Wildfires destroyed 10 million square metres of forest in the Borjomi-Kharagauli National Park in Georgia in August 2017. The country already has a severe air pollution problem, so the impact of losing millions of trees is enormous.
Creative agency, Leavingstone, decided to take on the restoration job itself. Leavingstone’s campaign, #MerryTreesmas, went viral and encouraged millions of Gerogians to rebuild the forest this Christmas.
Here is that story:
Perfect Christmas trees usually dominate the goods at the annual Christmas fair in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi. This year, another kind of Christmas tree did. Burnt Christmas trees.
Working with ecological startup, Treepex, an organisation that will plant a new Christmas tree and will track and display its growth, the agency had gone into the charred forest and collected burnt fir trees, then set them up beside the perfect ones.
Curious visitors found out that they could log on to merrytreesmas.com and sponsor their own fir tree in the damaged area – at the very same time as buying their own Christmas tree for home.
To get wider reach, ornamental trees made out of ash were designed, packaged and distributed to the most important journalists and key influencers to encourage them to write about the campaign.
Levan Lepsveridze, chief creative officer & co-founder, Leavingstone, explained, “With our #MerryTreesmas campaign we are inviting the people of Georgia to rebuild our damaged forest tree by tree. We want to establish new tradition of planting trees at Christmas – and to give people a platform to do something good at the end of the year.”
#MerryTreesmas is supported by a website, social campaign and a Facebook video.
Credits:
Advertising Agency: Leavingstone
Client: Treepex
Chief Creative Officer: Levan Lepsveridze
Creative Director: Giorgi Avaliani
Copywriters: Beka Adamashvili & Mikho Kalandarishvili
Account Director: Natia Gogia
Account Managers: Mariam Menteshashvili & Mariam Janjgava
Design & Art Director: Nick Kumbari
Illustrator & Designer: Anano Miminoshvili
Designer: Irakli Takaishvili
Art Department: Slow Pulse – Giorgi Karalashvili, Mariam Iakobashvili & Melano Zibzibadze
Technical Lead: Goga Chinchaladze
Web Developers: Meko Pepanishvili, Elene Kiknadze & Misha Tsankashvili
DoP: Irakli Solomonishvili (Pitha), Giorgi Medulashvili,
Assistant DoP: Lado Andguladze
Animation artist: Gurika Chokheli
Video Editor: Vova Vardidze
Sound Design: Beso Kacharava, Pitachoka
Voiceover artist: Tato Rusia
Music: Giorgi Chilaia & Tornike Japiashvili
Special Thanks to Influence Georgia
