THE 14TH ANNUAL SHORTY AWARDS

The Shorty Awards honor the best of social media and digital. View this season's finalists!

Special Project

Special Project
From the 8th Annual Shorty Impact Awards

Coral Gardeners - revolutionizing ocean conservation

Gold Honor in Instagram

Audience Honor in Instagram

Objectives

Coral Gardeners started with a small group of ocean kids who witnessed the rapid degradation of their local reef on the island of Mo’orea, French Polynesia, only to realize the extent of this global crisis. As much as half of the world’s coral reefs has already been lost and they could go extinct by 2050. 

Today, our organization has evolved into a global movement of gardeners, scientists, engineers, conservationists and advocates set out to revolutionize ocean conservation and save coral reefs.

Since our funding in 2017, we have been rewriting the rules of conservation, bringing a new approach to raising awareness and inspiring the masses to take action and jump into our world-changing mission. Through social media savvy, artistic imagery, positive storytelling and unconventional collaborations, we aim to make ocean conservation impossible to ignore.

Strategy and Execution

Our social media presence has been our prime window to tell the story of the reef to the rest of the world from our island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

Our approach is to bring people along our journey and give them a deep-dive understanding of coral reef restoration. We made it our mission to track our impact and also share it with the world to show that reef restoration is a proven and adaptive solution to mitigate the effects of climate change. Here are some of our impact-driven pieces:

The focus of our strategy centers upon captivating and immersive visuals, providing an inside-look on the beauty and fragility of corals. We also educate on the importance of coral reefs as one of the most valuable and biodiverse ecosystems of our blue planet. Our goal is to spark a passion that inspires our community to take action to protect these wild places. Here are some examples showcasing the intricacy of corals reefs:

We are also broadening our reach through partnerships with like-minded brands and collaborations with various ambassadors, from movie stars to athletes and so on. We aim to bridge the gap between different spaces and tap more people into one unified movement to protect our ocean and its reefs. Here are some of our collab posts:

Results

Through our awareness efforts, we have become the most followed coral conservation project in the world, positioning ourselves as an impactful voice for ocean action.

With more than 570K followers on Instagram, our main platform, we are reaching a global audience and inspiring a younger generation to make a difference for the future of our blue planet.

In 2022 only, we have garnered 28 million impressions on Instagram with almost 1 million engagements such as likes and comments, filled with hope and support from our community. Here are some examples of comments: 

Media

Entrant Company / Organization Name

Coral Gardeners

Link

Entry Credits