2022 Winners & Shortlists

Why is this work relevant for PR?

The campaign strategy was designed to make the public and the press talk about climate change during Christmas, a period of time when no one is mentioning this subject. We created an immersive experience out of the most popular Christmas symbol in the world and, in turn, we shocked the world and generated a PR reaction out of it. So, we can say that this campaign is relevant to this category because it involved using original thinking to build a strong storytelling narrative through PR.

Background

Wildfires are more destructive than ever. And in 20 years, scientists predict they’ll be six times larger. The Middle East is a region known for its fuel-based economy and almost inexistent sustainable culture. So, we decided to do something to get people to care about climate change and wildfires when it’s not really part of the region’s agenda.

Describe the creative idea (20% of vote)

To get people to care about wildfires and climate change, we subverted one of the season’s most traditional ceremonies and burnt the one tree people love to see: the Christmas Tree. During our traditional tree lighting ceremony, Mall of the Emirates stunned mall visitors with a digital carbon-neutral tree, which lit beautifully and, all of a sudden, burnt to ashes. The lighting ceremony was treated like a show that used storytelling, 4D audio and a large-scale, special-built, carbon-neutral tree to deliver a powerful message.

Describe the PR strategy (30% of vote)

The United Arab Emirates (and Middle Eastern region) has a fossil-fuel-based economy and ranks amongst the top 20 countries in terms of fuel usage and consumption. And since climate change is destroying our planet and leading to a massive increase in occurrence and intensity of wildfires, we decided to use a classic Christmas symbol to drive a powerful message and spur a reaction from people. As a leader in sustainability, Mall of the Emirates is continuously looking for ways to reduce its impact on the environment. It’s reduced water usage, energy consumption and increased recycling rates over the years so creating an activation like this one was a given for the brand.

Describe the PR execution (20% of vote)

Our carbon-neutral Christmas Tree was 8 meters high and put together 500+ reused LED screens to create a fully immersive experience that shocked people and invited them to pledge to reduce their impact on the environment. For every pledge made, the Mall planted a tree on participants’ behalf, making a real difference to the planet. The Christmas Wildfire was built 2 weeks before Christmas and unveiled to the public in a huge great lighting ceremony that brought the press, influencers and authorities such as the Minister of the Environment. The ceremony coverage was seeded out to millions of press outlets and people visiting the mall were also struck by the unexpected tree, making the PR growth quite organic. Soon, the tree became the talk of the town and everyone wanted to visit the tree and watch the spectacle in loco.

List the results (30% of vote)

The results were very impressive and exceeded our expectations, helping the brand reach its objectives. The Christmas Wildfire was watched by more than 2.2M people. 23,000 of them pledged to a more sustainable life and we’re currently planting 23,000 trees on their behalf, making a real difference to the planet. The online video and the media coverage helped us to achieve even more impactful results with 120M impressions and $1,800,000 in earned media. And even more, according to Google Trends 2021, “Wildfire” Google searches increased 27% during the period of the campaign, proving that the idea helped to bring climate change back to the conversation in a month when no one is particularly talking about that.