ABOUT

According to UNESCO, if we do nothing, coral could be extinct by 2050, creating a catastrophe for the global marine ecosystem. Sheba Hope Reef is a giant one word promise to future generations that we can rebuild coral at speed and scale; in turn helping to reverse the tide of marine ecosystem decline. Built to showcase Sheba’s unique reef star building system, Hope is located off the fishing island of Bontusua in Indonesia’s Coral Triangle – an area on the front line in the fight against coral extinction. In 2019, Sheba’s team of marine biologists and divers laid 900 hexagonal reef stars containing 15,000 pieces of embryonic coral. Hope’s coral stock is from a site naturally tolerant to adverse weather conditions. Once built, the challenge was getting Hope seen, so we partnered with Google, making Hope viewable from space on Google Earth as a historical landmass, plus also diveable with Streetview. Having generated 2.5 billion earned impressions globally, we then dived deeper to educate viewers about coral. We extended the typography of the reef, creating a scientifically accurate digital growing font, inspired by our Reef Star system and in collaboration with endorsed by marine biologists. With every coral, sponge and fish species used native to the restored reefs. Launched on World’s Oceans Day, the Hope font brought the story of Hope Reef to life in a global digital outdoor campaign and as an educational tool in social and print. In static form, the type’s weights reflected the actual reef’s growth over three years. What’s more we raised funds for building more reefs by creating ‘The Channel That Grows Coral’ on YouTube. Every piece of content on the site was monetised with pre-roll advertising, the more views, the more revenue we got towards building reefs. Three years on, coral coverage at the site is up 4600%, fish populations have increased 300% and we were proud to be an official UN Business Avenger. Since Hope Reef, five further governments have adopted the Sheba reef building system, with The Seychelles, Mexico, Australia, The Maldives and US Virgin Islands all embarking on builds – making it the world’s largest coral restoration program.