The idea was to create a human herd with one purpose: to end the ivory trade and save the elephant from extinction. A herd so vast it would have the power to challenge regimes, mobilise leaders, change consumer behaviour and legislation.

#JoinTheHerd would be a rallying cry around which millions could gather, transcending politics and nationality, to save a species. A global social platform of people, groups and organisations, empowered to enact real change wherever they live. The potential would be endless.

We would launch around Chinese New Year, hijacking the Year of the Monkey to declare it the Year of the Elephant. We would make #JoinTheHerd a social badge of honour – a statement and show of support worn across all social platforms by celebrities and influencers, inspiring millions to follow them and #JoinTheHerd. Once grown, the herd would be mobilised at key moments, campaigning for a total ban.

NB: No paid for media/seeding/celebrity endorsement

Launch

2/12/16: We hijacked social conversation around Chinese New Year – asking the world to #JoinTheHerd and save the elephant from extinction in 2016, empowering people with a elephant/human meme tool, taking over social feeds globally. Influencers tweeted, Chinese celebrities lead Weibo chat, African hip-hop star Alikiba released a music video watched by millions.

3/3/16: On World Book/Wildlife Day, we launched a children’s eBook/animation retelling the Chinese zodiac story including Elephant

Mobilisation

We built momentum through celebrity/influencer outreach, encouraging NGOs to #JoinTheHerd, snowballing the campaign.

w/c 4/25/16: as virtual hosts of the inaugural Giants Club Summit and the Ivory Burn, we invited the world to witness the death of ivory trade live streaming, running a social engagement newsroom, broadcasting into China on NetEase, promoted on the biggest billboard in the world.

Throughout, we engaged global media, constantly building our audience and so the Herd.

We achieved phenomenal results with NO PAID MEDIA. Generating 1.9 billion total impressions, we assembled a herd endorsed by NGOs across the globe and mobilise legislative change:

- 9/2/16 - Andrew Cuomo signed a new law to combat the illegal ivory trade

- 30/4/16 - Ségolène Royal announced a decision to ban ivory sales in France

- 4/5/16 - Hawaii legislature passed a bill to ban sales of ivory

- WildAid’s message featured on news channels globally, especially broadcast: inc. CCTV, CNN, Sky, Aljazeera

- Mentions in 160 countries (China and US top)

- Top influencers engaged: Ellen DeGeneres, Leonard DiCaprio, Ricky Gervais, Ian Somerhalder, Yoko Ono, Martha Stewart, Arianna Huffington and Bear Grylls

- 1.9 billion total global impressions

- 1.45 billion media reach; AVE of £13.4m

- 450m social impressions

- 3m interactions across Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and Weibo/WeChat

- 38m views in China alone

- High shareability – 72% of Twitter mentions were retweets

JoinTheHerd is a PR idea powerful enough to stop the ivory trade in 2016.

The fastest growing movement on the planet, we united a global herd of millions - conservationists, celebrities, politicians, public - around a single cause to save elephants from extinction.

Despite no paid media or paid celebrity endorsements, we freshened up the conversation and infiltrated culture.

#JoinTheHerd hijacked 2000 years of Chinese tradition, became conservationist vernacular, a global meme, a hip-hop anthem, and an appointment-to-view global event – The Ivory Burn; streamed live to mark the death of the ivory trade, forcing legislative change in three countries.

The only way to save the elephant is to stop the trade. Armed with this insight, our strategy was:

- Create global pressure group uniting stakeholders and audiences behind one social platform.

- Recruit cross-cultural influencers to enable leap from social media to social activism making people believe that enough of us come together, we can stop the trade in 2016

- Communicate positive message: especially to the Chinese, who need to feel part of the solution not vilified to engage

- Powerfully activate tentpole moments on the right social channels with highly shareable content crafted to stand out and encourage celebrity/political support

- Engage key stakeholders including Kenyan Wildlife Service/government, Stop Ivory/EIA, Evening Standard & Independent to welcome the campaign, grant access and ultimately #jointheherd themselves

Target audiences: engaged and general public, Chinese progressives, conservationists, Kenyan government and people.

Target media: international news outlets; environmental; African and Chinese media

African elephants could be extinct in the wild within two decades. 33,000 elephants are slaughtered every year, one every 15 minutes. Only 425,000 remain.

While most conservation groups focus on protecting animals from poaching, WildAid works to reduce global demand for wildlife products by converting consumers into conservationists and strengthening enforcement.

While international trade in ivory is already banned, many countries including the US, China, Hong Kong, UK and most of the EU have not outlawed domestic trade, giving illegal ivory a screen to hide behind. This fuels demand, prices and so poaching.

We set ourselves the goal to make 2016 the year trade was stopped completely, the year more elephants were born than slaughtered, the year we saved the elephant from extinction. We needed to find a way to urgently mobilise support, and with zero media spend, ensure global cultural, economic, political and legal change before it’s too late.