Lights out campaign lights up marketing awards

WWF 18 Sep 08;

WWF’s “Earth Hour”, which encouraged consumers around the world to switch off their lights for 60 minutes, again blazed its way into the spotlight as Asia’s most effective marketing campaign for 2008 yesterday.

Earth Hour took home the Platinum award, the leading prize of the Asian Marketing Effectiveness Awards 2008 which took place in Macau, having earlier won four gold awards.

The win caps a remarkable year for Earth Hour, which also took home honours from the Spikes and Cannes awards.

Millions of people on six continents in more then 400 major cities, including Chicago, Copenhagen, Manila, Tel Aviv, Bangkok, Dublin and Toronto, used the simple action of turning off their lights for one hour on 29 March to deliver a powerful message about the need for action on global warming.

Icons like Sydney Opera House, San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge and Toronto's CN Tower going dark meant world-famous city skylines disappeared for an hour, while celebrities like Nelly Furtado hosted acoustic concerts for fans.

The campaign supporting the event, created by Leo Burnett Sydney, included a strong interactive element with a website offering tools for consumers to download to help spread the word.

“Earth Hour is WWF’s global event which was started to encourage businesses, communities and individuals to take the simple steps needed to cut their emissions on an ongoing basis," said Andy Ridley, the man who came up with the idea and now the International Director of WWF’s Earth Hour.

“It is about simple changes that will collectively make a difference – from businesses turning off their lights when their offices are empty, to households turning off appliances rather than leaving them on standby.

“By Earth Hour 2009, on March 28 we expect more people will have incorporated simple energy efficient solutions into their homes and workplace. It’s important we keep the momentum going for a greener and sustainable future.”