12. Apr, 2010 
IndiaSocial Case Challenge – edition 1
Category: Short-term Projects
Winner of Position #3
Title : WWF – Getting India to switch off their lights for Earth Hour
Share a little about your organisation
WWF India is one of the largest conservation organisation engaged in wildlife and nature conservation in the country. A part of WWF International, the organisation has made its presence felt through a sustained effort not only towards nature and wildlife conservation, but sensitising people by creating awareness through capacity building and enviro-legal activism.
Executive Summary
Earth Hour is a global awareness programme by WWF to create awareness on climate change and fight global warming. People participating in the Earth Hour voluntarily choose to switch off their lights of their homes and offices for one hour to make their stand against climate change. For the first time in 2009, WWF India took the initiative to bring this campaign to India. The task was to spread awareness about this programme in India and encourage people to participate. An interactive and informative Earth Hour India site was created asking people to register themselves. Social media channels on Facebook, Orkut, Twitter, YouTube, and Flickr were created and these were used to engage with people and direct them to the site. Within 18 days, the Earth Hour site got 1,23,704 visitors; 28,484 people registered on the website to participate in the Earth Hour event; the Earth Hour Facebook Cause got 19,059 members; the Orkut Community got 4,547 members; the Flickr photostream received 1,700 views; the Twitter channel got followed by 321 followers. Earth Hour 2009 was a huge success and the programme is on its way to another successful year in India now.
Background
Earth Hour is a global awareness program by WWF to create awareness on climate change and fight global warming. It was initiated in Sydney in the year 2007 when 2.2 million homes and businesses turned their lights off for one hour to make their stand against climate change. In 2009, the need was felt to promote the concept of Earth Hour in India and WWF India took up the responsibility.
Approach/ Strategy
Please share details about the initiative stating clearly the strategy, objectives, goals, the duration, resources and budgets allocated.
The overall objective of the campaign was to create awareness about global warming and get people to participate in the Earth Hour initiative by switching off their lights on 28th March 2009.
Our approach to achieve this goal was to create an India specific site for Earth Hour and get people to register themselves to support the campaign. In order to drive people to the site, various social media channels were created and a sponsored online ad campaign was undertaken.
Stakeholders
Which stakeholders did you engage through this initiative and how? How was/ has this initiative been received by them so far?
Stakeholders we engaged were the general public who were online.
About the initiative
Share details about your activities, touch-points that you created/ channels you used to reach the stakeholders.
- Create an India site of the Earth Hour campaign where local content was added and made interactive to encourage participation and exchange of opinion. The site asked people to register themselves in support of the campaign. Interactive features like a quiz and a ‘Share Your Idea’ were added to engage the users.
- To raise awareness about the site and the campaign, we undertook a paid online ad campaign on the Google site and its network sites.
- An Orkut group, Flickr photostream, Twitter account, and a YouTube channel were created to engage with people on these platforms and share interesting information and multimedia.
- A Facebook Cause page was created.
Impact – Outcome
What was the impact achieved vis-à-vis goals set? How did you measure the impact/ results?
Within 18 days, the Earth Hour site got 1,23,704 visitors; 28,484 people registered to participate on the website; the Earth Hour Facebook Cause got 19,059 members; the Orkut Community got 4,547 members; the Flickr photostream received 1,700 views; the Twitter channel got followed by 321 followers. Earth Hour 2009 was a huge success and the programme is on its way to another successful year in India now.
The paid advertising CTR beat the industry average of 0.55% to 0.88%. The average CPC for the campaign (Rs. 6.25) was also much lesser compared to the average CPC paid by Indian advertiser (Rs. 16.20).
The interactive elements like the quiz got 3,732 visits and ‘Share you Ideas’ got 535 visits.
Learnings
What were the key learnings? Positive and things to do better; share any challenges you might have faced.
One challenge we faced was the timeline. The online programme started just 18 days before the Earth Hour Day. This was a very short time to plan and execute the programme.
What Next
Where is the programme/ initiative now? Where will it go from here?
Earth Hour 2010 is coming up in March 2010 and WWF India is again gearing up to make Earth Hour a tremendous success in India.
Reasoning
What in your opinion makes your programme/ initiative/ activity a case-study/ best practice case.
The initiative helped Earth Hour become a popular initiative in India and more than thousands of people in India participated in the Earth Hour 2009.
Credits – Strategy
Strategy and Execution
Puretech Internet Private Limited.
Factsheet
Name of the company: Puretech Internet Private Limited.
Number of Employees:Prashant Deorah
Category: Not-for-profit institution
Case submitted by: Prashant Deorah
Website: http://www.puretech.com
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