Woodland Trust: My Tree, Our Forest
In 2021, the Deputy Minister for Climate Change announced that the Welsh Government had partnered with Coed Cadw to give every household in Wales the chance to plant a tree as part of a commitment to tackle climate change and kickstart the creation of a National Forest for Wales. Following a successful pilot phase in spring 2022, which saw 5000 trees taken up by Welsh households, there was a need for a campaign that would build on the awareness and uptake achieved in the pilot phase but on a much larger scale.
Objectives
- Encourage Welsh households to take part in the tree giveaway scheme through one of three routes: collecting a tree from a local hub, ordering a tree through a postal service, or having a tree planted on their behalf.
- Raise awareness of the need for tree planting as an effective means of mitigating the effects of climate change in Wales.
pieces of coverage
trees were given out
OTS across digital ads
new users to Coed Cadw website
Content from the Campaign
We helped households in Wales plant trees at home, free of charge, all contributing to a National Forest for Wales.
During the My Tree, Our Forest campaign, we:
- Tested three campaign brand concepts with focus groups before developing the final, fully bilingual brand that offered flexibility to work across different media and sit alongside the Coed Cadw, Welsh Government and National Forest for Wales brands.
- Designed and ordered a range of hub assets including feather flags and roller banners to equip the hubs with branding.
- Produced video content from the launch event to use across Coed Cadw and Welsh Government’s social media.
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Developed a partnership with the FAW to engage fans in tree-planting. With so many fans having passed away since Wales last played in the World Cup, we asked fans to plant trees for loved ones no longer with us.
- Cast Scott Quinell as comedy relief in our film to promote the ‘Plant a tree for me’ route – turned around in nine days from idea to filming and posting, it resulted in a 35% increase in engagement.
- Issued 8 press releases and 5 regional case studies, including a family from Prestatyn and a footballer from Aberystwyth, to inspire others.
- Used calendar hooks to pitch features to broadcast media e.g. tree planting season (BBC Country Focus) and swapping Black Friday for Green Friday (GB News)
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Created a suite of multi-channel social content with on-brand bilingual graphics/videos averaging 4-5 posts per week, as well as targeting hyperlocal Facebook community groups.
- We used hyperlocal Facebook groups to reach even more communities across Wales.
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Ran extensive bilingual digital, TV and radio campaign across multiple platforms during key bursts of the campaign (ITV Wales, S4C, Sky AdSmart, Meta, PPC, radio).
- Worked with influencers to encourage diverse audiences in pockets of Wales to engage with the campaign including gardening, family, lifestyle and celebrity influencers.
- Designed a toolkit with information and assets that stakeholders could use on their own channels
- Gave out 300,000 trees. 29,295 through collection hubs, 33,224 through postal order, 17,546 through PAT4ME, 225,000 thorugh partner projects, 9000 through Keep Wales TIdy partnership with schools.
- This campaign won the Gold Award for Environmental Campaign at the 2023 CIPR Pride Excellence Awards.
