ABOUT

Background
Ampara is the largest and most important animal protection and defence 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.

Despite extensive efforts to advocate for animal rights, the trafficking of wild animals has seen a drastic increase in the country in recent years, reaching an alarming 35 million individuals annually. This increase also occurred on social media, everyday thousands of exotic animals humanized or as pets, generating a huge amount of views, likes and sharing.

In fact, social media is a big part of the problem. By instance, 37% of searches for monkey purchases and 18% of searches for snake purchases are directly generated by Instagram’s content.

The more engagement this type of content generates on social media, the more content is suggested by the algorithm to more people, and consequently more animals are trafficked.

To support and protect wild animals, we use the same weapon as the enemy.

Data was behind the trafficking until we changed the algorithm.

Creative Solution
Insight
Many people love wild animals and spend hours of their days on social media liking and sharing videos and photos of them. A large part of this content concerns animals that are humanized or raised as pets. And the more they engage with this content, the more the algorithm suggests to more people and the more animals are trafficked. According to data research and data modelling conducted by Edelman DXI, 37% of searches for monkey purchases and 18% of searches for snake purchases are directly generated by Instagram’s content.

Idea
We created an exhibition and invited a squad of influencers to call on people to take a major action to change this scenario: Reset Day. A day to reset the settings of social media profiles to prevent content that shows wild animals in this situation from continuing to be disseminated by the algorithm.

Strategy

The increase in animal trafficking always makes people upset, especially those who love these animals the most.

But it was the fact that these same people were contributing to the increase in trafficking without knowing it, through their behavior on social media and its algorithm, that caused a big conversation about the topic to happen.

Our strategy was to use these same people as a combat tool to change the way the algorithm spreads this type of content.

To educate our audience about the problem and encourage them to change this scenario, we launched an exhibition in one of the busiest areas of São Paulo where we installed real cages used by traffickers with mobile phones trapped showing these animals in social media posts.

A squad of influencers truly committed to the cause and Ampara also joined the campaign, giving more visibility to the conversation and putting the topic in the spotlight.

Inevitably the media started talking about the relationship between wildlife trafficking and social media. And on Reset Day, millions of people joined the movement, preventing the algorithm from fueling trafficking.

The campaign caught the attention of political authorities, who gave due importance to the problem.

Execution

Every execution of the Wild Algorithm campaign guided the public to understand the problem and also to participate in Reset Day.

One of the key elements in generating awareness about the connection between social media and increased traffic was data analysis work, which leveraged data modeling techniques to cross check social media data with purchase search data.

The research focused on measuring the phenomenon on social media platforms, which involved overcoming several technical challenges through sophisticated taxonomy engineering to obtain daily engagement metrics for content featuring monkeys, parrots, and snakes. The research focused on measuring the phenomenon on social media platforms, which involved overcoming several technical challenges through sophisticated taxonomy engineering to obtain daily engagement metrics for content featuring monkeys, parrots, and snakes. The associated analysis of Google search data required a mix of tools and multiple extrapolations to accurately measure demand daily.

The research was also used to reveal the program and as a powerful argument to generate awareness about the problem, by instance, 38% of searches for buying monkeys and 18% of searches for buying snakes are directly connected to content generated on Instagram

Results

Besides reaching 111 million impressions in news and specialized press, as result of Wild Algorithm campaign, we observed that:

• 12.1 million people reeducated their algorithms.

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

• A significant global reduction in searches for purchasing intent: 15% less for monkeys, 6% for parrots, and 5% for snakes.

• A 12% decrease in engagement with social media videos featuring wild animals on Instagram.

Furthermore, heightened public and political awareness led to a series of law enforcement actions.