The Media Precinct | TNC Case Study

CASE STUDY

TNC AUSTRALIA: 2016 PHOTOGRAPHY COMPETITION

The Nature Conservancy (TNC) Australia is the country's largest conservation organisation, playing a key role in protecting lands and waters on which all life depends. Entrants into the annual TNC Australian Photographic Competition were declining year on year, and were significantly down against key competitors in the Australian market.

The Media Precinct’s challenge was to breathe new life into a stagnating competition, and increase engagement and participation across the country. Through our research we discovered that niche photographic competitions bring an element of fear, and that Australian’s often feel their work inferior and become discouraged when exposed to work from higher profile or professional photographers.

Our strategy saw us change tack from previous years, and utilise the power of micro-influencers (social influencers with < 500,000 followers) to advocate the competition. We asked micro-influencers to create and post "everyday" nature content, empowering their individual social networks to get involved.

At the end of the campaign, the competition received 16,120 photograph submissions from 4,520 unique photographers – a 425% increase on the year prior. Comparatively, TNC USA’s Photo Competition (which has been running for 10+ years) received 15,127 photographs from 7,287 unique photographers in 2016.