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SERVICES
Branding
Art Direction
CLIENT
Nets Out Now
YEAR
2021 – 2022
HOW NETS OUT NOW STARTED
Very early into the life of Fat Wombat, just over 12 months, Co-Founder Andre Borell decided that we should make a full feature-length documentary about an important environmental issue in Australia – our 85 year long shark culling programs.
With an absolutely tiny rag-tag crew, and absolutely no business embarking on such a project – we made our first documentary. A 100min feature-length film, that would end up being named Envoy: Shark Cull.
RESULTS
Utilising electronic mail and digital marketing across multiple platforms, the team generated the following results:
- 118,706 petition signatures change.org (and growing)
- 1,632 emails sent to Ministers (and growing)
- #NetsOutNow use and growth since we coined it
Fast forward 2 years, the film was successfully trending on Stan in Australia, and on Discovery in the US and UK, but what now?
The film was designed to make an impact, to create change to these archaic and barbaric programs.
Enter, the Nets Out Now Coalition
The Nets Out Now Coalition came together with four founding members. Fat Wombat (as Envoy: Shark Cull), and three environmental NGO’s and Charities that took part in the filming of Envoy: Shark Cull. Together with Humane Society International (HSI), Sea Shepherd, and Australian Marine Conservation Society (AMCS), the Nets Out Now coalition was formed.
Next Animals Australia joined, then Parley, then the Rob Stewart Foundation (Sharkwater, Sharkwater II), then Ric O’Barry’s Dolphin Project (The Cove), then Oceanic Preservation Society (Racing Extinction), and the high profile members just kept coming. We had some amazing members, now we needed an amazing look for the campaign.
The Approach
Fat Wombat (as Envoy: Shark Cull), and a lot of the founding members who campaign and lobby in this area daily, often use confronting imagery to highlight the horrors of this program. We decided Nets Out Now needed a different look, a different feel, a more softly-softly approach to gauge the attention of as many people as possible.
We didn’t need to reach more of our existing die-hard supporters, we needed to reach the average beachgoer. The local sparky who surfs every morning before work, the mum who is part of the local ocean swimming club, the concerned grandparent who takes their grandkids to the beach.
To create this look, and after assessing hundreds of options - collaborated with two artists.
One was local Sydney artist, Art of Brentos, to give the coalition the brand and style of look we were after. Leaning heavily into the ‘Brentos’ style, the results were quite remarkable. The perfect example of choosing the right talent, and giving them creative freedom.
The second was Sharktopia, chosen to create educational materials such as illustrations of the nineteen target species of this cull (yes, nineteen, even though only three are a safety concern), and also children’s colouring books and stationery sets for lobbying their local politicians. The look, feel, and copywriting of these materials were explicitly chosen to appeal to children and adults, based on multiple studies showing that educating children on such matters creates ripple benefits throughout society, not just for the children themselves.
“results proved that different partners, such as children, parents, teachers, managers, and associations, can work together with the common goal of improving education on sustainable development in early childhood, and all of them benefit from this collaboration.”
– Creating the Habit of Recycling in Early Childhood: A Sustainable Practice in Spain (2019)
“results proved that different partners, such as children, parents, teachers, managers, and associations, can work together with the common goal of improving education on sustainable development in early childhood, and all of them benefit from this collaboration.”
– Creating the Habit of Recycling in Early Childhood: A Sustainable Practice in Spain (2019)
What we did
Branding – Research, Messaging, Visual identity, Art direction, Brand animation, Design systems and guidelines
