The local campaign that went viral
Attention St Andrews: there’s a new weed in town
The challenge:
An emerging threat to native wildflowers: South African Weed Orchid.
With only a few locations known around St Andrews Township, Nillumbik Shire Council was keen to find and eliminate every infestation.
But most people had never even heard of this weed.
Over 9,400 watched the call to action video!
The brief
Focus St Andrews residents (and surrounds)
Who might spot South African Weed Orchid
To tell Council
By generating talk within the community
The idea
To reach the target audience across multiple channels during the growing seasons – creating awareness and driving action.
- Post a teaser video on social media to create interest
- Post a second call to action video
- Put an article in the environmental enewsletter with a link to a longer informational video, a factsheet and a webpage
- Send the factsheet and video link to environmental community groups
- Send a letter via direct mail with the factsheet to 1950 residents
“It’s so cheesy! At least it gets the message across.”
— Cr Ben Ramcharan, Mayor Nillumbik Council
Results
- Increased known infestations from 6 properties to 12 including major infestation to the north of St Andrews, which if gone unchecked had the potential to infest the whole region including Kinglake National Park.
- The call to action video was Council’s most popular that year with 9400 views and 88 shares.
- Both the fact sheet and long video appear as number 1 in Google’s search results.
- 300+ views of the longer video – people who actually clicked through or searched for the information
- As a bonus – people and groups across Victoria have shared and used the information.