BBDO Moscow

Client: WWF Russia, Yandex. Music
Product: Encourage donations to WWF Russia
Title: Birds Records
Media: Digital
Country: Russia
Date Of Campaign: 10/10/2020-currently

Background: More and more birds go extinct every year. Globally, at least 40% of bird species are in decline and one in eight birds are on the verge of extinction. We had to come up with a solution that would provide a sustainable flow of donations and raise awareness of the issue of bird extinction.But charity in Russia is still in its infancy. In 2018, less than half of Russians made charitable donations. Most people provided targeted financial assistance and did it on a “one-off” basis. Only 2% of the population is subscribed to a monthly charity donation.

Idea: To address the extinction of birds WWF needed a stable stream of donations. But charity in Russia is still in its infancy, it stands apart from people’s everyday life. Only 2% of the population is subscribed to a monthly donation.To create a sustainable income WWF, Yandex.Music and Universal Music transferred the streaming model to the charitable sector. With the help of the Russian charity, “The Birds Protection Union”, we recorded birdsong of endangered species and made samples out of them. We made them available for everyone to use, on condition that all money earned from streaming went to the WWF to support birds. It became the basis for the record label monetizing bridsong.We launched Birds Records with the track “Dich” from Ivan Dorn. It burst into the charts and went viral on YouTube soon after release. Birds Records became the most discussed topic in the press and on social media. Russia’s most popular late-night show dedicated a whole segment to Birds Records.After this initial success we received more than 500 tracks from popular and upcoming artists. We selected the best and released them as an album. Streaming revenue from the album also generates money for birds via WWF.

Results: Our campaign helped to build awareness of the issue of birds becoming extinct. Birds Records got over 1B impressions. Russia’s most popular late-night show dedicated the whole segment of the show to the project. The results are more than impressive: traffic to the WWF website increased by 50% resulting in a steady growth of donations. For the first two month we got over 1 million rubles, it’s 65% more than the previous most successful WWF campaign for birds.But most important is that we changed the donation model itself, making it as simple as clicking the “play” button on a streaming service. Our solution provided WWF with a stable flow of money to protect rare bird species. Streaming of the album by Birds Records will generate money for as long as people keep listening to it.Samples with birdsong will remain available on our website so that music artists will be able to use them in their tracks. We have already received more than 500 tracks from popular and upcoming artists. So far people have streamed over 130K hours of Birds Records music.