpting that enabled us to create 500 unique polar bear ice-sculptures that were then used to create the stop-motion animation. More than 1000 litres of ice were used to create the polar bear sculptures and environment.

The medium itself, as well as the process of making the film, reflected the message we were trying to communicate and made the production of the film particularly hard, as with every melted sculpture and ruined shot, we were being reminded of the devastating issue at hand and how easy it is to underestimate it.

The film launched on the first day of COP26.

The film was translated in four languages and twenty-four WWF offices from around the globe used the film as part of their COP26 campaigns.

During only the 12 days of COP26 the film went viral:

1. reaching 12M+ viewers

2. resulting to 185K engagements.

3. averaging 190 engagements/post

4. audiences started using #CantNegotiateWithIce with posts unrelated to the film