We turned the Bialowieza Forest into an irresistible piece of Minecraft content - a 1:1 scale, accurate digital back-up copy of the entire, 700 square kilometres large Polish side of the forest, open to public for exploration. The map was a way attract as many young people as possible in order to introduce them to the problem of logging, free of politics but full of fun. It became a hit almost instantly, and just when it was praised all over, we replaced it with a new version where all of the 7 million trees except for - The Last Tree Standing - was cut down. The simulation of feeling of loss proved enough to propel the audience towards voicing their concern.

The campaign launched on 27/06/17 and went on for 3 weeks, however the map still lives on.

We launched it with three tactical executions:

- online video made on our Minecraft Map and narrated by Poland's most iconic wildlife documentary film voice artist

- a group show of 12 best Polish photographers who exhibited the screenshots from our map as "landscapes from Bialowieza Forest"

- gaming influencers Youtube gameplay-videos who created over 6 hours content

It was followed by a premiere od 28-minutes-long documentary film about the Bia?owie?a Forest's current situation led by a famous Polish actor. The premiere took place in a cinema theatre and was live-streamed on Facebook.

In the end, we hosted a Twitch live-event where we had shown our map with all the trees, but one, logged down (#1 twitch event in Poland, #4 in Europe).

The game's producer - Microsoft - endorsed the campaign globally.

TARGET AUDIENCE OUTCOMES:

Over 100 million people worldwide were reached by our campaign. That’s more than 3 times the population of Poland.

The signatures under a petition to increase the size of protected National Park (170 thousand) was reached.

Thanks to combined efforts from media, activists and ordinary people, the Minister of Environment responsible for the situation was fired and the logging has been suspended.

COVERAGE DEPTH:

The ‘news’ in the gaming world which is video content related to gaming and published on Youtube, Twitch and Facebook totalled over 7 hours (!) and was watched over a million times. The videos prepared by the influencers were long, in-depth, very educational and entertaining.

The campaign’s final Twitch event was a #1 in Poland and #4 in Europe. Watched by 10 thousand people on the main channel, and estimated 100 thousand people spread all over. The live-stream gathered 10 000% bigger audience that the UNESCO live-stream from the Bialowieza Forest special session.

The documentary film was screened even at a festival in USA and was widely praised for being extremely objective and informative.

The photography exhibition was reported widely in the world of arts and culture and there are even some top-tier artists discussing it academically at universities.

The campaign as a whole was reported on every continent, in various media outlets. It even reached the game’s producer - Microsoft - who endorsed it on all their social media channels and even featured it on the Minecraft start-screen globally.

The Bialowieza Forest is a UNESCO protected site of the same importance as the Yellowstone Park or the Great Barrier Reef. The problem is, it’s much less known, thus more vulnerable. How people learn about the Yellowstone? From the Hanna Barbera’s cartoon about Yogi Bear which raised generations of people for whom the park is important.

We initiated exactly the same process, but using a wildly popular game instead of a cartoon. Even the game’s producer - Microsoft - featured it in the game globally.

It also turned a polarising, political subject into a purely environmental and fun one.

We focused on the gamers because more often than not, they are young and not politically involved yet, so their voice would be clearly heard. The online petitions in Poland can signed by people as young as 13 years old.

It’s estimated that the gaming community in Poland amounts to approx. 8 million people of which approx. 800 thousand play Minecraft on a daily basis. Many more people watch the other people play the games - on Twitch and on Youtube. In the gaming world, things are different: the Youtube game reviews are the news, the Twitch live-streams are the events, and Minecraft holds it all together like a glue.

Our media strategy focused on creating irresistible Minecraft content, gaming-world celebrities endorsement, mix of Twitch / Youtube / Facebook / Blogs executions and creative activations provoking media’s coverage time and time again.

The Polish Government started logging in the UNESCO protected area and the Europe's last lowland primeval forest. The protests coming from NGOs, scientists and concerned citizens were largely ignored and to hide their actions the Government even closed the forest down.

We needed to activate more of different kinds of protesters, but at the time the subject of logging was already very political so the people wanted to stay away from it. The apathy was even stronger as in Poland protecting the environment is considered "leftist" and not everyone wants to be labelled as such.

In this context, the campaign's main objective was to depolarise the subject and provide a neutral space for people to get involved, to educate themselves about the situation, and to feel inspired to voice their concerns about the future of the Bialowieza Forest.