Every 3 seconds the equivalent of 3 football pitches of forest disappears, due to deforestation, forest fires and climate change. This ongoing concern is a challenge many charities and governments already focus on, but they cannot do it alone as the problem is just too big, complicated, and expensive.

The role of the #PlantingGoals campaign is easy yet effective because it gave readers a practical way to get involved in making a difference. More than simply planting the seeds in support of World Tree Day but securing goals for future generations.

Panenka is an independent football magazine with a different approach. Since its birth, the magazine was created with the aim of reporting on important issues in society through the lens of football. Panenka briefed our team to provide a credible, actionable link between their magazine and the environmental climate crisis, resulting in a movement that would generate long term impact with an audience that are traditionally uninterested in the subject.

We worked alongside Panenka to drive awareness and influence environmental action within our target audience, in a manner that meant something to them… through football.

The April issue of the magazine contained a pack of tree seeds and simple instructions on how to plant their goal. The Planting Goals initiative was launched with a video on 21 March, World Tree Day, but went far beyond this specific day and lasted for months. The global football community immediately reacted and embraced the initiative, planting hundreds of new goalposts around the world, with new trees still being planted daily.

There was no PR strategy ahead of the proactive idea presented to Panenka Magazine.

The PR elements include press release pointing to the Planting Goals messaging and translated into Dutch, English, Portuguese, and Spanish. Little seeds were packaged and sent to journalists and influencers to actively participate in planting the goals of the future.

Implementation of the PR: Distribution of the press releases in native languages and delivery of seeds packages to Panenka and Football enthusiasts in Spain, Portugal, The Netherlands, Brazil and Argentina.

Timeline: 21 March 2022 – World Tree Day

Scale: Media release sent to targeted list of 58; packets containing little seeds sent out to 22 locations across South America and Europe.

The Planting Goals initiative was launched with a video on 21 March, World Tree Day and the global football community immediately reacted and embraced the initiative. Thanks to having an insight they could fully relate with, and with 0 PR budget invested, we managed to not only impact over 5 million people but also changed the behaviour of a target audience that otherwise wouldn’t have been moved to plant trees to help the environment. Not only does have we impacted the environment with our direct action of planting hundreds of goalposts around the world, but we also have raised further environmental awareness and action within a notoriously tricky demographic. The campaign also managed to continue developing the perception and reputation of Panenka as a football magazine that believes in the power of and beauty of football to create a better world around us, boosting sales and subscriptions. 72 pieces of coverage across online, offline and social clips reaching 5.25 million people. The predicted views of the content based on audience reach and engagement rate on social totals 167 000 views. Total of 1.84k engagements in terms of likes, comments and shares on social media platform.