Our challenge was to generate as much publicity about endangered sea turtles as possible for a conservation charity, to raise awareness and to change people's behavior.

We had to do it with less than 5k budget.And we had to generate a considerable amount of free media and PR activity off the back of the event. How did we do it?Over the May bank holiday, hundreds of hawksbill turtles came ashore on the beach at Bournemouth, England.

The life-size card models were there as a PR event, to raise awareness of the slaughter of endangered turtles, killed so their shells can be made into souvenirs for tourists.

The turtles were left for visitors to discover and play with - as they turned them over they discovered that poachers do the same thing.The PR stunt was organized for the International Fund for Animal Welfare, to create publicity about the slaughter, and to warn holiday-makers not to buy seemingly harmless combs, necklaces and other trinkets when abroad.The result was an amazing day of public interaction and engagement with the cause, a great deal of free media coverage, and even a feature on national TV the next morning.

Over the May bank holiday, we arranged for hundreds of hawksbill turtles to ‘come ashore’ on the beach at Bournemouth, England.The life-size card models were there to dramatise the slaughter of endangered turtles, killed so their shells can be made into souvenirs for tourists.The turtles were left for visitors to discover and play with – as they turned them over they discovered that poachers do the same thing.The stunt was organized to warn holiday-makers not to buy seemingly harmless combs, necklaces and other trinkets when abroad.

The public took to the stunt very warmly, with thousands of families and visitors stopping to investigate and interact with the turtles, generating a lot of feedback and enquiry on the IFAW website.As well as photos and videos, the public actually took away all the turtles at the end of the day, spreading our message to homes and schools far beyond the reach of the event itself.The stunt gained extensive free media and PR coverage, in press, radio and on national TV, all for a very modest £4,000 spend.