To get 200,000 extra visitors to the Antwerp Zoo, we focussed on a unique and highly emotional event : the birth of a young elephant. So we built a digital platform baby-elephant.be, allowing people to follow the story on a day by day basis. We offered them all the content and the tools to experience and share the event.They could do this by reading the baby elephant blog, by seeing regular ultrasounds, by consuming engaging user generated content, by crowdsourcing the name of the baby elephant, by registering to receive regular updates about the baby and the mother elephant’s condition. Gradually, KMDA (Antwerp Zoo) and our agency made them ready for the climax : the live broadcast of the birth, something never done before that wrote digital history and had huge PR power.And the results were staggering: in 2009 the Antwerp Zoo welcomed 300,000 visitors more than in 2008.

step 1. Outdoor projection of the ultrasound, announcing the pregnancy and launching the url of the digital platformstep 2. Execution and broadening of the digital platformstep 3. Namegiving competition, crowdsourcing the name for the baby elephantstep 4. Continuous updating of the digital platform to keep the interest alivestep 5. Activation of the interested people gathered during the previous months by means of the sms and email alertsstep 6. Live stream of birth

The results were staggering: - 8,500 name suggestions for the new baby elephant- 41,000 registrations for updates- 850,000 unique visitors on baby-elephant.be, massive local and international press attention- 560,000 people watched the birth online, there were 1.2 million site visits in the birth weekend, - 5,000 people signed the online birth register- 22,000 blog comments in the birth weekendAnd most importantly: the Antwerp Zoo welcomed 300,000 visitors (200,000 paying visitors) more than in 2008.