In Brazil, the rampant practice of illegal animal trade puts numerous species at risk and contributes to the imbalance of Brazilian fauna. Furthermore, animal trafficking can have serious implications for public health, as the transmission of diseases between animals and humans is a latent threat. It’s an increasingly serious issue, one we suspected is fueled by social media. We dug into the data––and confirmed that social media views connect to wildlife purchase intent. That gave us the basis for a radical new strategy aimed at turning the problem––social media––back into a weapon to help fight illegal trafficking.

Brazil has one of the largest and most diverse biological ecosystems on the planet, home to 13% of the world’s largest animal and plant life. It also possesses one of the most active and dangerous illegal wildlife trade markets, with snakes, fish, primates, songbirds, frogs and parrots among the many species that are routinely exploited.*

Despite extensive efforts to advocate for animal rights, wild animal trafficking in Brazil has been growing exponentially, reaching an alarming 35 million individuals annually. And the problem has been compounded by a combination of factors, including a lack of quality data, data sharing, and enforcement coordination between state and federal authorities.* It’s an issue that is core to the mission of Ampara, the largest and most important animal protection and defense organization in Brazil, recognized by the Brazilian Ministry of Justice as an OSCIP (Civil Society Organization of Public Interest). Its goal is to change society by taking action to support, educate and raise awareness about animal rights. And given the recent increase in trafficking, the challenge for our organization has never been clearer or more urgent.

*https://www.traffic.org/publications/reports/brazils-widespread-wildlife-trafficking/

Ampara Animal Institute is the largest and most important animal protection and defense organization in Brazil. Its stated goal is to change society by taking action to support, educate and raise awareness about animal rights. This ethos was at the core of every single aspect of this campaign. From data collection and analysis to public installation and influencer collaboration, each segment was carefully crafted to reflect Ampara’s values and principles and support a broader commitment to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Specifically, it supports the principals found in UN Goal #15, “Life on Land,” which aims to “protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat deforestation, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss.”

More specifically, this campaign is in direct support of three key sub-targets of Goal #15.

15.5 - Protect Biodiversity and Natural Habitats: Take urgent and significant action to reduce the degradation of natural habitats, halt the loss of biodiversity and protect and prevent the extinction of threatened species.

15.7 - Eliminate Poaching and Trafficking of Protected Species: Take urgent action to end poaching and trafficking of protected species of flora and fauna and address both demand and supply of illegal wildlife products.

15.C - Combat Global Poaching and Trafficking: Enhance global support efforts to combat poaching and trafficking of protected species, including by increasing the capacity of local communities to pursue sustainable livelihood opportunities.

Context:

Wild animal trafficking in Brazil has seen a tremendous increase in recent years.

Ampara is the largest and most important animal protection and defense organization in Brazil, recognized by the Brazilian Ministry of Justice as a OSCIP (Civil Society Organization of Public Interest). Its goal is to change society by taking action to support, educate, and raise awareness about animal rights so its brand values are strongly aligned with addressing the issue of trafficking.

Brief:

Come up with an original idea to help alleviate the problem of wild animal trafficking.

Challenge:

Wild animals are popular! They make great content. People spend countless hours on TikTok and Instagram, liking and sharing videos and photos of wild animals. A large portion of which includes wildlife that has been humanized or raised as pets.

Objectives:

Raise awareness of the issue

Help Ampara play a part in the reduction of animal trafficking

Wildlife trafficking is a worldwide problem, but especially so in Brazil. As home to one of the most dangerous illegal trafficking markets, countless Brazilian birds, reptiles, fish and primates are pulled from their natural ecosystems and sold on the open market.

‘Wild Algorithm Reset’ caught the attention of the public, generating great conversation on the topic of animal trafficking. A series of police and political actions were taken after the launch of the campaign, leading to the arrests of social media-based traffickers.

Most advertising is about increasing purchase intent––but our goal was the exact opposite.

To decrease people’s willingness to buy trafficked wildlife, first we had to verify the connection between social media posts and the trafficking market itself (a two-year data collection and analysis undertaking).

Then we had to:

Call attention to the problem

Reset the social media algorithm that was fueling the increase

Introducing The Wild Algorithm (Reset)

We launched a data-driven social-first campaign, highlighting the cause-and-effect, and encouraging people to reset their social algorithms with a 4-step process, to be part of the solution.

An exhibition in São Paulo, showing trafficked animal images on phones trapped in trafficking cages, drove interest in the issue and offered sharable content.

Then, on National Animals Day, we launched the Wild Algorithm Reset, enlisting some of Brazil’s biggest influencers to spread the simple process to effectively reset the problematic algorithm.

We wanted to find out whether wild animals on social media were having any kind of measurable effect on the illegal trafficking market, and we needed the data to prove it.

We started by scouring Instagram and TikTok for content that featured domesticated wild animals, and tracked engagement they generated over two years.

Then we used Google to access the level of demand for wild animals, decoding search trends and calculating precise day-by-day measures.

The connection between social media and trafficking was clear and indisputable. Amongst other key data points, 37% of searches for monkey purchases and 18% of searches for snake purchases were directly generated by Instagram content.

Once we firmly established the connection, we needed to

1.) call attention to the problem

2.) reset the algorithm fueling this increase in trafficking

Most advertising is about increasing purchase intent––our goal was the exact opposite.

To gain immediate attention for the campaign launch, we created an exhibition in one of São Paulo’s busiest areas, where we installed real cages used by traffickers with mobile phones trapped inside that showed wild animals in social media posts.

As well as capturing passers-by, this provided sharable content that was used to raise awareness of the issue on social.

Then, on National Animals Day, on March 14th, we launched the Wild Algorithm Reset with the help of some of Brazil’s biggest influencers truly committed to the cause and Ampara across numerous verticals, including Porta dos Fundos, João Vicente, Sabrina Sato, Thaila Ayala, Ana Hickman, Paolla Oliveira, and others. Our influencer set had some 106 million followers between them.

They reached out to their followers to spread the word about a simple process that anyone could use to effectively reset the problematic algorithm.

Campaign on-going at the point of submission.

This revelation this trade is happening in plain sight was understood by a mix of factors: the complexities of internal law, the challenge of tracing animal origins and a trafficker's ability to remain anonymous amidst a sea of online activity–all underpinned by a risk so low it barely registered on the scale of a global crime, yet profits soar.

This phenomenon is not limited to the animals included in the campaign (monkeys, parrots and snakes).

We educated people that what they liked and followed on social media had a significant impact on contributing to the increase in trafficking.

The campaign led to some extraordinary outcomes for the cause:

12.1 million people re-educated their algorithms

111 million total impressions

A twofold increase in conversations and mentions related to animal trafficking in Brazil

A significant global reduction in searches for purchasing intent:

We are currently in development with our client for a feature-length documentary to raise the awareness of this issue even further.

As the Algorithm Reset continues to gain momentum we expect to see further falls in searches for wild animal purchases and greater negative impacts on the trafficking market as demand continues to decrease.

Carbon emissions relating to the campaign were not measured. The work is focused on the preservation of wildlife rather than reduction in carbon emissions.

However, the work was completed within the framework of our agency’s carbon-reduction program, so followed the planning rules and regulations on place to keep us on track for our targets.

Detail:

As a member of the Science Based Targets Initiative’s Business Ambition for 1.5° Celsius, our agency is committed to achieving our science-based target by 2030 and becoming a net-zero company by 2040. The Science-based Targets Initiative (SBTi) has approved [the agency's] near-term science-based emissions reduction targets of reducing absolute scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions 80% by 2030 from a 2019 baseline, and to reduce absolute scope 3 emissions 55% within the same timeframe.