World Wildlife Fund’s Hard S(h)ell
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by Chief Marketer Staff
ANIMAL LOVERS EXPECTING to find a panda under their Mother’s Day tree this year surely were disappointed: The World Wildlife Fund de-emphasized its traditional adopt-a-pet mascot in favor of a sea turtle. (The adoptions were symbolic; no actual turtles or pandas ever changed hands.)
The change paid off. As of late June, the conservation organization received some 2,000 adoption-related donations amounting to more than $100,000.
What does it take to move 2,000 turtles? A creature with an interesting story; a target audience of enthusiasts; and a buckslip inserted into 750,000 copies of a member newsletter that directed recipients to a microsite, allowing the WWF to track the campaign’s effectiveness. This effort had all three.
