Australians are aware of wildlife habitat destruction in other parts of the world but we’re much less aware of the scale of destruction in our own backyard. Perhaps it’s because we have become desensitised to traditional campaigns featuring homeless koalas and trees cut down by chainsaws.

The Australian Conservation Foundation’s brief was to cut-through and raise awareness of Australia’s nature crisis in a way that all Australian’s couldn’t ignore and instantly relate to.

The primary goal was to motivate people to visit the ‘Save our big backyard’ campaign landing page where they could sign a petition or donate.

The film opens a stunning helicopter shot of the Sydney Opera House surrounded by clear blue water and the Sydney Harbour Bridge in the background. It feels like a traditional Australian tourism spot. But over the next 20 seconds we see the Sydney Opera House violently attacked by bulldozers. As the building is reduced to rubble, a voice over tells us that ‘in Australia 28 Opera Houses of wildlife habitat are destroyed every hour.’

We’re left with a final haunting image of the instantly recognisable site without its iconic building. Where once stood the Sydney Opera House, a symbol of great national pride, now sits a barren dust bowl.

At the time of award submission, the campaign was only one week into its life with reach the primary objective.

However, website visitation and petition sign up was rapidly building.

The creative was generating a great deal of earned media with numerous media personalities, sports people, musicians, and social media influencers aligning themselves to the cause.