The “zoo without animals” campaign is a public awareness campaign about environmental protection and the coexistence of humans and animals. The campaign includes two videos for raising awareness and the JUMP AR app, which has been available for the last six months, offering new themes and events to users up to this moment.

In cooperation with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the campaign launched the #Animal_heart_challenge on Instagram, where 23,000 users promoted a society of coexistence with pictures of animals. The participation of 70 celebrities, such as Faker, helped raise public interest on SNS.

This campaign received the Korea Internet Communication Best Award by Minister for Excellence in digital and social media campaigns as it reached 3.4 million users.

Many people go to zoos to see animals. Unfortunately, this contributes to the suffering of the animals in question. Given this, the campaign started with this question: “Can we guarantee happiness for people and animals at the same time?” SK Telecom, Korea’s leading communication company and the first in the world to implement 5G and real-time high-volume data transfer, created the “zoo without animals” in Korean cities through the “JUMP AR” application and MR technology. This technology brings to life realistic representations of animals with virtual information (sound, smell, fur, etc.). Furthermore, this campaign is notable because it does not only show animals that can't be found in urban spaces. Through information and communications technology (ICT), it also recreates animals that are affected by climate change, such as polar bears and penguins.

Under the message of “we believe that technology can save the environment,” and 5G, AR, and MR technologies, the campaign demonstrated the effectiveness of the technology in bringing us together with the animals at any time and place. In particular, the project focused on the characteristics and the values of the future that the company’s 5G, AR, and MR have in store.

With the key message of “we believe that technology can save the environment,” the campaign cooperated with the WWF and other global environmental organizations of greater media coverage and used celebrity participation to entice more customers. Social media and celebrities helped catch the eye of gen Z and millennials, successfully inviting these demographics to join the campaign.

Ultimately, the campaign’s success can be attributed to its effective publicity with an emphasis on corporate social responsibility (CSR) and the social movements toward millennials.

To bring the amazing 5G-based information and communication technology (ICT) to users, the application was developed while considering major landmarks and technologies. The first launch of the campaign coincided with the first 5G commercialization by SK Telecom, who took 14 months to develop the JUMP AR application, 10 months to render realistic animals, and 3 months to scan the landmarks for the app’s real-time synchronization. Furthermore, it is also becoming a global campaign as the zoos without animals have popped up in Las Vegas, the Eiffel Tower, Montmartre, and Versailles. From August to December 2019, the campaign’s message has reached 700,000 people around the world, who have visited the “zoo without animals.”

The ”zoo without animals” campaign manifested our vision for 5G technology’s value as the app’s total downloads exceeded 1.5 million, and cumulative use was recorded to be 650,000. Furthermore, the two videos had over 3 million views on YouTube, and the #Animal_heart_challenge had 23,000 participants. The campaign’s website also had 1,392,542 page views. Ultimately, the campaign was successful, as signified by the 5G membership in September that exceeded 3 million, putting SK Telecom at 1st place in Korea, with a 44% market share.

The brand and the campaign also had social impact as they resulted in decisions, like the release of endangered beluga whales from aquariums and stopping the import of another polar bear, that have been supported by the public.

Users not only also experienced the SK Telecom brand but also took the campaign’s message to heart and are now speaking up in support of animals.