'Trees for Trees' - How Dennis Publishing will plant 10,000 trees on Do It Day
Plan It Day brought together brands in search of creative solutions for world-changing ideas. Now, as we look ahead to Do It Day, Dennis Publishing reveals its winning strategy - 'Trees for Trees' - and how it will help the publisher achieve its goal of planting 10,000 trees in the Heart of England Forest in just 24 hours.
Dennis Publishing wants the advertising industry to help it plant a forest in a day; that’s 10,000 trees ad land’s brightest had to figure out a way of planting in just 24 hours.
The teams had the challenge of how to get people to engage in such an innovative and quirky idea, thought up by Dennis’ beloved founder Felix Dennis who passed away last year.
The judges in turn looked at whether concepts were simple to communicate, practical, scaleable and engaging. Of the winning idea, one judge said: “If I’d have had that pitch from a world class agency, I’d be pleased,” while another said: “When I heard that pitch I got a lump in throat”. Such praise is emblematic of how one simple idea, to create a real forest from a virtual version, really struck a chord with Dennis’ panel of executives.
“I thought it was beautifully simple,” said Dennis Publishing’s chief executive James Tye. “Every child at some point wants to grow a forest”.
‘Trees for trees’ would invite children to post their drawing of a tree either on Instagram, Facebook or by email to Dennis, which in turn would bring it to life and plant a real one. The young artist behind the best drawing would also get to name the forest.
But how will Dennis help bring this to life? Aside from a 400-strong army of willing staff, there’s also the media firepower it can bring to bear; it has offered to create articles, pictures and videos across its 18 magazine brands alongside its social media, PR and marketing resources in order to galvanise support for the plan.
Winning team: Sadie Dedman, Bmore; Chris Gilfoy, Unique Digital; Victoria Wainwright, Good Agency; Amy Knight, Eskimo Soup
Plan It Day was sponsored by Clear Channel, Bima, Digilant, Millennial Media, Undercurrent, Wunderman and Yoyo. To see how this plan and others like it are put into action join us at Do It Day.