2019 Winners & Shortlists

Why is this work relevant for Brand Experience & Activation?

By merging a recognizable natural habitat and an escape room into a tangible adventure; we met the clients’ needs of promoting the outdoors while giving consumers what they want–an unexpected journey they can share. The activation proved to the audience that EN-WWF’s program ‘Connect With Nature’, understands their need to connect with brands beyond the ordinary. Key messages were subtly woven through the Escape-Room’s story, enabling the participants to naturally absorb the information as they tackled the challenges. Consequently, we took the audience on an informative journey while leaving them with an experience they are unlikely to forget.

Background

With environmental issues such as invasive species, overfishing, poor health and climate change on the rise, there is an increasing necessity to protect the natural environment for the current and future generations. Emirates Nature-WWF recognizes an urgent need for the youth of UAE to be reminded of the role that they play in protecting and preserving the natural world. So, they launched ‘Connect With Nature’ (CWN) – a fun and interactive voyage created to provide learning opportunities while inspiring UAE youth to reconnect to nature and rekindle a sense of adventure within them. We were asked to create an immersive experience that is a reflection of this journey, while also ensuring the activation would: - Directly appeal to the target audience - Assist youth in adopting an appreciation for nature - Relay key messages on sustainability - Teach biodiversity in a captivating manner - Urge youth to escape to nature

Describe the creative idea.

We capitalized on one aspect of the program that served as a medium to meet all objectives– the survival skills workshop. The participants were put in a realistic situation where they find they might get caught in an impending storm. In case they are unable to leave the Wadi in time, they need to ensure they have access to shelter, clean drinking water and food resources-all before darkness sets. A journal left behind by previous researchers served as a guiding-manual while participants tackled the room. The story was elaborately crafted to ensure each of the survival challenges had a key message and related back to the essentiality of biodiversity. The challenges took the participants on a journey as they identified shelter under a tree, created a biofilter from resources available in the Wadi, sustainably spearfished and preserved the catch– each challenge giving them a clue that led to the next.

Describe the strategy.

With our target audience being youth, we knew we had to give them the unexpected. So, they found themselves transported from a standard event to a simulated Wadi (Arabic word for a valley, a key habitat of the UAE) that caught them by sheer surprise. The growing popularity of escape rooms was used to our advantage and an inclusive experience was created to give them a taste of the outdoors. We enticed the youth to get closer to nature by bringing a glimpse of nature to them. To make the experience an educational one, we focused on the concept of ‘learning through experience’. As the participants made their way through the challenges, the hands-on interaction gave them the ability to retain information for future use.

Describe the execution

The structure of the escape room blended in with other exhibition stands and activations. But, as soon as participants stepped inside, it stood out like no other. The challenge lied in taking a natural habitat that essentially, has no boundaries and recreating it within a confined space. We made multiple trips to Wadis across UAE to expand our visual library and savour the aesthetic of the natural habitat. To adhere to EN-WWF’s challenging standards for sustainability, we made use of reusable environment-friendly materials to ensure minimal waste. Additionally, we ran multiple test-runs with focus groups, allowing us to enhance the experience based on feedback. The activation was setup at World-Future-Energy-Summit(indoor) as it was in line with the brands positioning and gave us the opportunity to target youth from visiting educational-institutions. It was then dismantled+setup in a record time of 16hours at Umm-Al-Emarat Park(outdoor) for the launch of CWN. Total:6 days(January)

List the results.

- The escape room had teams lined up back-to-back and was at maximum capacity from start to finish, accommodating over 500 participants in 37 hours (10minutes/team). - 86.73% of participants reported that the experience made them want to be more environmentally friendly, a positive indicator for long-term behavioural change - 80.67% reported an increase interest in the outdoors, a positive reflection of EN-WWF’s bid to ‘Connect With Nature’. - As a result of an open-ended answer, 50% of the participants reported the most valuable lesson to be ‘picking up litter’ and ‘leaving the Wadi clean’. - 77% of participants said their survival knowledge increased by 61-100% post the Wadi Escape Room - 83.67% participants rated the experience as ‘Exceptional’ and 16.33% rated it ‘Good’ with a 0% negative response These results are based on responses from the participants in a survey conducted post-experience.