Regarding the ongoing situation of the COVID-19 pandemic and the actions from Vietnam to tackle the threats coming from illegal wildlife trade, let's look back in 2018 when we conducted a very meaningful and practical campaign with Wildlife Conservation Society Vietnam (WCS Vietnam) to join hands and combat illegal wildlife trade in the campaign: “The ugly truth behind these gifts”.

• Project: Digital & viral video marketing campaign
• Client: WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society) Vietnam
• Project duration: 1 month, June 2018 

ILLEGAL WILDLIFE TRADE IS A THREAT TO HUMANITY

Regarding the ongoing situation of the COVID-19 pandemic and the actions from Vietnam to tackle the threats coming from illegal wildlife trade, a letter was sent to The Prime Minister of Vietnam Nguyen Xuan Phuc by 78 NGOs including WCS Vietnam. With proofs showed that deadly virus was widely spread as a result of illegal wildlife trade in Wuhan (China), the NGOs raised a critical issue for the future of humanity: Coronavirus has finally made us recognise the illegal wildlife trade and consumption is a public health issue, and new strains of the virus will continue to spread from wild animals to humans during this outlawed process if we do not act immediately.

Supporting this speculation, CREATIO would like to trace back to 2018 when we conducted a very meaningful and practical campaign with WCS Vietnam to join hands and combat illegal wildlife trade in the campaign: “The ugly truth behind these gifts”.

The main focus of this viral campaign, with CREATIO as the media agency to help spread the message for WCS Vietnam, was to raise awareness about the criminal act of trading and consuming body parts of wild animals as valuable gifts with unproven usages. Understanding the importance of this project, we performed plenty of in-depth research and client discussions to eventually devised a comprehensive digital campaign with these following focal areas surrounding the project’s general objective:

• Cooperate with WCS to develop key messages behind the campaign.
• Carry out video production to visualize the message as two viral clips.
• Conduct an integrated digital marketing campaign on various channels to effectively deliver the message.

A CHANGE IN PUBLIC PERCEPTION IS THE KEY

Core to our action plan was a continual process of conducting research about public perception of illegal wildlife products, plus several case studies of unintentional violation by Vietnamese due to the lack of knowledge. Relentless efforts made by CREATIO and our client resulted in the design and implementation of a comprehensive plan, choosing the message of showing vital punishment for people who conduct illegal trading, to arranging the delivery for it to practically reach the target audience. 

With tireless work provided by CREATIO, WCS successfully ran the campaign in June 2018 that brought a significant impact on changing public awareness towards illegal wildlife products. The client’s vision was channeled through various platforms in a consistent and straight-forward fashion. Efficient communication was also ensured with the message’s online presence via owned and earned media channels, as well as other paid media outlets. Successfully awakened the public about the dangers and unforeseen consequences of wildlife trades that go against the law, CREATIO & WCS Vietnam believe that with more and more impactful campaigns being implemented in the future, together we can preserve the quality of wild nature and build a better world to live in.