The Lifegiving Light

Challenge

To bring HSBC’s $1 trillion commitment to sustainability to life, our goal was to create awareness - not by simply telling as many as possible about it, but by showing as many people as possible what a greener future could look like.

Inspiration

During the UN’s global climate summit (COP26) we challenged ourselves to demonstrate the type of outside-the-box thinking required to actually achieve net zero. We knew the last thing the planet needed was another ad, so we engineered ours to help plant life thrive instead.

Idea

In partnership with LinkNYC, we mapped every billboard near greenspace in Manhattan. Then we turned all 80 locations into lightboxes that emitted blue light within the 400-500 nanometer range of the visible light spectrum, which has been shown to encourage chlorophyll absorption, photosynthesis and plant growth. The ads ran all over the city, including locations within viewing distance of the UN and embassies of COP26 participants.

Growth

In the end, our ads were able to have a positive effect on hundreds of nearby plants, flowers and trees throughout Manhattan. In addition to the over 22 million media impressions created by the ads themselves, the story was picked up by media outlets in both the United States and Canada, generating millions of additional impressions for the campaign.

At a Glance

22 million

media impressions