The world’s largest aquarium brand, SEA LIFE, has commissioned global brand experience agency Sense to launch a new campaign from January 2019 designed to engage visitors across 22 of its locations worldwide.

Two themes are covered by the activations designed to drive brand engagement and inspire visitors to support SEA LIFE’s mission of celebrating aquatic life, while working to preserve the oceans. The first, invites you to join your underwater heroes; celebrating the amazing abilities of five key creatures in each aquarium. Featuring a comic-book style set of five interactive ‘pods’, it educates incredible facts about the creatures, likening them to super heroes.

For the second theme, SEA LIFE is using the five interactive pods to persuade visitors to join their Sea Explorer team and discover the wonders of the ocean. Visitors are encouraged to get creative by drawing, colouring and building on each of the pods, allowing visitors to explore different aspects of aquatic life through play.

“Our brief was to create fun, exciting and globally appealing content around the SEA LIFE essence of Amazing Discovery, as well as manage logistics, including quarterly regional kit rotations” explained Sense Board Director Sally O’Brien. “We needed to come up with creative work that appeals to young families, couples and school parties – instantly engaging, hands on and able to withstand millions of visitors a year.”

“We’ve previously been impressed with Sense’s creative thinking and innovative approach to attraction interactives, so appointed the team to run this major new campaign designed to engage and excite our visitors about the wonders of aquatic life.” said Rita Marcal, Global Senior Brand Manager at Merlin Entertainments.

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The Economist, a leading source of analysis on international business and world affairs, this week unveiled a new experiential marketing programme encouraging Londoners to challenge their assumptions about plastic pollution and its effect on ocean health.

Entitled “Don’t bin plastics, yet” the activation, brought to life by global brand experience agency Sense, comprises an art installation of a fish made from recycled plastic dredged from the river Thames. The fish weighs 24 kilograms, equal to the weight of plastic dumped in the ocean every tenth of a second. The programme is inspired by a recent article in The Economist, The known unknowns of plastic pollution, which explores what we know and don’t know about the costs of the activity.

Visitors discover that of the 6.3 billion tonnes of plastic waste produced since the 1950s, only 9% has been recycled. On current trends, by 2050 there could be more plastic in the world’s waters than fish, measured by weight. Yet only 10% of 3.6 million tonnes of solid waste discarded each day across the globe is plastic. And the alternatives to plastic are not always better.

For example, a British government analysis from 2011 calculated that a cotton tote bag must be used 131 times before greenhouse-gas emissions from making and transporting it improve on disposable plastic bags. The Economist writes that the cost of plastic pollution is comparatively overstated, even if more can be done to reduce it.

“The ‘Don’t bin plastics, yet’ activation brings The Economist’s mind-stretching journalism to life and challenges consumers to rethink what they know about plastic pollution,” said Mark Cripps, Chief Marketing Officer, The Economist Group. “This programme ensures our globally curious readers are armed with useful information about the consequences of plastics versus other environmental pollution, and the gaps that remain in our understanding, to help them make educated decisions about their actions.”

“Visitors will be offered a free coffee in an edible cup by our brand ambassadors and encouraged to take part in a conversation about the plastics debate, including the impact on the oceans and the need for more plastics collection and recycling,” explained Sense Account Manager Loren Heer.

The ‘Don’t bin plastics, yet’ activity is part of The Economist’s live content marketing programme, which aims to attract new readers to The Economist through creative and provocative real-world experiences. People who take part in the programme have the opportunity to subscribe to The Economist at an introductory rate of £12 for 12 weeks, and receive a subscription gift.

The activation kicked off at London’s Paddington Station on 20th November and will continue to Waterloo on 29th November, Victoria on 11th December and Liverpool Street on 12th December. More dates will be announced as they become available.

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Kate Moss, Harry Kane, Cara Delevingne, Sienna Miller, Rita Ora, HRH Princess Eugenie of York, Fearne Cotton, Ronnie Wood, Will Poulter and Bob Geldof have joined forces with Sky Ocean Rescue and ocean conservation movement Project 0 to launch a reusable limited-edition product range to inspire people to #PassOnPlastic.

All proceeds from the range will go to initiatives protecting ocean health, including Sky Ocean Rescue’s partnership with WWF-UK, which funds marine protection areas covering 400,000km² of our oceans.

Each artwork was created with a bespoke ocean-related design for the new Pass On Plastic range, which includes a reusable water bottle, a coffee cup, a tote bag, an on-the-go cutlery set and a three-piece beeswax wrap set – an alternative to cling film.

The products offer reusable versions of the five most common single-use plastic items currently contributing to the quarter of a tonne of plastic entering our oceans every second. New research by Sky Ocean Rescue worryingly reveals the UK consumes 10.7bn single-use plastic bags, 14.1bn drinks bottles, more than 4bn hot drink cups, 1.5bn throwaway cutlery sets and 12.2bn single-use lunch packages in a single year. The Pass On Plastic range provides alternatives to these products, helping everyone make simple everyday changes to stop our oceans from drowning in plastic.

Entrepreneur and artist Fearne Cotton said: “I was so honoured to be asked to create a design for this exceptional range of reusable products that help people pass on plastic to protect the ocean from being the unhappy recipient of ridiculous amounts of this indestructible material. I was inspired to draw my squid by an image that exploded on the internet this year of a seahorse grasping an ear bud.  How impactful could we be if we stopped to think about the unintended consequences of these simple everyday actions that have real long-term consequences – often with devastating effects? It’s my sincere hope that this range of products will inspire people to reduce their plastic footprint now. And, after all, it’s a lot more stylish to be single-use plastic free!”

All the products have been produced and packaged to minimise impact on the environment. Suppliers were carefully selected for their ethical and environmental standards and practices, sharing the values of the Sky Ocean Rescue campaign.

The range will be available to purchase from Wednesday 7 November at Sky.com/POP and at the Pass On Plastic pop-up shop at 20 Beak Street, Soho, London from Thursday 8 November for two months, while stock lasts.

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