2025 Winner

CASE SUMMARY

Launched in fall 2023, Environmental Leadership Canada (ELC) is a Canadian charity building a new generation of environmental leaders and supporting youth to engage in democracy. To establish a presence in the climate justice sphere, the agency identified an opportunity for ELC to go to the COP28 UN Climate Change Conference in Dubai.

But with over 85,000 delegates in attendance, ELC needed more than just some key messages and handshakes to break through. It needed a creative intervention – one that could foster conversation and action both online and off and represent ELC’s point-of-view to a high-value audience of global elected officials and climate leaders.

The challenge was to help a growing environmental organization gain attention for itself on a crowded global stage in a thought-provoking way, while spurring action at home in Canada.

Climate action messages are typically accompanied by images of environmental devastation. Yet research shows that people have grown desensitized to them, which prevents behavioural change.

Environmental Leadership Canada (ELC) needed a different way of breaking through to political leaders, who have been stubbornly resistant to act on climate.

So they went to an unlikely place, where they made an alarming discovery: Antarctica, considered by many to be resistant to the effects of climate change. A recent study revealed two species of flowering plants – Antarctic Pearlwort and Antarctic Hair Grass – are growing at unprecedented rates, based on historical comparisons between 2006 and 2019.

When flowers are thriving in Antarctica, it’s clear the planet is in peril.

Bouquets are a symbol of love, gratitude, condolence – a thoughtful gesture. “The Planet’s Scariest Bouquet”, created from Antarctic Pearlwort and Antarctic Hair Grass, flips that meaning into a powerful symbol of inaction.

It became clear they wouldn’t be able to source Antarctic plants responsibly with a low carbon footprint or grow them from seed given the short time the agnecy had between ELC’s fall launch and the November COP28 summit. So, sourcing from botanical drawings, scientific research and photos, they combined paper, moss and other natural materials with digital 3D printing to create a bouquet with close replicas of the real flowers.

The goal was simple: Get the bouquet, and message, into the hands of environmental leaders, and extend the conversation beyond COP28.

ELC representatives brought the bouquet to Dubai, where it became the focus of real-life conversation amongst climate leaders. The agency then extended the conversation to the public through a digitally driven campaign to spur action at home in Canada. Elements included a microsite, a video, and easy-to-use links that enabled visitors to send a digital bouquet to elected leaders’ email and
social media accounts.

To introduce ELC to the world, the agency delivered “The Planet’s Scariest Bouquet” to the world’s biggest climate conference: COP28 in Dubai.

The Bouquet made a big impact for a handful of small flowers. The bouquet appeared in the hands of delegates from every continent at COP28, was featured on panel conversations on 4 different stages at COP28, viewed by 70,000+ environmental leaders and garnered high-profile Middle East news coverage.

Credits

Agency: Zulu Alpha Kilo
Creative Chairman: Zak Mroueh
Chief Creative Officer: Zak Mroueh, Tim Gordon
ACD/Art Director: Ivan Mallqui, Michael Romaniuk
ACD/Writer: Marco Buchar, Greg Kieltyka
Account Team: Patti Ann Cochren
Chief Strategy Director: Heather Segal
Strategy Director: Meredith Ferguson
Client: Environmental Leadership Canada
Client: Beata Rasitsan, Client: Beata Rasitsan, Skw'akw'as Sunshine Lillian
PR Team: Kelly Flynn, Katie Hull
Production House: Zulubot
DP: Can Yuksel
PA/Camera Assist: Noah Mroueh
Producer: Colleen Allen, Amy Groll
Post House: Zulubot
Editor: Erin Brazeau
Colour/ Online: Felipe Chaparro
Music & Sound: Agosto Music & Sound Craft
Music Director: Claudia Incio
Music Producer: Jose Campos
Sound Designer & Mix: Charly García