Company: Plant It 2020
Agency: Converseon
Timeframe: March 2007-present
When Converseon took on the task of boosting awareness for nonprofit Plant It 2020, the team was determined to design an innovative take on charitable giving. It launched the
Second Chance Tree Project in Second Life, offering a platform that required a comprehensive strategy to assimilate to the virtual world while impacting real-life change.
The campaign's core objective from a public relations standpoint was to raise awareness of the charity "in an innovative way that really cut through the clutter," says Paull
Young, senior account executive at Converseon "These days, particularly with nonprofits, you hear about the 'donor fatigue,'" where the experience with the charity is simply
writing a check.
"What we really wanted to do was find these online influencers and give them a deeper way of engaging with the charity," Young says. The team was set on providing the closest
approximation to Second Chance Trees, allowing for an educative, immersive experience. That immersive experience prompts online influencers to spend more time with the charity, a
trait "we are seeing happen again and again," Young says.
Second Chance Trees Island was designed and built in Second Life, where avatars can purchase and plant a virtual copy of an endangered rainforest tree for 300 Linden Dollars
($1.50). Project participation encompasses an immersive education process and, in turn, elicits the planting of a corresponding indigenous tree in endangered rainforest regions in
the "real world," Young says. "[The Second Chance Trees Project] was a great way to build awareness and have an immersive experience with the charity that we couldn't achieve
anywhere else. At the same, for our agency, it was a good way for us to get involved with the Second Chance community."
The campaign was an initiative that Converseon calls "common communication:" giving to the community first before influencing it in any way.
The team implemented the objective with its target focus: a new audience of savvy online "tech influentials." Outreach within the virtual world supported Second Life, and a
strong social media strategy through various social media platforms helped the campaign expand beyond the virtual world. The fresh project offered influentials the opportunity to
bolster awareness of the charity both online and offline.
Clearing Hurdles To Create Communities In Cyberspace
One apparent obstacle from the starting point was that some Second Life avatars were a bit weary of marketers. "There had been a bit of a pushback within the Second Life
community toward marketers in general because natives of the community weren't quite sure, as the community grew and there were more external people joining it, if they could
still keep the vibrant community that they built," Young says.
"Virtual worlds present an interesting but challenging environment for marketers," Young says. "Many brands have struggled with integrating brand experiences in a manner that
respects and embraces the unique culture of the virtual world, while leveraging the potential of the medium to impact 'real world' activity."
There had been growing resentment and community fatigue of marketing efforts among Second Life residents due to a lack of immersive, participative and culturally sensitive
efforts.
The team had heard "about a few of the groups having trouble, a few of the presences starting up and not really resonating with the communities," Young says. "'Build an island
for our brand, and people will come worship at the altar' was the approach of many companies."
Cultural Anthropology, Version 2.0
The team realized the need to collaborate closely with natives of the community to learn their culture, languages and norms. Converseon joined the Second Life community as
residents and learned from natives in their natural habitat. They spent a year understanding the culture, language, ethos and key issues intrinsic to its residents. Becoming
Second Life residents, who became identified as vocal online influencers, allowed the team to establish relationships with community "elders."
"As with all social media, you really need to spend a lot of time with the community you're looking to engage with and ultimately influence," Young says. "Rather than provide
our own experience, it was more about providing the experience of the avatars," Young says. The long period of research leading up to the campaign, however, allowed the team to
handle the challenge of weary residents "relatively well."
The cultural anthropological approach also determined that environmental issues were highly important to the community. They were the center of groups, events and discussions.
Building Second Chance Trees was a natural fit "because we found that with our early steps in the community that environmental issues were really something that resonated with the
natives and with the locals," Young says.
While environmentalism was a concept the team knew would work within the Second Life community, the team was also "hoping for a campaign we could blow out further," Young says.
"The Second Life campaign isn't something that just exists within Second Life."
The people who become involved with Second Life are "very active" online influencers, he says. "All of that fit into the big idea concept: Plant a virtual tree and have a real
tree planted in the real world," which was a concept already executed by Plant It 2020, Young says. "It was the perfect application with Second Life," he adds.
A Tree Grows In Second Life
The team launched the island in April 2007 with a bang: a press release, dedicated Web site and outreach to both environmental and Second Life bloggers, as well as personal
contact with influential Second Life residents.
A hosting of live events 'in world,' such as Earth Day in Second Life, and social media influences, including Flickr and MySpace, supported the island and targeted outreach to
bloggers and Second Life influencers.
Just months after the project's birth, American Express selected Plant It 2020 as one of 50 finalists in its American Express Members Project, a program under which cardholders
could nominate a charitable project to be given a donation of up to $5 million by the credit card company.
A 'call-to-action' machinima video was filmed within Second Life and uploaded to YouTube and other video-sharing portals to encourage votes from American Express cardholders,
solidifying the campaign as the ultimate digital juggernaut.
The island and Plant It 2020 received visibility not just within Second Life, but through widespread blog commentary, mainstream media attention and recognition from the high-
profile American Express Members Project competition. In seven days more than 100 blog posts and 6,000+ views of a machinima video supporting the Members Project initiative were
recorded. During the key voting period for the American Express Members Project, the Second Chance Trees YouTube video ranked second for the Google search term "American Express
Members Project."
In addition to the American Express competition, the Financial Times and CNN featured the campaign, citing it as an "innovative" and "wholesome" initiative that aims to
"make an environmental difference in the real world." Boosting awareness of the charity was played out "across all these different online social media venues, as well as leading
up to the mainstream media and being recognized by the [American Express] competition," Young says.
Exceeding Expectations
The campaign's fresh approach was praised by several influential environmental, technology, marketing and Second Life blogs, who called the project "another great example of
how Second Life can spark conversation and foster real-world progress." The team had a great deal of success in increasing awareness in the charity, and the visibility of the
campaign was "phenomenal," Young says.
The "virtual to real world" project initiative allowed Second Life residents to take ownership and expand the project by creating their own experience with the island,
including note cards and signs being added to trees in dedication to loved ones and as memorials.
Dozens of Second Life residents have posted hundreds of positive blog posts and photos. More than 10,000 avatars have visited the island and have purchased more than 600
indigenous rain forests.
The real power of Second Life, Young says, is that "avatars can take your brand, take your concept, and add on to it and expand it in their own ways. The creativity of the
people in there is remarkable."
Google search engine results for "Second Chance Trees" went from zero entries to 15,900 individual mentions online in six months. Fourteen of the top 20 Google search engine
results for "Plant It 2020" referenced Second Chance trees.
The initiative also won a PR News Nonprofit PR award for the category of interactive PR and marketing in 2007. PRN
CONTACT:
Paull Young, [email protected]
Best Practices And Recommendations
Many of the best practices implemented in the Second Chance Trees Project can be applied to all forms of social media, says Paull Young, senior account executive at Converseon.
The core of the campaign is investing time "to discover and learn from the community you're trying to get involved with," Young says. That concept of time can work on any level,
from incorporating a blog strategy to becoming involved with customers at Facebook, he says. "It's all about finding your community, the community that's important to you, find
the people who are interested in them."
1. Get engaged. Spend time becoming acquainted with the partnered company. "It's much harder being on the outside looking in than actually getting involved in the community,"
Young says. Rather than going in with the strategy that "'Okay, this is my hit list of people who might like my brand, here's the top 10, let's try to target them' it is much
easier to try to get organically involved with the community," he says.
2. Be beneficial. Add benefit within the community and tie that to campaign objectives. Early steps in the community determined environmental issues resonated with the natives
and with the locals, Young says. Converseon partnered with a developer to build a space that would contribute to the Second Life environment, Young says. The team also allowed its
charity to provide an "action point" where all Second Life avatars who were passionate about environmental issues could make a meaningful difference in the real world. "That's
something we often see working really well within social media: the ability to start something online, start something in a social media space, but then push it out to real-world
action and real-world benefits," Young says. This provided a strong call-to-action within this particular campaign, he adds.
3. No timelines allowed. One trait repeatedly found in social media is that it doesn't often work well when there's a timeline involved, Young says. "These relationships
continue over time," he says. The Second Chance Trees Project has had a few different focus times; however, "we still have a few events, it's still there for avatars, and it's
still a well-visited island," Young says. Social media "doesn't work as well on a quick 'just exposure' point-of-view," he says. "It's about building those relationships and then
being able to add on to them, develop them and leverage them appropriately over time."