The Great Barrier Reef Foundation Appoints Leo Burnett Australia following a competitive pitch
The Great Barrier Reef Foundation has announced the appointment of Leo Burnett Australia as its new creative agency, effective immediately.
The Foundation began a tender process earlier this year seeking an agency to launch a large-scale mass appeal campaign aimed at changing people’s behaviour in order to make a meaningful difference to address climate change and protect the Great Barrier Reef.
Following the competitive pitch, Leo Burnett is now tasked with the remit of helping households make the connection between addressing climate change and protecting the Reef. The agency is currently working on a campaign that is due to launch in 2021.
Says James Walker-Smith, general manager, Leo Burnett Sydney: “This is a project at the heart of what we do and what we believe in. Bringing creativity to help solve one of the biggest challenges of our times; we couldn’t be more excited to work on this project with the Great Barrier Reef Foundation.”
Says Marni Ryan, director of marketing and communications, The Great Barrier Reef Foundation: “Leo Burnett was the stand-out winner in our pitch process. The agency’s insightful thinking, breakthrough creativity and sheer passion for this compelling brief made it an easy decision for us to make. We were also looking for an agency who would truly be an extension of our team, and we have certainly found that with Leo Burnett.
“There has never been a more critical time for our planet, where the actions we take now could not only make an impact on the Great Barrier Reef, the largest living organism on earth, but will also have an impact on our future. We know there is a lot to be done, but there is hope if we all take action together, which is why we are so thrilled to be working with Leo Burnett on this important body of work.”
As the action station for the Reef, the Great Barrier Reef Foundation is bringing together people and science to deliver the world’s largest coral reefs program and more than 60 Reef-saving projects. The Great Barrier Reef Foundation has previously worked with Leo Burnett to deliver its brand identity back in 2016.
15 Comments
I’m so glad that the recipient of an unprecedented and un-tendered $443 million Federal grant is spending it on an advertising campaign. I especially love that it’s a campaign to explain to me that the reef dying is my fault. But most of all I’m glad it went to an agency as effective and on the creative upswing as Leo Burnett. xoxo
My “comment of the year” nominee.
WRONG! People just like you ‘Love it!’ – incorrectly assume the $443m can be spent on whatever the GBRF wants to spend it on. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact the grant specified exactly what the money [all of it] had to be spent on and advertising wasn’t on the list. So, even if the GBRF wanted to spend some of that $443m on advertising, they couldn’t. But as great as the grant was the GBRF didn’t have a single cent to tell people what they were doing with it. Even worse, because there was so much talk about the $443m people stopped donating money thinking they had enough – as if $443m could fix all the Reef’s problems. Its actually taken nearly 3 years to find the money to do any marketing activity.
To hearing more on the 60 plus Reef saving projects… big job, best of luck to the Foundation and Leos team!
Grow up.
It is your fault and unless you live under a palm tree on a deserted island, eat leaves and seeds you have fucked it. Another news flash for you: so has the rest of the worlds population including me. So out for touch.
‘rest of the worlds population’? Christ, and you call the other guy or gal ‘So out of touch’. Do just the briefest research on which nations contribute the most to greenhouse gases per capita and guess what, the ‘First’ world’s contribution is out front, by miles… A tiny proportion of the world’s pop is responsible for almost all the polluting. And yes, I’m on of them too. But at least I know the blame is not equally spread…
Congrats on the win Leos, well deserved.
With you. What a fantastic waste of money. The government spending money pretending to do something, when they could legislate. And don’t get me started on Adani just a hop, skip and a jump away.
@Grow up. I already know it’s my fault, you silly gnat. We all do. That’s the point.
The question is what are we going to do about it? Gonna make me some more ocean de-acidifying surf wax? Or a prototype artificial reef made out of Volvos? No wait, how about I turn my lights off for one hour a year! Great. Thanks. Huge help.
We don’t need another campaign. We need a Federal Government that responds to climate change seriously and systemically. Instead they threw cash at this cardboard cutout foundation whose board is stacked with energy, mining and airline execs, while the other hand waved through approvals for the Carmichael (nee Adani) mine.
It’s greenwashing, it stinks to high heaven, and no amount of flotsam from any agency – let alone Leos – is going to make this anything less than an exercise in moral laundering. Grow up indeed.
Well said and don’t forget the insane proposal of a gas led recovery!
Love it.
Love it! gets it, and could certainly get It.
We need more of and like them.
We need a SmartBuoy, some pasta sauce or that peg that told us when it was raining.
The best way to line pockets with government spending and not solve a problem—form a committee.
Funny that the CEO of Leo’s is on the Chairman’s panel. Foregone conclusion? Another pitch that was a waste of the industry’s time and money. And a whole year between pitch and launch? Clearly the problem isn’t that acute.
https://www.barrierreef.org/what-we-do/partners/chairmans-panel