FONDATION DE FRANCE | BEE_INFLUENCER | 2020
Why an Influencer Became a Honeybee / FONDATION DE FRANCE "BEE_INFLUENCER"
I always thought influencers were a human thing. Turns out I was wrong. A bee smaller than an inch gathered 280,000 followers on Instagram and poured the ad money straight into saving her own species. This really happened.
The problem
Bees are disappearing all over the world. 75% of what humans eat depends on bee pollination, and nearly half of bee species are endangered. The cause is intensive farming and pesticides. Saving them takes money. Fondation de France, which has worked on this issue for 50 years, needed a new way to raise funds.
The insight
They borrowed the influencer system exactly as it is: gather followers, get paid by brands for sponsored posts. The only difference is that the star isn't a human, it's a bee. The whole thing was built to run on zero media budget, powered only by social media, sharing, and PR.
The idea
A bee named B. started an Instagram account. The content looked just like any lifestyle influencer's: doing yoga, reading books, sunbathing by the pool. A 3D bee created by Asile lived her life at the beach, at Gay Pride, everywhere. She signed sponsored post deals with brands like Airbnb, Ricola, and Galeries Lafayette, and all the money raised went straight to BEEFUND.
What happened
In one year she gained more than 280,000 followers, and her posts were viewed more than 21.5 million times combined. The campaign funded three projects and won five Lions at Cannes Lions, including Gold in the Social & Influencer category.
Afterthought
The follower count, the brand deals, all of it turned into real money, and that money saves real bees. This isn't fiction, it's advertising that moves reality. B. is still active today at @bee_nfluencer. Just following her is a way to help.
Awards
- Cannes Lions Gold 2020
