For the entry in this topic I want to start with analysing Wilderness International.
What is Wilderness International?
It consists of three different non profit organisations with departments in Germany, Canada (founded in 2008) and since 2019 also in Peru. Their main goal is to safe and protect as much intact forests (especially wilderness) as possible. The working method is to legally and securely buying the forest (from forestry corporations, private individuals, various companies, and mining speculators) and so they can assure that it can´t be destroyed. This works by having locals who guard the wilderness on the spot. So they protect the land and the animals which live there.
How does it actually work?
Wilderness International gathers donations through abonnements options, through campaigns etc. A donation of 1€ equals 1m2 of land. They also cooperate with companies so companies can compensate their CO2 Footprint with saving forest by donating themselves or using WI as a partner so customers safe land through purchases. After the purchase one gets a certificate with images from aerial view to show the exact spot they bought.
About the brand and visual communication?
Their branding and online presence is focused on being hopeful, transparent and trustworthy. Their main color is green which makes totally sense with forests and environment as their main focus. But instead of making another generic environmentally friendly and not so “pretty” brand they established a very reputable branding for their mission by now.They work with a lot of visuals – they try to make texts short and just give the important information. It´s all about giving hope and inform transparently but also easy understandable. Everything is supported by illustrations in a playful way or by stunning photographs and videos. Over the years they gathered a lot of talented and well known wildlife photographers for their cause who know how to depict the nature to get people to understand the importance and beauty of nature.
Their own visual communication contains not much of the sad and ugly sides of forest destruction – these sides of the problem are more shown through people on the internet who may have an own online presence and educate about the cruel things happening according nature and wildlife. Wilderness International just works with the bright side of the problem – their solution and how it will affect the future. Their language is very positive and clear. It´s not too emotional just enough to let the people get the feeling of „yes I did that – I made an positive impact“.
Wilderness International and Robert Marc Lehmann (Mission Erde)
I for myself can say I discovered them through Robert Marc Lehmann – a very big german animal and environmentalist (just a short description cause he is way more than that). He cooperated already with Wilderness International for a long time where with every purchase in his shop you got one m2 of the wilderness.
Then they made a film as Robert is also making impressing films about nature and animals about the forest in Peru as well as Canada where they showed how the documentation of the forest and work on the sport is done. They showed the land and local animals – they showed exactly how the drone is documenting the whole land and how they gather the data to make the certificates and so on later. It was all about evoking hope and show how beautiful these piece of land is. To encourage people and to raise donations. Robert has build a big community of mostly young people through Youtube and Social Media in general where he creates awareness for the environment and wildlife – the campaign was directed to this community called “Mission Erde” – his own foundation. To date (22.11.2023) 19.436 people made a donation and safed about 74 hectar forest in Peru just through this film. In the entire Mission Erde could safe 240.343 m2 with his book, the different campaigns and so on.
My conclusion
Their strategy is working really well. They have a big network already after 15 years of their mission. Social Media and promotions from other influencers got a lot of people to donate and support. One the one hand it is very attractive cause you can do something for a good cause with just 1€ already but on the other hand the visual communication is a big player with getting people to donate. People get happy feelings and feel good by supporting them – they leave Wilderness International with a positive impression and may come back later as well and donate again. Another point is their very transparent communication. With their visual language (the playful illustrations & stunning nature photography) they make a big impact on the viewer and they manage to explain such an important and complex topic in a short amount of time as people prefer this than doing a lot of deep research. Their brand looks trustworthy so the people do not need much to be convinced. It´s not about showing all that is going wrong – it´s rather about how the current situation is looking and how we can make a change which protects our future.
I also found a very interesting paper about „Ist Werbung für ein Produkt Naturschutz überhaupt möglich?“ – I will go deeper into this in another blog cause this one is already very long but just from the first few sentences I can make a good connection to Wilderness International. They say that it is highly important to make advertisment for the conservation of nat
Sources:
- https://en.wilderness-international.org/informieren/ueber-uns
- Partners of Wilderness International: https://wilderness-international.org/partner/
- Mission Peru: https://wilderness-international.org/mission-peru
- Website Mission Erde: https://missionerde.de
- Youtube Channel Robert Marc Lehmann: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionErde
- Wilderness International Impact Report: https://issuu.com/wildernessinternational/docs/wilderness_international_wirkungsbe_423c6879ead33a
- Youtube Channel Wildlingz : https://www.youtube.com/@wildlingzz
- Seminararbeit: Ist Werbung überhaupt möglich für Naturschutz? https://www.zobodat.at/pdf/Laufener-Spez-u-Seminarbeitr_8_1983_0015-0018.pdf
