The imagery, color pallet and logo design are designed to represent the punk theme with a level of maturity that would also attract people who were not generally into punk rock music.
Innovative Thinking
Designing the campaign for an annual concert event to raise money to aid in the fight against illegal poaching of elephants provided a platform to utilize innovative thinking and incorporate new ides. Research into the world of benefit concerts and fundraising campaigns, it was noticeable that the predominant theme relied upon sympathy and is generally approached from a compassionate connection.
The first task was to find a new approach that would result in attendance to the event, the purchasing of merchandise to support the cause, and direct donations to the supporting foundation. As research started to quickly reveal, there is an element of anger towards these acts that had not yet truly been explored.
Though often overlooked, a majority of the "punk" genre are very proactive about issues they feel passionate about, this would be the guiding factor into the campaign. Instead of delivering the message in a voice that would incite sorrowful empathy, the decision was made to feed the fire of the target audiences angst and promote action through the more aggressive side their emotions.
In the initial brainstorming stage, the idea was presented as "Punks versus Poachers", this name was quickly discarded, as the idea posed was that there would be two sides to the battle, which was not the premise of the mood. The design and the event name would need to express a conquering of the problem that left no retaliation available. Punk the Poachers represented this idea in a much more complete and understandable manner.
The coinciding video to the campaign was developed to reach the audience at an emotional level that would first awaken the empathetic nature of the audience that would, in turn, bring the anger of the poachers' actions to the forefront, resulting in the audience's desire to eradicate the problem, leading them to respond to the call to action. As research shows that the majority of people respond to emotional stimuli before rationality, this became the logical course of the design solutions. By incorporating clips of elephants engaged in activities that demonstrate almost human behavior, the empathetic nature of people would be targeted, resulting in a higher percentage of response.
Setting the Mood
Expression of Angst
Response Adds Value
Survey testing showed that the majority of the audience who viewed the video gained an interest in supporting the cause of the event. The data collected revealed that even though a portion of the audience would require some more information in order to take action, the design did create a degree of interest. Out of the people who viewed the video, zero percent responded that they did not gain interest. The numbers show that improvement is possible, yet the current iteration has a solid foundation when delivering the message. The results from an open ended question were also taken into consideration, and in some cases were effectively incorporated into the website. Suggestions such as adding a link to the tickets page in the body of the home page, created another call to action impulse for the audience to respond to. The complete website comp is at http://punkthepoachers.businesscatalyst.com The unique approach to delivering the message this way elevated the value of the campaign, both by standing out as fresh and recognizable, while providing an effective delivery of the core message.
After viewing the video, a majority of the viewers agreed that they were receptive to the call to action. Those who were not yet completely convinced, were still expressing an interest in the cause, implying that little more would need to be presented to them for investment to become a reality.
Using an open ended question on the survey provided some unexpected feedback that in turn was used to elevate the website design.