Busch has always called the great outdoors home and been the beer of choice for people who like to spend their weekends hunting, camping and fishing in the U.S. National Forests.So when Busch learned from the National Forest Foundation that more than 1 million acres needed to be reforested, they wanted to help and give the public a way to help too. The ask: find a way for people to contribute online to the planting of trees. Our goal: make the planting of the tree effortless and digital with very little budget. With a budget of $50,000 for tree planting, the most trees our activation could plant was 50,000 at a cost of $1 a tree.
With such an important cause, we wanted to make sure our activation was simple, easily invited participation and would be highly visible to the online community. Those strategic requirements led us to skippable pre-roll where we'd have the viewer's undivided attention and could present them with a choice: skip or stay and participate. Introducing "Tree Roll" the first-ever pre-roll ad that donates to a good cause. In the first five seconds, before the skip button appears, we informed viewers that if they didn't skip, and watched the full 30 second ad, a tree would be planted on their behalf in a National Forest. If viewers chose not to skip, they were greeted by Busch Guy and told about that partnership and assurance we wouldn't be planting trees with butts – a nod to popular tree pics on the internet. When they completed the video Busch Guy thanked them for planting a tree with Busch. Confident, we'd quickly reach our goal of planting 50,000 trees – 1 tree for every view – we only bought pre-roll media for one day.
The results were immediate and effective. Three out of four viewers chose to watch the entire ad, almost doubling YouTube's benchmark for view-through rate. In less than 24 hours, we reached Busch's goal and planted over 50,000 trees – one tree for every person who didn't skip – helping the National Forest Foundation plant the most trees it has ever planted in a single year.
