The SOS Mata Atlantica Foundation is a Brazilian non-profit organization, founded in 1986, working towards the protection of the Atlantic Rain Forest (Mata Atlantica), one of the richest ecosystems in terms of biodiversity, and also one of the most threatened with extinction on the planet.

In April, 09 print ads and a 30’ spot were launched as an invitation to the Foundation’s annual event ‘Viva a Mata’ to learn about how peeing in the shower could help protect the environment. The campaign officially launched in May during ‘Viva a Mata’ where a large number of teens were expected to attend through academic field trips. Local TV channels were invited to cover the event, further helping reveal the campaign. A special strategy with bloggers and news sites was made:the content of the campaign is highly viral so digital was a key element of the PR approach. Influential bloggers were granted advance access to the campaign content. Digital was a key elemento of the PR strategy: Twitter, Youtube and approach with bloggers. The campaign ran according to plan however the repercussion was much greater than expected. The plan took account of Brazilian media outlets only but the buzz went international.

The campaign was originally aimed to the Brazilian public only but it generated buzz all over the world in more than 66 countries, in 5 continents. The campaign website had more than 450,000 unique visitors from May 2009 to march 2010. Since the video launch on YouTube it has had almost 1 million views. In Brazil, the campaign appeared, as spontaneous media, in all major news shows in open and cable TV. There was also a great buzz in newspapers, magazines and blogs and news related sites. Internationally, major newspapers, TV news shows and websites discussed the campaign: Le Monde, The New York Times, AOL, The Guardian and China Daily. The investment in media and promotion was literally zero and the estimated return, in spontaneous media was US$700.767,73 in print, US$4.494.120,53 in TV and US$15.447.189,10 in digital. Total estimated media return: US$20.642.189,36.