GLOBAL CLEAN OCEANS PROJECT

Over 1 billion litres of pollution are flushed into our oceans every day. The devastating effect this is having on marine life is incalculable. Even more worrying, is that anybody using the beaches or oceans could also be at risk.

The objective of this campaign was firstly to highlight the problem and scale of pollution then, most importantly, to encourage all Australians to change their behaviour for the sake of our oceans and beaches.

Instead of launching in paid for media, we used free media and word of mouth to create a buzz. We started a conversation. Who was the Chemical Surfer and what was he doing on our beaches?

Viral films of Chemical Surfer “spotted” at various beaches were posted on YouTube and local surf sites. We sent pictures captured on mobile phones to unsuspecting friends and the local newspapers, asking if they could shed some light on what was happening. Was there a chemical spill? An environmental disaster on our doorsteps perhaps?

Having set the ball rolling, we conspired with our seeds to keep the questions burning in chatrooms, blogs and sites across the web. The reveal came a week later.

We broke the story through the chatrooms, newspapers and a viral film reveal, “Turn The Tide”, that the Chemical Surfer was part of a new Surfrider Foundation Clean Oceans campaign. We drove people to the official Chemical Surfer website. Once there, visitors could read all the ways in which they can help stop ocean pollution, and more importantly, on how they could become a Surfrider Foundation member.