“THE RISE” created the perfect shitstorm: a masterfully faked business with a “love-to-hate” CEO sharing unscrupulous ideas, massive public outcry and the press going ballistic.

All to confront people with the effects of climate change in an unusual way, encouraging them to take action.

As “THE RISE” became “STOP THE RISE”, the media coverage and support boomed. Former critics became fans, opening up an even greater discussion resulting in an earned media value of 22.6 million. We helped people to realise that funds can be a fantastic tool to fight climate change. Growney’s sustainable fund sales grew exponentially.

Melting polar ice caps, rising sea levels and threatened coastal regions: The climate crisis has become a constant media topic. Its causes and how to stop this are often discussed in social media. However, nobody talked about the leverage potential of private investment. The fintech company growney commissioned us to shake people up and show them a previously underestimated lever in proclimate action: sustainable investment in the form of green funds – the latest addition to their portfolio now that climate action is more urgent than ever.

The company is the market leader in Germany’s digital money investment field. They aim to make investments easily accessible to a broad audience – their expertise for over 25 years. According to Deutsches Aktieninstitut (Germany’s capital investment think tank), the interest in private investments (including shares, ETFs and funds) is ever-growing in Germany – reaching a new height of 12.9 million investors 2022.

Climate change feels like a faraway topic for many Germans. Something that affects other regions of the world directly but never themselves. However, simulations and scientific data from the HafenCity Universität Hamburg, among others, show that parts of northern Germany are at high risk of being affected by rising sea levels in the upcoming years. “THE RISE” brought the threat of climate change to their very own doorsteps.

Let’s confront people with the effects of climate change in an unusual way – citing an attention-grabbing topic: Money. We created a super attractive but massively unscrupulous offer. A business model out of the disaster: “THE RISE”, the first real estate company to help you profit from rising sea levels.

The goal: a cynical offer that looked so authentic that people couldn’t help but share and talk about it. To achieve this, we perfected “THE RISE'' offline and online: from a legit-looking LinkedIn profile of the startup’s CEO and website listing future beachside property plots to billboards placed in regions projected to become coastland according to Climate Central, etc. To orchestrate the outcry, we fed daily content and ads to strategically chosen opinion leaders on social media. Our second goal was to start a discussion around private investments and show people that they can make profits and help the environment.

Climate-change messaging is everywhere. It takes a fail-safe, attention-grabbing topic to get the urgent “time-for-action!” message across: Money. The fake startup “THE RISE” was designed to wake people up with an illusion that covered every detail, including targeted assets. Offline – billboards and flyers in threatened areas, and online – with pre-roll ads and social media content.

For maximum spreadability, we targeted two audiences: People who care about sustainability plus climate-injustice opinion leaders on SoMe. And people who might be interested in this unusual investment offer. By feeding our growing audience daily content, we orchestrated an outcry through comments, shares and retweets. The message boomed and reached media outlets that covered the story promptly.

Once “THE RISE” became “STOP THE RISE”, we retargeted people and reached out to media outlets to share our second and key message: Investments are a great tool to support a sustainable future.

Before launching THE RISE, we analysed legitimate real estate companies to mimic them. Then, we created a “Love-to-hate” CEO with which we could feed our growing audience.

We launched “THE RISE” at the beginning of December 2022, and the supposed startup reached out to the real estate and finance specialised media with a press release. Various media outlets picked up on the story as the discussion on social media became enormous over the next six weeks. People even tipped off the press themselves to report the scrupulous idea.

At the height of the outrage – the scheduled sales launch on January 10th 2023 – the surprise: “THE RISE” was fake, but climate change is not. Through extensive retargeting of previously upset people and further press work, national and international media outlets became aware of growney’s urgent message: “Invest sustainably and counteract climate change now.”

The perfect imitation of a real estate company aiming to profit from rising sea levels created a huge stir in Germany. What started on social media was quickly picked up by newspapers, radio stations and television – everyone was puzzled and reported very critically about the startup. At the height of the outcry – the supposed sales launch of the first plots – growney skillfully turned “THE RISE” into “STOP THE RISE” and appealed: Our savings must counteract the catastrophe.

At this turning point, the media coverage changed drastically as well: former critics praised the boldness of the idea now. The media even supported us in spreading our key message on the importance of sustainable investments and opened up a more extensive discussion with an earned media value of 22.6 million.

The demand for sustainable funds increased by 700%, solidifying growney as a top provider. Additionally, the campaign raised funds for WWF and One Tree Planted, growney’s web traffic multiplied, and former critics became supporters now. So much so that the product awareness of growney's sustainable investment options surged by 400%.

Finally, the campaign allowed the fintech company to successfully position itself as one that combats the climate crisis actively.