Golden Award for Excellence for the Romanian Earth Hour Campaign

PR Awards is organized by the Forum for International Communications, a non-profit organization which promotes ethics and performance standards among public relations specialists.

This year out of 142 projects which entered the competition, 40 received nominations. Only 6 received Golden Awards. Earth Hour was chosen as "The best campaign implemented by an NGO".

Like previous editions, this year`s competition had an exceptional jury, reuniting communications specialists from the USA, Germany, Belgium, Great Britain, Italy, Turkey and Romania. The President of the jury was Mr. Peter Debreceny, Chairman of the Institute for Public Relations in the USA.

About the campaign

Organized for the first time in Romania, the Earth Hour campaign had an enormous success. According to the Romanian Energy Directorate, an estimated 10% of the population or some 2 million people participated in the event.

The campaign was launched on March 9 with a press conference that was a "rehearsal" for Earth Hour - the lights in the conference room went off for one minute. During the 3 weeks of intense campaigning  WWF representatives and the Earth Hour Ambassadors were constantly in the media spotlight.

The day before the event, Vodafone Romania sent 2 billion SMS to its clients, reminding them to turn off the lights on March 28th.

On the day, the massive Parliament building – the second largest building in the world after the Pentagon in Washington – was shrouded in darkness, like other Romanian landmarks, including the National Theatre, Opera House, Athenaeum, National Art Museum as well as dozens of cafes, restaurants and hotels.

In Constitution Square WWF hosted a mass event, called "60 Minutes for the Planet". 600 volunteers and supporters carrying candles drew an enormous number 60, the symbol of the campaign. This was followed by a 100% unplugged concert by popular local band Sistem. Later members of the Bucharest Observatory showed the crowd dozens of stars, more visible than ever, thanks to the reduction in light pollution.

More facts about the campaign

• Similar events were organized in another 8 participating cities in Romania.
• 35 major corporations joined the event, including cement and aggregates giant Lafarge, which stopped operations in ten plants.
• The campaign involved more than 500 volunteers and 2000 supporters who subscribed on www.earthhour.org.
• During the campaign the TV spot was broadcast 999 times.
• There were more than 200 articles and stories in the print media.
• Romanian pop star Zoli Toth, one of Earth Hour Ambassadors in Romania, made a video which had close to 20,000 views in less than 2 weeks.
• The campaign's media partner www.trilulilu.ro confirmed there were more than 100 uploads of photos and videos taken on the night.