Today many people use image search to find and shop new products. That’s why we turned to the epicenter of image search – Google. An innovative media channel to get Tradera’s message out.

The fashion industry is the second most polluting industry in the world. However, we’re buying more new clothes than ever before. The Swedish online marketplace Tradera have been pushing circular consumption for 20 years, and wanted to find a new way to reduce the purchasing of newly produced clothing. The campaign run just in time for the commercial feast of the year – Christmas – with the objective to get people to buy sustainable Christmas gifts.

To urge consumers to choose sustainable Christmas gifts, Tradera hijacked Google during the most intensive period of Christmas shopping, and exposed internet shoppers to facts about the fashion industry. Facts such as that “the fashion industry is responsible for 8% of the global emissions” and “20% of the world’s water pollution” was hidden in 3D replica images of the products which were most in demand from fashion brands December 2019. The replicas were also tagged with the same search engine data as the popular products.

This made Google interpret the replicas as sought-after products, and indexed them at the top of the search results. So when people Googled for products like white Fila sneakers, H&M faux fur and Moncler down vest, they got exposed to uncomfortable climate facts.

We identified the most-searched fashion items in December 2019, and then rendered 3D models of those items.

Then we tagged these fake products with the same search engine data as the real products they were based on, to ensure that they appeared in Google search results alongside the real products. When our target group, younger people using Google image search when shopping, Googled for products like white Fila sneakers, H&M faux fur and Moncler down vest, they got exposed to uncomfortable climate facts with the message to buy clothes that already are in the loop – a more environmentally friendly Christmas gift at Tradera’s platform.

To urge consumers to choose sustainable Christmas gifts, Tradera hijacked Google during the most intensive period of Christmas shopping, and exposed internet shoppers to facts about the fashion industry. Two weeks before launching the campaign we posted the replica objects on Traderas site in order to get on the first page of Google in time. For several weeks in December, Google interpret the replicas as sought-after products, and indexed them at the top of the search results. We also wanted to scale up the campaign by media outreach and content on social media, telling our consumers and potential consumers about our sustainable initiative.

By doing this, we made Google interpret the replicas as sought-after products, and indexed them at the top of the search results. The replicas were on Google page one for two weeks. So, when people Googled for products like white Fila sneakers, H&M faux fur and Moncler down vest, they got exposed to uncomfortable climate facts. And many consumers decided they wanted to know more about the initiative and ended up on Tradera’s site and decided to buy secondhand clothes instead of newly produced. Compared to the same period previous year, sales went up with 5% and the brand tracker showed all time high results when it comes to unaided awareness, consideration and preference.