Getty Images has a global community of professionals who browse and purchase images every day. As we had no media dollars, we wanted to directly target these image buyers to help us make a difference with the water crisis.

Getty Images presents Watermarks for Water.

On World Water Day, we transformed Getty Images’ iconic asset, the watermark, and used it to tackle the water crisis.

By removing the watermark, you could remove impurities from unclean water. We hacked the licensing process on the Getty Images’ site so that, when someone purchased one of the images with the special watermark, a portion of the proceeds went to charity: water to help build water wells for communities in need.

The campaign launched on March 22—World Water Day—with the first home-page takeover for Getty Images. Visitors could learn about water issues, view a video, purchase an image, and share on social. In New York, we opened a pop-up gallery, with images for purchase, and invited media to an exclusive event.

When an image was licensed, proceeds went to charity: water, which brings clean and safe drinking water to developing countries. When an image was shared on social media, it retained its watermark along with a compelling fact about clean water challenges and a call to action for others to license or share.

National media—covering everything from global issues and the water crisis to photography and gallery openings—received campaign assets with stories timed for World Water Day. This approach maximized coverage and resulted in Getty Images being included in stories about organizations supporting an end to the crisis.

As the world’s leading provider of visual content communication, Getty Images receives millions of visits to their website from image buyers, resulting in web traffic from 114 countries around the world, 296 earned placements, and 48.8 million media impressions. When an image was licensed, a portion of the proceeds was donated to charity: water. One hundred percent of the money raised for charity: water has helped fund water projects for communities in need.

To date, charity: water has funded 28,389 water projects across 26 different countries. As a result, 8,236,681 people around the globe will be provided access to clean water. While it launched on World Water Day, Watermarks for Water continues to raise awareness and money for those who lack access to clean water.