Translating an endangered language to help save an endangered species.

To reignite passion for this fading cause, we inspired people to feel for elephants in a completely new and novel way. By giving every single person the ability to speak elephant.

Hello in Elephant is a world-first human-elephant translator – part utility, part sharing generator, part donation mechanism.

Powered by four decades of research into elephant communication and artificial intelligence and voice recognition technology, it gave people a way to translate text, emoji, and their voice, into the corresponding elephant emotion or expression.

The idea launched on World Elephant Day where other conservation organisations were hijacked to change the conversation from poaching to the growing problem of human-wildlife conflict.

We translated an endangered language to help save an endangered species. And gave every single person the ability to speak elephant.

To reignite passion for this fading cause, we inspired people to feel for elephants in a completely new and novel way. Hello in Elephant is a world-first human-elephant translator – part utility, part sharing generator, part donation mechanism.

Powered by four decades of research into elephant communication and artificial intelligence and voice recognition technology, it gave people a way to translate text, emoji, and their voice, into the corresponding elephant emotion or expression.

The idea launched on World Elephant Day where other conservation organisations were hijacked to change the conversation from poaching to the growing problem of human-wildlife conflict.

In just one month, with no paid/donated media, the campaign generated global impact, garnering 400 million impressions across 53 countries, worth $6.53 million in earned media.

The idea was so powerful that 20 of the world's leading conservation organisations - including the UN, United for Wildlife, and Born Free - got involved, shared the idea and message, and their influence was used to start to change the conversation beyond solely poaching.

Revenue growth of 34%

Donations increased by 34%. Not only did we stop the dramatic slide but the growth represents a 234% uplift above the target.

Adoptions increased by 35%.

Hello in Elephant created an uplift in new supporters that are a critical to DSWT’s future. They’re not only new advocates for the charity and the cause but also a steady income stream.

Hello in Elephant inspired people to feel for elephants in a completely new way by giving them the ability to speak elephant.

Part utility, part sharing generator and part donation mechanism, it uses artificial intelligence and voice recognition technology to translate our voice, text and emoji into elephant emotions and expressions.

By creating empathy for elephants, the campaign went global with zero paid media and influenced 20 of the world’s leading conservation organisations to get involved. Importantly it created renewed energy to save elephants and increased donations by 34%.

Let people experience the hidden humanity of elephants to create empathy and reignite urgency to save them from extinction.

Audience:

DSWT’s biggest markets were in the US, UK, and Australia. But engagement with the organisation through elephant adoptions and donations was dropping. It needed to reactivate these markets by connecting to new groups of people.

To achieve our goals, we would need to reach a new, younger, tech-savvy audience typically not known to give by negativity of cause, but who instead seek value and involvement with ideas from causes and charities.

Secondly, DSWT wanted to continue to directly impact local communities that live alongside elephants. To these people, elephants can ruin their livelihoods and are sometimes seen as pests, yet these are the most important stakeholder in the fight to save these creatures.

Hello in Elephant

For decades, conservationists have rallied against poachers in order to save elephants from extinction. This well-publicised decline has left the public with the impression that the problem was being solved and they do not need to donate to the cause. This false sense of success has dramatically slowed donations to David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust – they had slumped 17% year-on-year.

Our brief was to re-energise the fight against elephant extinction when everyone thinks the fight has been won.

Our objectives:

Ignite a new mass conversation – shift awareness about the plight of elephants beyond poaching.

Increase donations by 10% - reverse the 17% slide of revenue so DSWT can fund its effort to save, raise, and release elephants back into the wild through its conservation efforts.

Increase elephant adoptions by 10% - these relationships are extremely valuable as they gave money for multiple years and spread word about the cause.