WWF inspire people to turn off their lights for one hour using the local connections within Bauer radio stations.
WWF wanted to inspire people to turn off their lights for one hour on 28 March 2009 at 8.30pm - for WWF's Earth Hour. The aim was to show that citizens of the UK care about people, wildlife and the planet and encourage listeners to take action to tackle climate change.
- To encourage listeners to take action to tackle climate change.
We created a month long integrated campaign involving celebrity support, participation from councils, and commitment from local businesses and eateries. The campaign ran in major cities throughout the UK encouraging people to turn off their lights for 1 hour on 28th March. Magic 105.4 & the Big City Network utilised celebrity contacts such as Will Young and Lionel Richie by broadcasting their pledges on air. We created a local team at each station to work in conjunction with WWF to secure support and commitment from councils to turn off lights on major buildings & landmarks
Around the UK over 200 world famous landmarks, including Big Ben and the Palace of Westminster in London, and Edinburgh Castle went dark. More than 100 cities and towns, including London, Belfast, Edinburgh, Manchester, Liverpool, Glasgow, Leeds and Sheffield, took part in what was the biggest ever mass action on climate change.
Earth Hour was an event that originated from the other side of the world in Sydney. It had never really taken hold throughout the UK until 2009. We were able to use the local connections within our radio stations to make this work at grass root level, creating a UK wide event.