HSBC is global bank that had recently made substantial commitments to sustainability with their Business Plan for the Planet. First, they’re committing up to $1 trillion to help their 1.5 million customers transition to more sustainable business models. Second, they’ve committed to becoming a net zero carbon business by 2030 and helping their financed customers reach net zero by 2050.

HSBC needed a way to announce these commitments to their audience of business customers with an action that had both a local impact and global reach. To reach their goal of becoming the leading global bank in sustainability, we know that taking action would be more meaningful than simply making an announcement.

For our demonstration, we chose an event and audience that was global in scale (COP26 and the UN), along with a use of media that was designed to make an impact on a local level in NYC.

Instead of simply announcing HSBC’s up to $1 trillion commitment to creating a sustainable future, which includes a key focus on creating eco-friendly cities, we took the opportunity to demonstrate how a small action could be a big step towards creating the kind of future we hope to see. While the UN’s COP26 conference was underway in Glasgow, we decided to capture the attention of the UN and its key member nations in their own proverbial backyard—the streets of New York City.

New York City ranks last for amount of greenspace per resident among major U.S. cities, according to a 2019 study. In a city where greenspace is hard to come by, we created a demonstration that was able to support, sustain and grow the city’s plants, trees and flowers without using any additional energy or resources beyond our digital out of home media buy.

First, we chose the location of our out of home boards by identifying which boards were closest to greenspaces throughout Manhattan. Then, to make sure our campaign had as much of an impact as possible, we timed the launch of our hand-selected OOH boards to coincide with the United Nation’s COP26 global climate summit. While the UN’s COP26 conference was underway in Glasgow, we decided to capture the attention of the UN and its key member nations in their own proverbial backyard—the streets of New York City.

New York City is the home of the United Nations, along with 115 missions, embassies and consulate generals representing countries all over the world. Not only did were we able to choose out of home boards located near greenspace, we were able to make sure that many were located near embassies of COP26 attendees, as well as the United Nations headquarters.

In a media first, we partnered with LinkNYC and JCDecaux to create a one-of-a-kind map of New York City that identified the closest out of home boards to greenspaces throughout the entire island of Manhattan. Using the custom map, we were able to identify over 80 locations where greenery could be directly affected by an existing digital OOH board nearby.

Once we found locations next to greenery, we engineered our ads to emit blue light within the 400-500 nanometer range of the visible light spectrum, which has been shown to encourage chlorophyll absorption, photosynthesis and plant growth. Using the right range of blue light, we were able to help an entire city stay green.

The ads appeared all throughout Manhattan, running for three days straight during the heart of the COP26 climate summit in November, within viewing distance of embassies of COP26 attendees, as well as the United Nations headquarters.

While Americans were focused on the discussion around sustainability in Glasgow, we turned their attention to what taking action on sustainability looks like back home, generating over 22 million impressions during COP26.

Most importantly, the ads had a real impact on the city’s plant life. In addition to providing the city’s greenery with the added benefits of blue light, we were able to dramatically increase their overall light exposure during a month when the city’s daily sun hours are among their lowest.

We increased the city’s plant life’s light exposure by over four hours per day, nearly doubling the average amount of sunlight that New York receives in November, mimicking growing conditions typically found in July. Not only did we raise awareness about HSBC’s commitment to creating a sustainable future, were able to actually help create one in New York City, in the hope that the planet will follow suit.