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.

An interactive experience was created with the data to let people experience the hidden humanity of elephants to create empathy and reignite urgency to save them from extinction.

Part 1. Let people speak elephant.

We made elephant part of people’s communication.

The Hello in Elephant experience gave people a way to translate text, emoji, and their voice, into how an elephant would communicate that emotion, expression, or short phrase. The translation was served up via an animated video with a real elephant call which could be shared via social media and messaging.

Part 2. Impact the future.

We began to extend Hello in Elephant in two ways. Firstly, we added in the Swahili language to help the people living alongside African wildlife to connect positively with elephants. These are the people affected by crop raiding and whose livelihoods are destroyed by elephants, yet they are the people that must help care for elephants if the species is to be saved. Secondly, we are using Hello in Elephant as a learning tool through DSWT's education outreach programs in East Africa and around the world.

Global impact

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

United conversation

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 applied four decades worth of data collected from elephants in the African Serengeti. This data was not big, but it was complex.

It was data that was previously locked up in audio and video files to be used by behavioural scientists to understand the beautiful intricacies of elephant communication.

By mapping this data on elephant language to a unique lexicon database that interpreted words and the context of the language we gave a way for people to speak elephant.

Hello in Elephant translated an endangered language to help save an endangered species.

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

Translate elephant.

We created a unique collaboration between DSWT and renowned elephant behavioural scientist Dr Joyce Poole. Elephant communication is complex and stretches from low-frequency infrasounds, trunk movement, touch, chemical, and body postures, as well as their voices. We applied data from 250 elephants calls and gestures to map the genuine sounds to their English language equivalent.

Humanise the language.

The elephant data was mapped to a unique lexicon database that interpreted key words/emoji and the context of the input. It means Hello in Elephant understands millions of inputs and language combinations.

Speak Elephant

The Hello in Elephant website gave people a way to translate text, emoji and voice, into how an elephant would communicate that emotion, expression, or short phrase. The translation was served up via an animated video with a real elephant call which could be shared via social media and messaging so elephant could become part of people’s conversations. The sharing and donation mechanism were embedded naturally into the experience to ensure action followed engagement.

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.