Ecosia is a search engine like no other: the revenue they generate doesn’t line pockets, it plants trees. Lots of them. Around 160 million trees so far, all over the world.

The Ecosia team knew that animation can be a powerful tool in communicating complex topics, so they wanted to branch out with a tree-mendous animated campaign to grab the attention of Gen Zs around the world. With an open brief, we carefully shaped every aspect of the campaign from concept to scripting to design, paying close attention to Ecosia’s aims.

With something memorable, shareable and fun, we needed to push the message that all you have to do to support their tree-planting mission is… search with Ecosia. That’s it!

The Berlin-based search engine had just gone through a major rebrand with Koto, and this project was the first to adopt their new look. We used their bold, meticulously wonky shapes as inspiration for the tree designs, and set the 2D characters on a slightly askew 3D background. This added contrast, created a clear focal point and ramped up the visual and technical appeal.

Ecosia plants trees all over the world, so our human (and tree!) characters reflect that diversity in representation, interests and tone of voice to connect with a global audience. We knew that a lot of people would watch without sound, so we used big, snappy movements and a lot of visual humour to create situations we can all relate to… and a few we wish we couldn’t!

If you have a seed of an idea for your brand, we’d love to help it grow. Drop us a message here to get started.

Services

Style development, Design, Storyboarding, Scriptwriting / refinement, Animation production

Deliverables

1 x 60' main edit, 5 x 15' cutdowns, 3 x longer cutdowns, 3 x looping GIFs