ZOO ANTWERP | BABY ELEPHANT | 2010
550,000 People Held Their Breath at the Same Moment / ZOO ANTWERP "BABY ELEPHANT"
An elephant's pregnancy, watched by an entire country. The ultrasound photos, the contractions, the moment of birth. This isn't really an ad—it's the story of everyone coming together to witness a new life.
The problem
Zoos have a problem: shrinking visitor numbers. Their biggest enemy was the feeling that "the animals will always be there." So this project was born—inviting all of Belgium to watch over the pregnancy of an elephant at the zoo. The idea was to turn an entire city into the elephant's extended family.
The insight
Any parent wants to show off that first ultrasound photo. The zoo simply ran with that feeling. They projected the elephant's ultrasound images onto buildings and directed people to a dedicated website. They asked the public to suggest names for the baby, and even built a tool for social media that let people put an elephant's trunk onto their profile picture. The whole thing was designed not just to let people "watch" the pregnancy, but to let them "live through it together."
The idea
The climax was a live stream of the birth. When labor began, a message went out to everyone who'd signed up, and 559,824 people watched from their home computers as the baby elephant Kai-Mook was born. Over the birth weekend, the website drew more than 1.2 million visitors. Never before had an elephant's birth brought together so many people.
What happened
That year, the zoo's visitor numbers rose by 300,000 compared to the year before—an 18% increase. The campaign won Gold at Cannes Lions.
Afterthought
No pushing a product. Just creating an experience. No shouting—just leaving room for people to take part. All they did was tap into the simple human urge to celebrate the arrival of new life. 550,000 people held their breath at the same moment. That wasn't a miracle of advertising—it was the miracle of life, simply amplified by it.
Awards
- Cannes Lions Gold 2010
