Building trust in a sustainable seafood label

Our oceans are overfished. Species are declining fast. But it’s a problem that can be managed by fishing sustainably, and that’s why the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) exists. The MSC certifies sustainable seafood. You’ve probably seen the little blue fish tick in supermarket aisles. This label is only effective if shoppers understand what it represents. The MSC wanted us to develop a social media campaign to get seafood lovers to stop and think about where their fish comes from. They wanted to position the MSC label as a mark of traceability and trust.

We realised that for the target audience, a sustainability message alone wouldn’t be effective. Our strategy and messaging needed to get people thinking differently. So we created the ‘Ocean to Plate’ campaign to encourage seafood lovers to see the MSC label as a mark of trust. We produced a suite of rich media assets, including a 45-second animation in various languages, vine videos and a variety of graphics for social media channels. The animation was also given to the MSC’s corporate partners to promote through their own media channels, along with a campaign ‘playbook’ that gave guidance on how best to communicate the message.

The animation was viewed over one million times across YouTube and Facebook. The campaign received over 500 press clippings around the world, with an estimated total campaign reach of over 30 million. Subscriptions to the MSC’s YouTube channel doubled. The MSC estimated a campaign ROI of 34%.