PR / REGION GOTLAND - GOTLAND’S UGLIEST LAWN
Background:
Gotland is an island with limited ground water. Every summer the population on Gotland doubles as many have a summer house there. The island has one million yearly visitors and is a popular summer resort. Gotland is regularly experiencing drought and saving water is constantly a high priority. In May, a few weeks before the campaign started, an irrigation ban was introduced on the island.
The brief was to come up with an idea to make people aware of Gotland's acute water shortage and get them to use water more sparingly with a campaign that had the potential to go viral.
Idea:
How to get people to listen to yet another sustainability message and make them conscious of the water issue? Create a competition that salutes dry, ugly lawns! The idea was to challenge the norm of green lush lawns. If people would just see the beauty in an ugly lawn, we could make more people aware of the water shortage and save a lot of water.
By inspiring people to not water their lawns we wanted to influence a broader audience to use water responsibly in other situations. We also wanted to make it fun to save water, instead of lecturing people, which often leads to poor results.
Execution:
The competition was launched with 8 Instagram posts triggering lawn owners on Gotland to share images of their ugly dry lawns. We worked directly towards media to get them to write about the water shortage and our competition. The campaign became the talk of the island.
During the competition we worked actively to get local press to cover the water issue and the progress of the competition. Nationwide media attention peaked as the winner was announced in August.
When the campaign had become a national viral success we contacted leading international media and journalists covering sustainability issues. We provided them with material for articles.
Result:
Gotland’s Ugliest Lawn and the water shortage issue became a universal discussion. The campaign had a potential reach of 788 million people globally. The winner was interviewed by BBC Newsday for 3,5 minutes, and CBC radio interviewed our client for 5 minutes.
The campaign was praised and spread by media outlets including The BBC Global News Podcast, The Guardian, The Washington Post, The Observer, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Oest France, EcoWatch, Treehugger, Green Matters, Naver, Apple News, Google News, MSN, Flipboard, Reddit, Substack, Popular Resistance, Richmond News, EcoTopical, AdAge, PR Week, The Drum, SVT (Swedish national TV), SR (Swedish national radio), TV4 and Hela Gotland.
”A new way to champion the conservation of water”
BBC Newsday
”The opposite of what society defines as the picturesque lawn”
The Washington Post
”The grass is always browner”The Guardian
The campaign generated high reader engagement on major global and local media outlets. The business objective of saving water was reached and exceeded. Water consumption on Gotland decreased by 5% compared to the previous summer. On September 1st the irrigation ban on Gotland was lifted.
By showing that water saving can be fun Gotland has inspired people and communities all over the world to save water during a global drought.
– 5% less water consumption on Gotland
– Organic reach: 788M
– Media spend: $114
Awards:
100-wattaren, Gold/100W
Guldägget, Silverägg, PR
Clio Awards, Bronze, PR
ANDY Awards, Shortlist, Idea
One Show, Shortlist, Green Pencil
Eurobest, 3 X shortlist
The Immortal Awards, Nordic Finalist
Resumé’s, Månadens kampanj, NO 1
Gotland is an island with limited ground water. Every summer the population on Gotland doubles as many have a summer house there. The island has one million yearly visitors and is a popular summer resort. Gotland is regularly experiencing drought and saving water is constantly a high priority. In May, a few weeks before the campaign started, an irrigation ban was introduced on the island.
The brief was to come up with an idea to make people aware of Gotland's acute water shortage and get them to use water more sparingly with a campaign that had the potential to go viral.
Idea:
How to get people to listen to yet another sustainability message and make them conscious of the water issue? Create a competition that salutes dry, ugly lawns! The idea was to challenge the norm of green lush lawns. If people would just see the beauty in an ugly lawn, we could make more people aware of the water shortage and save a lot of water.
By inspiring people to not water their lawns we wanted to influence a broader audience to use water responsibly in other situations. We also wanted to make it fun to save water, instead of lecturing people, which often leads to poor results.
Execution:
The competition was launched with 8 Instagram posts triggering lawn owners on Gotland to share images of their ugly dry lawns. We worked directly towards media to get them to write about the water shortage and our competition. The campaign became the talk of the island.
During the competition we worked actively to get local press to cover the water issue and the progress of the competition. Nationwide media attention peaked as the winner was announced in August.
When the campaign had become a national viral success we contacted leading international media and journalists covering sustainability issues. We provided them with material for articles.
Result:
Gotland’s Ugliest Lawn and the water shortage issue became a universal discussion. The campaign had a potential reach of 788 million people globally. The winner was interviewed by BBC Newsday for 3,5 minutes, and CBC radio interviewed our client for 5 minutes.
The campaign was praised and spread by media outlets including The BBC Global News Podcast, The Guardian, The Washington Post, The Observer, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Oest France, EcoWatch, Treehugger, Green Matters, Naver, Apple News, Google News, MSN, Flipboard, Reddit, Substack, Popular Resistance, Richmond News, EcoTopical, AdAge, PR Week, The Drum, SVT (Swedish national TV), SR (Swedish national radio), TV4 and Hela Gotland.
”A new way to champion the conservation of water”
BBC Newsday
”The opposite of what society defines as the picturesque lawn”
The Washington Post
”The grass is always browner”The Guardian
The campaign generated high reader engagement on major global and local media outlets. The business objective of saving water was reached and exceeded. Water consumption on Gotland decreased by 5% compared to the previous summer. On September 1st the irrigation ban on Gotland was lifted.
By showing that water saving can be fun Gotland has inspired people and communities all over the world to save water during a global drought.
– 5% less water consumption on Gotland
– Organic reach: 788M
– Media spend: $114
Awards:
100-wattaren, Gold/100W
Guldägget, Silverägg, PR
Clio Awards, Bronze, PR
ANDY Awards, Shortlist, Idea
One Show, Shortlist, Green Pencil
Eurobest, 3 X shortlist
The Immortal Awards, Nordic Finalist
Resumé’s, Månadens kampanj, NO 1
