With the “Earth Hour” project the WWF is calling for people all round the world to switch off the lights for an hour on 27 March 2010 and thus make a symbolic gesture for climate protection.

What started in Sydney, Australia in 2007 with switching the lights off as a small symbolic gesture for climate protection has today become a global movement. In 2010 Sydney is once again the starting point for an unusual idea as here an innovative concept for the communication of “Earth Hour 2010” has been developed.

Office plants convey advertising message

To encourage as many people and above all companies as possible to participate in the action, the Australian advertising agency Wunderman has chosen a rather unusual advertising medium: office plants. Eye-catching “plant spikes” have been developed together with STI Lilyfield, the Australian branch of the STI Group. These are placards inserted into plant pots that are designed to encourage participation.

Printing ink as plant fertiliser

To meet the requirements of the WWF action and create a sustainable advertising material, the STI Group designed a printing ink containing a natural plant fertiliser. For this the Australian printing experts mixed organic liquid fertiliser with vegetable-based printing ink. What emerged was a fertiliser-rich ink that meets all environmental protecting aspects and yet also assures high printing quality.

Marketing instrument as contribution to environmental protection

The “plant spikes” thus printed, which consist of FSC certified paper, not only encourage participation but also fertilise the pot plant of the supporter through their natural decay. The message on the sustainable advertising media was correspondingly simple: “I help your environment – please help mine!”

“With this product we can contribute to the growth of the climate protection movement in the truest sense of the word,” says Prof. Frank Ohle, CEO of the STI Group, “and thus we have developed an advertising material that makes a contribution to climate protection.”