Selling the ocean to save it.

When we began our quest to bring people closer to the world's ocean, we looked around to see who had been most successful in creating campaigns that resulted in measurable and impactful change. We started within our own industry: ocean health nonprofits.

It's estimated that there are more than 25,000 ocean health organizations fighting everyday for a healthy ocean and by extension a healthy planet. Though there are certainly many signs of positive change, in general the stats suggest that the health of our ocean continues to decline. In a sea of ocean health advocates, why do we continue to miss the mark on driving forward ocean-positive change?

After much internal debate and analysis, we came to a conclusion. A conclusion echoed just this past weekend at COP23 by former Governor Schwarzenegger. As Schwarzenegger aptly stated, "you can have the best product in the world but if you can't communicate it to the people you have nothing." There may be 25,000 ocean health organizations, but if all 25,000 are speaking to themselves or to one another, our ocean is left voiceless. We have to do better if we expect everyday people to not only care but also actively participate in making our shared planet a healthier place. It starts with better communication.

We expanded our search for successful campaigns and looked instead at the market leaders so many environmentalists try to work against, BRANDS!

Brands communicate extremely well. So well, that I often find myself shopping for a new car (even though mine is running just fine) or evaluating whether I should upgrade my phone (again). I don't need these "things" like I need a healthy ocean, but these questions on what to buy, not what to do to save the ocean, are always on my mind. That's because brands know how to directly communicate how these products will benefit me.

What does the ocean have to offer?

That's why at Lonely Whale we decided to tackle ocean health issues a little differently than you may expect. We’re not creating an environmental movement in the traditional sense, instead we’re developing a lifestyle brand for our ocean that is so sticky, that as "customers" of the ocean we can't imagine life without it.

Essentially, we started selling the ocean.

Our flagship initiative, Strawless Ocean, currently hosts two campaigns: the #StopSucking global social media challenge and hyper-localized Strawless in Seattle citywide takeover.

In just eight weeks of implementation we achieved:

• 270 unique articles published (a $3.5 million ad value) and reach from The Seattle Times to Fast Company to VICE for a total of 350M media impressions and counting.
• 150+ plastic straw free venues including the first sports stadiums, first airport, first landmark property and iconic establishments.
• 2.3M single-use plastic straws permanently removed during September and policy change that will go into effect July 2018 that could see 25+M single-use plastic straws permanently removed from the waste stream.
• Viral social media challenge in more than 40 countries and localized in more than nine languages on track to being localized in more than 25 languages by year-end.

How did we achieve this marked success? We kept it simple.

Today’s ocean receives 4 - 12 million metric tons of our plastic waste each year and the problem is only getting worse. This is but one of myriad staggering statistics on the decline of ocean health, each of which are more paralyzing than the next. There are simply too many issues to understand before you can even begin thinking about solving them.

So we decided to break the plastic pollution issue down to one item that is present in all of our daily lives: the plastic straw.

The best part is that the plastic straw has a readily available solution: just say "No thanks." The bad part is that we use 500 million single-use plastic straws in the U.S. everyday, 0 of which are recyclable. Many of those plastic straws break down into what's known as micro-plastics and pollute our drinking water, sea salt and seafood.

The "yuck" factor of a plastic straw is easy to communicate. So we turned the plastic straw into the ocean's hero product.

As the ocean's hero product, the straw acts as our "gateway plastic," offering an opportunity to dip one's toe into the ocean health conversation with a low barrier to entry. The plastic straw is also a playful, social tool which allows room to get creative. Most importantly, it works! Check out AdCouncil's review of our SXSW test run.

We also drew heavily on the power of hometown pride. Another tool often employed by leading brands.

Hometown pride is the jersey you put on every Sunday, it’s the baseball cap you pack on your beach vacations and it’s the fond memories of the corner store where you spent your allowance on video games and candy. And, as it turns out, hometown pride resonates with Millennials and GenZ, for whom nostalgia is king.

Oh, yeah, and we made the campaign really fun and funny! Not only did we have brightly branded paper straws appearing all over the city and our PSA on loop at Sea-Tac Airport and on the Seattle Mariners and Seattle Seahawks jumbotron during games, we held a contest to see which of Seattle's hometown heroes were stealing Seattle’s plastic straws, and why?! (Spoiler Alert: it was Seattle Seahawks Quarterback Russell Wilson.)

Sadly, one city going plastic straw free isn't going to save our ocean. That's why we've decided that in 2018 we're expanding Strawless Ocean to more than 40 countries.

Think your brand should #StopSucking already and align with our campaign to save our ocean? Good, we do too.

Learn more about Strawless In Seattle, our 2018 global expansion, and how you can get involved.