Since Disney’s "The Lion King" was first released in theatres 25 years ago, Africa has lost half of all lions in the wild. As part of our efforts celebrating the release of the 2019 re-imagining of the film, "The Lion King", Disney announced a global conservation campaign to raise awareness and support the Wildlife Conservation Network’s Lion Recovery Fund’s effort to double the lion population by 2050.

The Wildlife Conservation Network supports a variety of partner organizations working across Africa to benefit people, wildlife and habitats. They have an unparalleled reputation for leading, managing and evaluating the programs they oversee and their Lion Recovery Fund is one of their premiere programs.

We invited audiences, fans, guests, and employees to take part in celebratory products, experiences, and grants as part of The Lion King Protect the Pride campaign, unlocking company contributions of $3 million towards lion conservation.

“Disney is committed to being more than just one of the world’s leading entertainment companies; we are all citizens and caretakers of this planet and we take seriously our responsibility to protect this incredible place that we call home.” - Bob Iger

Since Disney’s The Lion King was first released in theatres more than 25 years ago, we have lost half of Africa’s lions. Only 20,000 remain from a population of 200,000 a century ago.

Disney’s The Lion King is one of the most valuable franchises for the company. As part of the launch for the groundbreaking film in 2019, we harnessed the opportunity to raise awareness for the challenges these “kings of the savanna” and other wildlife face. We set forth a goal to lead a campaign driving impactful conservation efforts to bring lions back through programs that engage communities to ensure a future for African wildlife and their

Inspire a new generation of audiences to engage with the new groundbreaking film and connect one of our most important franchises with Disney’s longstanding commitment to conservation.

Launch a global campaign, inviting fans to “Protect the Pride” by connecting them to the Lion Recovery Fund to donate directly to support game-changing conservation efforts to protect African lions and their habitats.

Work across the Disney global enterprise, along with external philanthropic and promotional partners, to provide consumer touch-points through purchase opportunities, experiences and other activations where fans’ actions would help unlock and increase the donation to WCN’s LRF.

Create inspiring content that leverages the star power and popularity of filmmaker/director, Jon Favreau, the film’s stellar talent, and expert conservation leaders combined with clips from the film and footage from WCN’s LRF partners working in the field to address the threat to lions in the wild and provide a consumer call-to-action.

Leveraging the dedication, expertise and track record of the Disney Conservation Fund and utilizing Disney’s convening power to bring together experts tackling the issue, we implemented a multi-prong strategy to help elevate awareness for the plight of African lions.

We hosted the Lion Footprint Forum at Disney’s Animal Kingdom which brought together 90 conservation leaders from 18 countries across Africa to brainstorm effective strategies to address the issues facing African lions and their habitats -- the first time in 20 years since conservationists had convened on this topic.

Then, by activating Disney’s large global reach and numerous consumer touch points, we leveraged our company-wide storytelling content, platforms, resources and partnerships to inspire public action for lions and support the Wildlife Conservation Network's Lion Recovery Fund through philanthropic contributions connected to consumer action, strategically aligned with the film’s overarching marketing campaign and specific cause marketing, initiatives, experiences and activations.

Campaign (June 5– October 21, 2019) launched with enterprise-wide announcement, campaign website and talent video across Disney and partner digital/social media platforms.

-The film’s talent supported by posting the video through their social channels

-Engaging fans through strategic touch-points connecting them to the Lion Recovery Fund to donate directly to the campaign, and providing purchase opportunities and other activations

-Offering unique guest experiences and an influencer media event at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, limited edition products whose purchase generated Disney donations.

-Other customized tie-ins included collectible movie tickets, footprint at press junkets and red carpet premieres, coffee table book, Playbill® insert at The Lion King on Broadway, employee screenings and conservationist panels.

100+ activations in 35+ countries with key external partners including Prince Harry and The Royal Foundation, 70+ zoological institutions through Association of Zoos and Aquariums and its global counterpart (WAZA) who supported through messaging, education and local in-person activations.

While supporting the film’s release, we successfully amplified the cause, driving traffic to the LRF website and driving brand value to Disney.

Impact Metrics:

Campaign generated $3M Disney donation

$2.7M+ incremental (non-Disney) donations nearly doubling fundraising goal

27,844 new users on LRF website

46,507 unique webpage views

36% increase in LRF Instagram followers

39% of WCN website views during campaign period driven by Disney & LFR pages

WCN secured major corporate partner crediting Protect the Pride campaign as primary reason they were selected

Talent video reached 6M+ views (June 5 -October 19, 2019)

Conservation Goals:

Disney’s support helped the LRF fund 44 lion conservation organizations with 107 projects, spanning 21 African countries. These grants have been disbursed across wildlands containing more than 50% of the African lion population, benefitting lions, their habitats and their prey as well as the communities involved in the protection of this iconic species.