Graduate Business School Assignment Cover Sheet

Student name: Vinícius Silva Santos Student number: 2837484 Course: IBM Stage/year: 3/2014 Subject: Final Dissertation Study Mode: Full time x Part-time Lecturer Name: Supervisor: Carla De Tona Assignment Title: The Earth Hour Campaign: A Case Study from Brazil No. of pages: 50 Disk included? Yes No x Additional Information:

(ie. number of pieces submitted, size of assignment, A2, A3 etc) No additional information

Date due: 16-01-2014 Date submitted: 16-01-2014

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The Earth Hour Campaign: A Case Study from Brazil

The success behind the event through Social Marketing

Research dissertation presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of

MSc in International Business Management

Griffith College Dublin

Dissertation Supervisor: Carla De Tona

Vinícius Silva Santos

16th January 2013

II

Candidate Declaration

Candidate Name: Vinícius Silva Santos

I certify that the dissertation entitled:

The Earth Hour campaign: A Case Study from Brazil

submitted for the degree of: MSc in International Business Management is the

result of the my own work and that where reference is made to the work of

others, due acknowledgment is given.

Candidate signature:

Date: 16 Th January 2014

Supervisor Name: Carla De Tona

Supervisor signature:

Date: 16th January 2014

III

Dedication and Acknowledgements

It was a long and amazing journey able to complete this dissertation. And it would not

be possible without the support of my parents, who helped me and gave me strength at

each stage this walk. Also like to thank the guiding this work, Carla De Tona, whose

comments, suggestions and criticisms were important for getting to improve to the level

that was appropriate and consistent with the course.

Also like to thank the teachers at Griffith College Dublin that indirectly contributed to

this thesis with their knowledge and experiences. But I would also like to thank my

girlfriend, who accompanied me on this trip and gave me full support to overcome the

challenges.

IV

Abstract

A Case Study about the Earth Hour campaign:

The success behind the event through Social Marketing

Vinícius Silva Santos

V

Table of Contents

Candidate  Declaration  ..................................................................................................................  II  Dedication  and  Acknowledgements  .......................................................................................  III  Abstract  .............................................................................................................................................  IV  

1   Chapter  1  -­‐  Introduction  ...........................................................................................................  1  

1.1   Research  Purpose  ................................................................................................................  3  1.2   Research  Objective  ..............................................................................................................  3  1.3   Structure  of  the  Study  ........................................................................................................  4  

2   Chapter  2  -­‐  Literature  Review  .................................................................................................  5  

2.1   Overview  .................................................................................................................................  5  2.2        Definitions  of  Social  Marketing  .......................................................................................  6  2.4   Environmental  Communication  ...................................................................................  12  2.5   Conceptual  Framework  ...................................................................................................  14  

3   Chapter  3  -­‐  Methodology  and  Research  Design  ...............................................................  16  

3.1   Overview  ...............................................................................................................................  16  3.2   Research  Philosophy  and  Approach  ...........................................................................  16  3.3   Research  Strategy  ..............................................................................................................  18  3.4   Collection  Primary  Data  ..................................................................................................  21  3.4.1   Sources  ............................................................................................................................................  21  3.4.2   Access  and  Ethical  Issues  ........................................................................................................  22  

3.5   Approach  to  Data  Analysis  .............................................................................................  24  

4   CHAPTER  4  -­‐  Presentation  and  Discussion  of  the  Findings  .........................................  24  

4.1   Overview  ...............................................................................................................................  24  

4.2   Findings………………………………………………………………………………………………………25  4.2.1            Description  of  the  organization  and  the  campaign……......…………………………....25  

4.2.2            Communication  and  Marketing  Strategy….…….…………………………………………..28  

4.2.3            Analysing  the  social  networks………..………………………………………………………….29  

5   CHAPTER  5  -­‐  Concluding  Thoughts  on  the  Contribution  of  this  Research,  its  

Limitations  and  Suggestions  for  Further  Research  ...............................................................  33  

5.1   Implications  of  Findings  for  the  Research  Questions  ............................................  34  5.2   Contributions  and  Limitations  of  the  Research  ......................................................  35  5.3   Recommendations  for  Future  Research  ....................................................................  35  5.4   Final  Conclusion  and  Reflections  .................................................................................  36  

References  ...........................................................................................................................................  36  

VI

List of Figures 1:

Online shop of Renner, a Brazilian department store, closed for one hour

Users of social networks in Brazil grow year after year. (Font: eMarketer)

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1 Chapter 1 - Introduction

 Every year, on March 30th, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) holds a global campaign

known as Earth Hour. In this day, lights must be turned off one hour to support the fight

against the global warming. Many cities around the world participate turning off the

illumination of monuments (like Coliseum, in Rome, Golden Gate Bridge, in San

Francisco, and Christ The Redeemer, in Rio de Janeiro) and helping to spread the

message.

Held in 2007, in Sydney (Australia), the campaign expanded over the followed years

and attracted the involvement of other countries worried about the global Warming and

interested to be part of the process. A part of that is because every city wants to be seen

“as one who participates” against the global Warming – even though for only one day

during the year.

At the same, while it has expanded to reach around the largest possible number of cities

participating in the world, WWF used its social marketing to also involve common

people to take part and spread the idea to create a community concerned in preserving

the environment. This paper will investigate how the social marketing can influence

behaviours for good to make the world a better place, according to what is proposed by

Kotler and Lee (2008).

The first time that the term “social marketing” was used was by Phillip Koth and Gerald

Zaltman in an article of the Journal of Marketing in 1971 (Kotler and Lee, 2008).

Before to do a concept about social marketing, Koth and Zaltman (1971) explain that

some issues must be taken into account to implement a campaign because it is about

changing people’s behaviour.

The definition formulated by these authors were that the “Social marketing is the

design, implementation, and control of programs calculated to influence the

acceptability of social ideas and involving considerations of product planning, pricing,

communications, distribution, and marketing research. It is necessary the use of

marketing skills to help translate present social action efforts” (Kotler and Lee, p.3).

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However, organizations such the WWF Global, leverage socials issues for gaining

public attention and support (Koth and Zaltman, 1971). Social problems like pollution

control, mass transit, drug abuse, hunger in Africa and other issues, are not viewed as

problems that governments need to faced but as problems to be addressed by the

population which must start thinking in a collective way, as everyone suffers some

impact because these problems (although they may not be directly affected by them).

That is why campaigns, like the Earth Hour, exist. Some studies analyze how the social

marketing focuses on influencing behaviour to protect the environment and contribute

to community (Andreasen, 1994). Other studies focused on the effects of this kind of

campaign on the Internet and how the social media can improve and attract more people

to participate as a communication channel between the organization and the common

people (Bennett, 2003).

Networks like Twitter and Facebook become essential parts to measure whether or not

the campaign has success. When Koth and Zaltman (1971) wrote the article to set the

social marketing, both could not imagine the extent that he would become in the 21st

century. To Alan R. Andreasen (2006), the social marketing is not to simply introduce

an approach and to influencing people with “bad behavior” – to educate that smoking is

bad, for instance – but think in a community as a whole. The Andreasen’s idea is

understand that this type of marketing is not only to solve the problems of each, but

highlight its real potential that is influence the behavior of target audiences.

The WWF understood this and, using the social media, attracted more and more

organizations and common people to support the idea and help the world against the

Global Warming. Thereby, the organization encourages anyone to participate and think

the problem is of everyone. The social web became a source of information and a

communication channel as a first place when the people turn for news, entertainment

and diversion (Weber, 2009).

The campaign organized by WWF happens in many countries around the world. Even

taking an integrated and decentralized communication system, since each city (or

country) is responsible for its communication strategy, the focus of this research is to

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investigate how the campaign takes place in Brazil, specifically, as well as the

organization with headquarters in Brasilia uses social networks to attract participants to

the movement.

1.1 Research Purpose

The purpose of the research is to investigate how the communication and marketing

campaign Earth Hour, organized by WWF in 2007 and works in Australia, after the

success in that country, it began to be exported to other countries around the world. A

major focus of this research is on how the issue of the environment has become

important for companies that are engaged in supporting its causes, and in proposing an

image of environmental responsibility while also disclose the brand.

1.2 Research Objective

The main objective is to investigate and understand how the Earth Hour campaign

works in Brazil, which is the process of communication, the choice of a specific theme

that changes every year, and especially the presence of the WWF report on the social

networks.

Another objective that emerges in my research is to investigate the campaign created by

the WWF (which has less than ten years) and the benefits of social media. Interactivity

is one of the strengths of the current technology and the aim is to understand how the

WWF uses this tool to stay connected with people, and especially to promote the

message that people can be connected in this way, and because of this, help building a

more sustainable future.

Therefore, a major goal of this work is to analyse the content of social networks like

Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and the official website of the campaign itself. Social

marketing began to grow after the arrival of these new media and soon became

important tools for organizations like WWF spread its message of environmental

protection. Also accounting for this, the paper aims to explain the formation of

environmental communication that helps to understand what is being done in this area

and why it has grown so much.

4

1.3 Structure of the Study

The work was divided into chapters. Chapter 2 analyses the relevant literature. The parts

that make up the literature review are divided by subject to help a better understanding

of the main themes. For this reason, this section is concerned with the definitions of

Social Marketing, a review about the digital age and how it helped in the growth of this

specific type of marketing and lastly, environmental communication, also an important

and expanding area to understand the strategies used by WWF to spread the Earth Hour

campaign by participating countries and cities.

Chapter 3 is my methodology, where I explain the choices I made this project in order

to be well prepared respecting my characteristics as a researcher and how I think. In this

chapter I also explain the strategies used for data collection and my philosophy to

analyse them, observing what was or not important. In Chapter 4 is discussed and

presented to WWF and also Earth Hour campaign. In addition, this section of the paper

describes the actions that were performed on the social networks to achieve the

objectives and coverage of the campaign.

Before the start of each section, there is a part called Overview, in which a brief

introduction to the contents of that section was conducted. Thus, it was divided between

a general and descriptive insight into the WWF and Earth Hour campaign after then

focus on communication strategies and marketing WWF in Brazil, as well as an analysis

on the content of social networks that help engage people and make advertising on the

Internet, which is where the main focus of the organization and the public.

In my opinion, the structures of work say much about organization of research

throughout the project. And build it up the way it's been a way to give importance to

every step, from the Introduction to the Findings section, which is the most important

work along with the Methodology area. Thus, all that is mentioned in certain passages

of text (such as images and references to videos) can be found within the work itself in

the list of designs through the References section that was organized alphabetically. It

was a long process, but that was rewarded after seeing it complete.

5

2 Chapter 2 - Literature Review

2.1 Overview

The planet is suffering from global warming for many years. Although some recent

studies show that global warming is managing to strike a balance, a survey published in

May 2013 by Kevin E. Trenberth showed that the false impression that it would be

lowering has not taken seriously where the real problem, which is in the oceans, in the

view of Trenberth.

However, certain studies (Greenpeace, 2012) said that the global warming is affecting

this balance raises an important question that people, companies and governments are

thinking about sustainable development that does not affect as much as was affecting

the planet. It is in this environment that the Earth Hour campaign takes place in over a

hundred countries around the world.

Social marketing has grown at the same time that these concerns started to become

platforms for governments, large enterprises and influenced people to change their

behavior in relation to these problems. It was from this idea that the Earth Hour

campaign was launched after being developed for many other countries and engaging

not only people, but also cities, to be part of the movement.

At the same time, social networks have started to become Internet phenomena in

connecting people and being a source of communication and information. In the digital

age, campaigns such as the WWF have reached a level of acceptance, success and

engagement through these media, which play a crucial role for both the movement itself

and for social marketing.

6

2.2 Definitions of Social Marketing

This study is based on the theory that the social marketing is about influence behaviour,

a field that has begun to be discovered when Philip Kotler and Gerald Zaltman (1971)

published an article in the Journal of Marketing about an approach to planned social

change.

In this particular article, the authors discussed the meaning, power and the limitations of

social marketing as an approach to change behaviours to contribute for a better world.

At the time, without social media or other means, the main source of communication

was the radio, television and newspapers. Kotler and Zaltman (1971) also discovered

that marketing management (analysis, planning and control) as applied to products and

services had become increasingly sophisticated.

The Earth Hour campaign proposal by World Wildlfe Fund (WWF) fits within the

categories proposed by both authors: environmental protection. Created with the

purpose of encouraging individuals, organizations and government against global

warming, WWF uses an environmental problem that really exists to make the world

think about the importance of the campaign and preserve the planet.

It is important to recognize that many studies about social marketing assume a social

problem that needs to be fought by all. Kotler and Lee (2008), for instance, say that the

main beneficiary with the social marketing program is the society. Previously,

campaigns were restricted in advertisements on television, radio and newspapers, but

now the Internet offers new ways to communicate interactively with different people

around the world (De Pelsmacker et al, 2005).

In a definition brought by Stead et al (2006), the concept of social marketing can not be

seen as a theory but as a method or structure that uses definitions based on psychology,

sociology, anthropology and communication to understand how is possible to influence

people's behavior. Another definition brought by Andreasen (1995) is that social

marketing is the application of commercial marketing techniques that selects a

particular group of society in order to promote changes in behavior and personal life of

each one of the people who are part of this group.

7

Also according to Stead (2006), social marketing is not based on coercion or force an

individual to change his life dramatically. So the first focus is on voluntary change.

From there, social marketing has a focus centred on the exchange and in recognition of

the benefits that can make a change in one's life (Houston and Gassenheimer, 1987).

According to the studies of MacFadyen et al (2002) and Smith (2000; 2006) which

differs mainly social marketing business is that the ultimate goal is to improve the

health of society and people's lives, and not exactly bring benefits to organizations that

perform these campaigns.

The Earth Hour campaign is an example of an effective social marketing, as will be

shown later in this work. However, other campaigns have already demonstrated

efficiency in order to change people's behavior or at least make people pay attention to a

problem of society and try to change it.. This is the case of a social marketing campaign

focused on the use of condoms by a group of people "poor and vulnerable". About this

campaign, a study by Price (2001) shows that, although the program failing to reach all

groups, it was effective to let these people aware that condom use is important.

The campaign conceived by WWF is also growing every year in terms of efficiency,

which can be measured by the number of people affected, businesses and cities

involved. Since 2007, more than 50 million people in 135 countries participated in this

symbolic act. Furthermore, global landmarks and monuments of each city switched off

their lights for one hour, for example, the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, the

Coliseum in Rome, Big Ben in London, among others (WWF, 2013).

However, there is a problem in the literature to define Social Marketing regarding the

lack of research that can take to a more concrete definition without being totally generic

(Stead et al, 2006). According to Stead, social marketing is mistaken for advertising.

Not always the two may be related. In some cases, the advertising campaign cannot be

considered a social marketing if it is only concerned to publicize the campaign and not

promote an intervention. Not to confuse the terms, Stead believes that the solution is to

ask yourself what is essential for an intervention to be characterized as social marketing.

Andreasen (2002) identified six factors that apply to social marketing. They are:

behaviour change; consumer research; segmentation and targeting; marketing mix;

8

exchange; competition. In 1996, social marketing has suffered an erroneous definition

placing their practices relating to advertising and social education (O'Shaughnessy,

1996).

As its Andreasen describes in his study to define the factors that result in social

marketing, the core of this practice, according to Domegan (2008), is the voluntary

change of behavior (occurred both individual and society level) and exchange. This is

an example of how the views of these authors have been lining up over time in an

attempt to give a broader definition to the meaning of social marketing, as well as the

operation of their practices and their importance to society (Lawther and Lowry, 1995;

Hastings et al., 2000).

Marshall et. al (2006) published an article discussing the use of Social Marketing

through a logic model developed by the Academy for Educational Development (AED

1997; Strand and Rosenbaum, 1998). To address a campaign, implement it and define

what the objectives that a company will have, four questions are formulated:

1) Whom do we want to reach?

2) What are we helping them to do? 7

3) What factors must we address to change their behavior?

4) What strategies can we adopt to persuade them to change?

As a relatively new and few studies aimed directly at her discipline, Social Marketing

suffers from some problems of definition and, like himself Andreasen (1994) points out,

is often set incorrectly. It is true that the term is well known today and, despite this, yet

there are common considerations that differentiate it from other fields of

communication and even the analysis of behavior and mobilization. The greatest

confusion, according to Andreasen, is that social marketing is directly connected with

the marketing communication.

Particularly, I agree with the final conclusion given by Andreasen in his article "Social

Marketing: Its Definition and Its Domain" that Social Marketing is nothing more than

an adaptation of commercial marketing for the purpose of influencing people to

volunteer to improve the life of the society of which they are part. As commercial

9

marketing, the practice of social marketing began migrating to the Internet using digital

media currently available for the campaign becomes recognized.

2.3 In the Age of Digital Media

According to Larry Weber (2009), what Internet enables today is that people can be

heard and be more participatory. Weber explains that the social web created the capacity

to change public opinion using blogs as online journals where people can post ideas,

images and links to other pages or sites. This provides a share of thoughts and

comments and, more important, provides the opportunity for organizations to interact

with users who have an ideology in common.

The author Manuel Castells (2010) is one of the most important researchers in this area.

The new media systems quickly changed the way of communication between

individuals. If people started using other channels, the media also had to abruptly

change to keep up with technological advances caused the arrival of blogs, networks

like Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube, and others.

To justify their ideas, Castells explains that since the 80s, new technologies are

changing and diversifying ways of communicating. This is true because, for example,

the changes generated by a series of products launched for portability of sounds:

Walkman, Discman and until finally the iPod, a device that can make people select their

songs that they want to hear through an audio format. And not only that: many began to

make recordings of songs and sharing this material on the Internet to others hear and

share as well.

Castells calls that phenomenon as "technologies of freedom". Today, any user can start

a blog and, somehow, become recognized and influence a particular environment.

Campaigns focused on the environment, e.g., the definition of Castells is a good

example to understand how these tools help in mobilizing people - and especially how

they have been an important element for these campaigns give result: call attention of

governments and people about the importance of preserving the environment.

The interactivity has been one of the subjects also discussed by many others

10

researchers. Croteau and Haynes (2000), for instance, believe that there are three ways

to set this interactivity in a phenomenon they call "active audience”. Both the words of

these three categories were defined as: “through individual interpretation of media

products, through collective interpretation of media, and through collective political

actions."

Both authors talk about "active audience" because users are no longer passive. Today,

they can perform the same actions and influence from what is published on the Internet.

The campaign of WWF Global, Earth Hour, has established itself as relevant from this

combination of users that are mobilized to take action and influence others to also

participate. This is the result of interactivity caused by social networks for targeted

campaigns in favor of protecting the environment.

Social media, and the Internet, work today (among other things) as a collaborative tool

for deploying important social causes and draw attention to people and governments.

Sweeney, MacLellan and Dorey (2006) indicate that the Internet became a component

of daily life. Weber (2009), for instance, says that the World Wide Web (WWW) is,

nowadays, the first source of information to many people.

In 2011, for example, the slogan created by WWF was "Turn out the lights to see

better." Although the campaign is carried out in just one day in the year, the idea is to

make the WWF has done every day in order to draw attention to environmental

problems and try to engage even more common people, governments and cities, beyond

strong partnerships with other companies interested in this campaign.

Thomas (2006) places this support as a crucial factor for the success of social

movements. Wolfsfeld and Gamson (1993) wrote an important article about the

symbiosis between these movements and campaigns. According to them, "the news

media movements needs for three major purposes: mobilization, validation, and scope

enlargement."

Koopmans (2004), however, believes that another factor may be integrated into these

three introduced by Gamson and Wolfsfeld: visibility. This is another important factor

that these campaigns work, both in the online and in the real environment. And

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visibility helps to create relevance. In social networks, it is even easier to get measure

how a subject was able to reach his audience. In the case of Facebook, the number of

"likes" is indicative, while on Twitter, the trending topics help to show what is being

discussed in the network.

Cova and White (2010) agrees that these marketing oriented campaigns such as WWF

have achieved a better effect from the formation of communities online connected

through common theme. They believe that consumer behavior from the growth of what

is being called Web 2.0 found a way to build a relationship of loyalty with their

consumers. This refers, logically, the Commercial Marketing. In the case of Social

Marketing, the most important is to see how their strategies and practices can engage

the public.

Engagement can be one of the functions of the Internet through of social media,

including interactivity, flexibility, speed and persistence (Sawhney et al, 2005). In

another survey conducted by Heckadon (2010), the Social Media Marketing is changing

not only the platform, but also making the audience participate in promoting companies,

products, events, and causes.

According to Trackerary et al (2012) social media, if used correctly, can help

organizations increase the ability to put consumers at the center of social marketing

since they create value and opportunity for dialogue between people, enabling exchange

information, opinions and experiences. The authors defined four steps for a social

marketing campaign can be well implemented: 1) describe the public; 2) discover and

understand the purpose of engaging them; 3) designing a specific strategy to engage

users; and 4) choose the kind of technology that will communicate (cell phone, apps,

messages, etc).

The literature shows that the goal of social marketing is to change people's behavior

before a problem. In campaign by WWF Global, it is not only a change in behavior, but

also draw attention to a global problem that is the high power consumption, which

gradually is "killing" the planet. What literature also shows is that certain topics are

difficult to be effective in Social Marketing as well as, for example, make a person stop

smoking or topics like obesity. But social networks appear as an opportunity for them to

12

gain more visibility campaigns besides being on TV or other media. More and more

people are connected to the Internet. Interactivity is a strong point to engage this

audience. And because of this phenomenon, the field of environmental communication

gained more fans and concerned companies have sustainable practices not to degrade

the environment.

2.4 Environmental Communication

For the research field of this thesis, communication has evolved in such a way that a

discipline was created to better understand and describe communication practices

geared towards the environment. One of the scholars who have contributed to this field

is Ulrich Nitsch (2000), with the article "The Art of Environmental Communication",

explains how it is possible for an organization to communicate efficiently, which

medium is more conducive to successfully achieving the public target, and especially

what kind of content should be addressed.

According to Ulrich, the most important branch of this communication is the message.

This means that their meaning and content are aspects that draw the attention of the

public is in any media: television, radio, newspapers, Internet. And the example of Earth

Hour has meant even more important for an organization that is not concerned only in

attract people and partners to carry out the campaign, but mainly attract volunteers to

contribute with action.

In view of Foss and Littlejohn (2009) concern that other researchers warn is how such

communications are made. According to the authors, evaluations of schools and other

places of study of this subject show that it is far from to be efficient to achieve a

reasonable number of people. Formed in 1980, with the passing years this area was

dividing to get answer these concerns and questions of the researchers who were

directly linked to the theme.

Theories began to be directed by human relationships with popular culture, with new

social movements, with the media and public communication (Foss and Littlejohn,

2009). Nitsch, even in your article, best defines the models of environmental

communication that exist. The best model that fits within the proposed by Earth Hour

campaign is the Classical Model (see diagram below). According to Nitsch, this model

13

was developed in the 40s in the United States and describes communication in six

components: sender, message, channel, audience, effect and feedback.

Classical Model analyzed by Nitsch and it helps to understand the Earth Hour campaign.

Also according to Nitsch, the idea of using this model as a way to communicate, is to

think of communication as a process in which the sender (in this case WWF) want to

deliver the message (“turn off the lights for an hour and help the planet against global

warming”) to an audience (governments, companies, organizations and individuals) in

order to achieve a specific effect (the largest number of cities and people attending).

This model, compared to others that are studied by Nitsch, gives a better idea of the

content and how to monitor the feedback from the campaign.

Dreiling et al (2013) argues that environmental organizations act in a complex field in

which have to be dealt with other institutions, governments and political game. Because

of that, have a model strategy defined is an important step to better comprehend the

relationship of these companies have with society. And the Internet appears as a method

that facilitates this process. According to Tarrow (2002) and Castells (1997), the

production of communication and marketing in new platforms such as email, blogs and

web sites, brought a more democratic and participatory structure to environmental

organizations that are able to interact with different people around the world at the same

time.

An important feature, which started to become common in the field of environmental

communication, is that there has been a democratization of the media. Bennett (2004)

says that the conversion of the public from mere consumers to media producers was the

most important step, because the idea of community and democracy has never been

present in these distribution channels. Organizations such as WWF have taken

advantage of this effervescence and naturally formed online communities.

Bennett recognizes that there are many indicators that digital media have become

important for these movements with organizational resources such as Earth Hour. But

14

there are certain vulnerabilities that needed to be scored. One of the problems outlined

by Bennett is the lack of control. And this is an example that specifically fits into World

Wildlife Fund campaign, since it is possible to see that there is decentralization around

the campaign to reach the cities and communities. While this is interesting, it creates

confusion because it becomes impossible to achieve a common and coherent structure

for communication and marketing (Bennett, 2004).

The Internet has also helped this field to reduce communication costs, while more

people are "affected" and can still actively participate in the campaign. In this case,

marketing and communication go hand in hand since both happen at the same time,

because the same people who receive the message and content of the campaign are

those that help spread and share this content across the network making the message

coming increasingly far, and reach an even wider audience.

2.5 Conceptual Framework

This research will be conducted through articles on the use of Social Marketing using

social media to reach and engage the public. Because of the growth of digital media,

there is now a vast literature available on the subject that, indirectly, is also linked with

Social Marketing campaigns.

Hill and Moran (2011), for example, conducted a major study on the relationship

between social marketing and social networking. Both first described the practice of

social marketing as "the influence and acceptance of ideas involving social

considerations of product, planning, pricing, communication, distribution and marketing

research."

Still for Hill and Moran, Social Marketing has recently suffered a problem of self-

definition. Many authors failed to define exactly their practices and their operation. That

is why Hill and Moran believe the biggest challenge is to the Social Marketing achieves

its main goal: the ambition to increase the engagement of people for social causes.

The use of interactivity in recent social marketing campaigns has been found in some

studies that were observed by Hill and Moran (Kotler and Lee 2007; Peattie 2007; Turk

15

et al. 2006). Technological advances have fundamentally altered the way individuals

relate, communicate and meet. For Hill and Moran became easy then reach the masses.

For this research, the most important thing in having it based campaign created by the

World Wildlife Fund (WWF) is to understand how the proliferation of these media

increased the response of the public to participate in campaigns like these. But also to

show what WWF is doing to make it effective when it comes to engaging not only

common people, but governments, cities and other businesses.

16

3 Chapter 3 - Methodology and Research Design

3.1 Overview

The research object of this paper is to evaluate the Earth Hour campaign in Brazil and,

therefore, I decided to use a qualitative methodology. In particular I conducted a case

study that allowed me to interpret and evaluate the success of the campaign in social

networks and to engage people, cities, and governments in Brazil.

The methodology is not only important to define which paths the research will go, but it

is also an important method of collecting and organizing data. This chapter provides

explanations for the choices of using a qualitative means such as north and especially

the concepts that define what is a case study this method and how it fit into the theme of

the proposal.

3.2 Research Philosophy and Approach

After chose the topic, it was necessary to decide on the research methods to achieve the

expected result. According to Kreps, et al., "Qualitative research in the field of

communications has emerged since the 1970s as a legitimate and widely recognized

phenomenon in two ways:

1. it has produced a growing body of literature, and

2. it has developed a significant group of methods by which to study the process of

communication" (p. 1).

The focus of this research was to evaluate the Earth Hour campaign from the

perspective of communication methods used marketing channels to achieve visibility

and to have, as the tools of digital media are critical to achieve the campaign objectives

proposed importance.

Tucker et. al (1995) stated that one of the main challenges for researchers developing

work in the area of communication is to use different ways of approaching the topic

using either multiple sources or even analysing multiple communication channels. The

17

decision, then, to use qualitative methods for this research specifically involves the

proposal from the beginning of the research to analyse data from many different

channels, giving importance to each of them because that is what will make the search

did not stay limited only to a source or an information channel.

Cochran and Dolan (1984) suggested that the use of qualitative methods for research to

be conducted with a focus on "discovering" than to get stuck justifications. In this

project, it was possible to analyse using the two elements: the "discovery" was the

elements that made the Earth Hour campaign a case study to evaluate how the WWF

managed to engage many cities, companies and people to turn off their lights for one

hour.

The definition by using this type of method, then, happened naturally on account of my

first degree in journalism, a profession that offers ways to find stories. Journalism has

made this choice easy because, in an everyday working environment within a

newspaper or magazine, journalist performs such work daily with information disclosed

by other sources and disseminated in other media. The newspaper reports, from

experience, are constructed from research in several distribution channels, and diverse

opinions to the reader to understand all sides of information.

DiCicco-Bloom and Crabtree (2006) reported based on other studies that interviews are

the most common for the data collection methods strategy. For the authors, among

various mechanisms, interview is to better understand an interviewee or a particular

theme. And the purpose is to bring a variety of information that can lead to define or

create a hypothesis, or to analyse a specific phenomenon. Although the authors bring

into categories interviews of the different types, they were not relevant for this

particular research.

The decision to use the Qualitative method is supported by the choice of the theme.

Fossey et al (2002) says that this method is directly related to the dimensions of human

life and social sciences - which relates to the campaign of WWF Global Earth Hour.

The Earth Hour campaign has a direct impact on our lives, since the organization is

concerned about energy consumption in the world and the dangers it may bring in the

near future.

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3.3 Research Strategy

My research was guided by a descriptive analysis because one of its goals is to discuss

the relationships between social networks, social marketing and communication

developed by WWF Global Earth Hour campaign.

According to Zikmund (2003), descriptive research engages in describing characteristics

of a population or phenomenon. Among some of the goals that have been highlighted in

my research, the interest in conducting this study was also in describing the Earth Hour

campaign, its operation, strategies to get involved governments and other companies, as

well as the techniques used in the media, especially in digital media, to propagate this

movement.

During the search process, I decided I would choose Brazil as a country to delimit the

study since it became investigate the use of communication and social networks on a

global basis because each country had a way to communicate through a local office

particular. The choice of Brazil was because is my home country and where I am closest

to contact those responsible for the campaign. Even so, the analysis was using several

distribution channels, primarily the official campaign website and social media.

To understand how the process would be, it was necessary to study and research about

qualitative studies. Wolcott (1992), for example, said there are three techniques:

experiencing, inquiring and examining (p. 19). According to Tucker (1995), these three

techniques can be used during the research at the same time. And Wolcott (1992) argues

that they are connected to the case studies, interviews, participant observation, non-

participant, among others methods. However, most researchers who choose to use

qualitative study decided to follow the path of the case study. To Wolcott, this method

allows researchers to immerse themselves in understanding the phenomenon of research

and, especially, understands the context and culture.

About the case studies that have been analysed in this field, extensive research has been

conducted by Robert K. Yin (1984; 2003). Yin stated that the case study is most

appropriate in situations in which it is impossible to separate the phenomenon studied

from its context. According to Merriam (1998), the case study can be divided into three

characteristics: Particularistic, Descriptive, and Heuristic. In this research, specifically,

19

both as Particularistic and Descriptive method could be used. However, I decided to

choose for Descriptive because it offered me the opportunity to understand the Earth

Hour campaign from the perspective of various sources, both conducting interviews and

analysing data and information - and this is one of the main objectives of the project.

However, the interviews have become a big problem for this project. Many contacts

were made via email or by phone with WWF and those responsible for the campaign.

To be able to talk with them came all the way from the press office. I explained what

would be my job and why I needed to do an interview with those responsible for the

campaign. But all schedules were not met by the WWF, which also showed no interest

in the work that was being developed. This happened in relation to global and Brazil

offices.

Therefore, due to deadlocks with WWF, the interviews could not be made. The

alternative was to use the method known as Document Analysis, or Content Analysis.

According to Adams et al (2007), this scheme allows the researcher to present an idea

of the concepts of the research. However, it does not help to understand how

interpretations emerged from what was searched.

This method was important to analyze the official campaign page, profiles on Facebook

and Twitter, as well as material (news, articles and other studies) that have been

published. According to Adams et al (2007), this method is widely used in case studies,

especially where "information is presented through a connected narrative that helps

explain the context of the research and the main issues that were investigated (p.161).

The process of analysis used to evaluate the articles and studies that were read was

analytical. I chose this path because it allowed me to have a sense of what that data

meant and at the same time, getting a sense of thinking about how the data would fit

within the research (Morse & Field, 1995; Tesch, 1990; Burnard, 1991). According to

Dey (1993; cited by Elo and Kyngas, 2007), this method works by asking the following

questions as the text is read:

- Who is telling?

- Where is this happening?

- When did it happen?

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- What is happening?

- Why?

Another important element that helped me to select this method was one of the

definitions cited by Elo and Kyngas (2007) that document analysis aims to describe a

phenomenon from the analysis of documents. Thus, it was possible to describe the Earth

Hour campaign, and actions of other companies who support the movement, without

compromising the research methodology because of the interviews that were not

performed.

Another point of view was given by Merriam (1988) that defined “a qualitative case

study as an intensive, holistic description and analysis of a single instance,

phenomenon, or social unit that can be a descriptive case study, an interpretive case

study or an evaluative case study” (p.21). There are pros and cons regarding this

methods and about the case study itself. The main point in favour is that it works

especially to answer questions like "why?" and "how?" but it has limited results in

investigating "what?" and “how much?" (Blumberg et al, 2008).

According to Yin (2003), the process of collecting data to write a case study requires

some skills of the researcher, for example, learn to ask questions and learn to listen. Yin

said in his studies that there are some components that form the strategic design of a

case study, formed by the data logic linked with the proposed theme and the

development of criteria to analyse the data and what was discovered during the research. For Yin (2003), this is a natural process that is part of the research and focuses on the

skills of the researcher. So it includes crucial features likeability to know to ask, to

listen and to adapt to different circumstances.

Yin (1983) and Stake (1995) defined that there are some ways to gather information to

build a case study. Among these techniques, two have been chosen to conduct this

research: interviews and documents. In the first technique, interviews could not be

conducted, which made the whole process was based on document analysis.

In relation to the second method, documents are articles, annual reports WWF,

information from the official site, material made available to the press and any other

type of document that is considered relevant to the research.

21

3.4 Collection Primary Data

My work is based on research conducted by Yin (1983), Stake (1995) and Merriam

(1998) which according to Brown (2008) are the three key researchers in this area of

research. The authors were important to set guidelines of work.

Some of this data collection involved articles about Earth Hour campaign, videos that

tell the experience to shape the campaign during an event at TED organized in 2013 by

the WWF itself. Regarding information obtained in Brazil, the channel used for this

content was the official campaign website, annual reports, publications and reports on

social networks in Brazilian newspapers and magazines.

Despite looking the campaign globally for it to happen simultaneously in several

countries, the research focused more on what is done in Brazil. Brazil is a country

whose development and importance, not only for Latin America, became targeted by

many to understand what was done in the country in recent years that did develop in

certain areas.

However, in my view, the development has certain obligations that should already exist

and be thought even before it started. The debate on sustainable development is

something that is at stake in Conferences, within large companies and even government

platforms (Strandenaes, 2012). The presence of the WWF in Brazil also means that, as

the organization carries out conservation in the Amazon forest and biodiversity in other

regions of the country. And the Earth Hour campaign helps to place Brazil among other

countries and concerned about the issue of energy companies in the world (WWF,

2013).

3.4.1 Sources

Research materials that were used during this thesis were mainly articles, newspapers,

the official website of the campaign and the WWF, annual reports, videos of TED and

related to social networks and the use of digital media in social marketing campaigns

studies. Attempts were made to interview those responsible for the campaign and the

area of digital media WWF, but the interviews were not conducted because the WWF

22

did not give feedback in time. This affected one of the objectives of the work, which

was to contrast the view of those who create the campaign year after year that was

researched during this process.

However, the decision to use the method of content analysis was correct as it gave

opportunity to contrast the idea of different authors who supported the research and

theories that emerged part of it. Thus, an important source of the research was the

official page of the Earth Hour campaign and also the WWF. It was used the Facebook

page and the Twitter profile as well to access data and content posted on these social

networks.

3.4.2 Access and Ethical Issues

At first, I thought it would be easy to have access to the WWF Brazil, but came across

some problems. The difficulty was not getting access to information, since the

organization is very transparent and offers all its content through the official website.

The biggest problem was to schedule the interview with the organizer responsible for

the Earth Hour campaign in Brazil. The contacts began to be made in mid-2012 and,

even in advance, it was complicated to get answers to the questions I had sent by e-mail,

requested by WWF own requirement. At the same time, the organization was also clear

about the fact that the director of the campaign would not answer my request due to

your busy schedule.

The same happened with the global law firm headquartered in Switzerland. I managed

to send questions to the charge that after the first contact did not give me feedback on

them. I tried to interview different people, using as intermediate Brazilian office to try

to finish this part of the process, but it has not been possible. And while my time was

running out, the press office of the WWF tried a new contact with the superintendent,

but that did not work. It was an exhausting process that was unable to achieve

excellence because of these problems.

As a journalist, it was important to me since the first contacts would explain how to

interview would be, the purpose and where it would be published. These are some of the

practices that are part of the ethics of journalism, which according to Ellis (2012), can

be seen in two different planes code: one that relates about the journalistic work itself

23

and the other is judged by the values of the newsroom culture where they work. Much

of what I learned about ethics, especially as a journalist, was working in the newsroom

of a newspaper. As Ellis himself (2012) said in their study, there are no indications that

bring a manual on the subject.

Therefore, to also give credibility to his own research, Ellis (2012) cites seven articles

that are in the document called The Oregon Code of Ethics for Journalism. They are:

• Sincerity and truth;

• Care, competency and thoroughness;

• Justice, mercy and kindliness;

• Moderation, conservatism and proportion;

• Partisanship and advertising;

• Public service and social policy;

• Advertising and circulation;

Also during the first contacts with WWF-Brazil and WWF-Global, I tried to establish

my credibility not only as a journalist but mainly as a researcher because, at that

moment, was my position. I was not there making a contact and requesting an interview

to be published in any newspaper, website or magazine, but to use it in a research

project that will serve as job finding my graduate studies at Griffith College Dublin.

Therefore, it was also important to establish goals that interview in order to let the

interviewee comfortable to participate in this process and become an important source

of credibility for the research. The choice of sources departed this assumption, based not

only on the position they have but also in the works that have been performed by them.

Using the method of document analysis showed a major surprise for work because, in

any case, this scheme was linked directly to the choice of creating a case study. The

analysis of Twitter and Facebook profiles were possible because this particular method

because, as defined by Chelimsky (1989), “content analysis is a set of procedures for

collecting and organizing information in a standardized format that allows analysts to

make inferences about the characteristics and meaning of written and other recorded

material” (p.8).

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3.5 Approach to Data Analysis

The main approach of this thesis was to search for documents on the Earth Hour

campaign, and to analyse their content, interpret and display their meaning. Suter (2012)

states in his book that in order to understand and interpret the data, it is necessary to

have flexibility in the analysis process, and especially to know that despite the existence

of methods, they should not be followed strictly because there are different ways of

thinking it.

Therefore my approach was to use multiple search channels such as books, articles,

websites, videos of TED, social networks, newspapers and magazines, so that this

information be converged on evidence that could support my thesis, as well as

formulating arguments. During the process, I saved the documents and putting 'tags'

through the Evernote application to know the right time to use them. This helped not

pass information that was not necessary at that time, but later became an important file

for the thesis (Suter, 2012).

Certain authors (Glaser & Strauss, 1967; Bogdan & Biklen, 2003; Strauss & Corbin,

2007) called this method of coding or grounded theory, as it became known, in which

researchers use specific software to organize the material and sorting through categories

to facilitate the process when they need to be used. Although there is a relationship

between the methods I used, the explanation for the use of this happened naturally

because when I decided to use it, I was looking for some theory that could support the

method I had developed, indirectly, but needed to have theoretical foundation.

4 Presentation and Discussion of the Findings

4.1 Overview

In this chapter an analysis of the profile of the social network of the Earth Hour

campaign on Facebook and Twitter was taken. Despite the move to happen in several

countries around the world, the country chosen for this analysis was Brazil. It was

important to note during the research that social marketing is increasingly present in

these online media, forming communities of people who have the same interests and

that will attract more.

25

At the same time, the idea of this chapter is to draw a parallel with what was also done

in relation to marketing, promoting the campaign in many different media that are

available today. Another important point that deserves attention in this communication

process of Earth Hour campaign are other campaigns that happen later with the

objective of making the theme remains debated in cities and communities, whether

online or offline.

In 2004, when the campaign began to be elaborated, it was influenced by recent reports

of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to be launched in 2007. A total

of 30 countries aroused curiosity in the campaign, and in the communication strategy of

WWF, and decided to participate in the following year. The tools used to achieve this

success and continue growth ranged from personal communication to advertise in online

media. Social networks had a key role in achieving the goals of the campaign in terms

of dissemination in real time and detailing the entire process (Marciano, 2011).

Besides Facebook, the campaign profiles on Twitter and YouTube have also been

analysed in this research to help notably to give impact to the campaign. In 2013,

something interesting happenedthat Earth Hour is no longer an event that happens in

one day in the year, as the WWF began to worry about making more this campaign on

social networks to make people continue engaging and inviting others.

4.2 Findings

4.2.1 Description of the organization and the campaign

The World Wildlife Fund was established in 1961 and since then it expands its

operations around the world becoming a major environmental organizations. Although

global, every office in a specific country focuses on local issues that relate to the reality

of that particular place. It was from this idea that in 1996 WWF Brazil emerged to

promote the rational use of natural resources and biodiversity conservation. According

to the Annual Report 2012, WWF has operations in over 100 countries and support

about 5 million people, including associates and volunteers.

Among one of the campaigns with the brand of the organization's Earth Hour theme of

this dissertation, which was designed to attract attention to global warming. The

26

campaign is a symbolic act that involves people, companies, institutions and

governments to switch off lights for one hour on a particular day of the year.

Held on March 31 in 2012, the year the WWF to mobilize hit record 150 countries and

6,525 cities, Brazil was one important country in this mobilization reached significant

numbers for the organization. According to the annual report released by WWF, 2012

was the year when for the first time, the twenty-six state capitals (including the Federal

District) engaged in favour of the movement.

The main focus of WWF's communication strategy in order to accomplish these record

numbers was engaging people on social media, using Twitter and Facebook. On the day

of the campaign in 2012, using the hashtag ‘#horadoplaneta’ was the most talked about

in Brazil and reached the world Trending Topics too. The strategy, however, was not

restricted only to mobilize the social networks, but also motivated the development of

initiatives such as the Anchor Event, held in Rio de Janeiro, bringing together

environmental leaders and about a thousand people in Parque do Arpoador. In Brasilia,

where is the headquarters of WWF Brazil, was promoted a meeting between

environmental and government leaders.

The numbers achieved in 2012 can be explained by the changes proposed by the

organization in 2011, when the campaign was changed in order to involve more people,

governments and companies (WWF Annual Report, 2011). Previously, the campaign

was intended to be performed in one day for an hour. However, Earth Hour has grown

and to keep up with this growth and continue motivating stakeholders to engage, the

WWF decided to hold actions during the year that were "beyond the hour", as they

became known (WWF Annual Report, 2012).

Thus, one of the first elements to be modified was the logo, to represent more clearly

the commitment to positively transform the planet every day and not just for an hour.

Also in 2011, historical monuments in 134 countries switched off or dimmed the

lighting, for example, Eiffel Tower, the London Eye, Big Ben, Empire State Building,

Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro and so on (WWF Annual Report, 2011).

If in 2011 the movement gained the membership of more countries, this was only

possible by the immediate success that the campaign has achieved in its first year, in

2007, in Sydney (Australia). Mobilizing the city's residents and also tourists who were

27

passing through advertising on TV, radio and newspapers, the movement reached 2.2

million people that switched off their lights, resulting in a reduction of 10.2% of the

energy used during that time. According to WWF, this number is the equivalent of

48,000 cars off the major highways for an hour (Earth Hour, 2013).

In 2007, two Australian actresses recognized for his work joined the movement and

helped to attract even more attention: Nicole Kidman and Cate Blanchett. The idea then

became more than a social movement but also a clear opportunity for other companies

to support the campaign, putting their logos and part of the movement. In 2007, 2,100

corporations like Coca-Cola, HSBC, Proctor & Gamble, among others. For WWF, this

was the main demonstration that a movement can make a difference when there

governments, corporations and people work together. The following year, in 2008, the

WWF has a global campaign and year after year, the number of countries, cities and

people involved grew (Earth Hour, 2013).

According to studies by Kazakova (2009), who also investigated how Earth Hour

campaign reached success in Russia, signing the Copenhagen Protocol in 2009 among

the world leaders to replace the obsolete Kyoto Protocol was an important step towards

campaign. For the first time, the public had access to the discussions and, especially,

could put pressure on their governments to reach an agreement that would reduce

spending on energy that each country has. The event was also important to WWF

because it gave the green light for the organization to define the focus of the campaign.

According to Andy Ridley, Co-Founder and CEO of Earth Hour, WWF while the

thought of approaching these leaders to present campaign platform and gain notoriety,

Ridley talk at TEDx account during 'Earth Hour Reimagining Sustainability' of the

WWF (TEDxTalks, 2013) that the attempt turned into a real failure for not having

coverage of major news agencies since the meeting could not be held as had been

reported. For Ridley, this was the moment that changed the course of the campaign's

communication strategy, focusing more on the people (volunteers) that would be (and

still are) responsible for taking the campaign to their respective cities, functioning as

interlocutors between the organization and local government, society and business.

28

4.2.2 Communication and Marketing Strategy

Regarding the communication strategy for WWF Earth Hour campaign, the official

website and social networks are important and are now discussed in this rest of this

chapter. In particular, I looked at the news and what has been published to attract shares

and gain visibility.

The idea of Earth Hour campaign requires a large participation of people in order to

accomplish the goal of engaging governments and cities to participate. For this, the

WWF created a kind of organization whose communication is based on

decentralization, although all are committed to the same cause, each group in each

country or in each city decides how best to promote the campaign. However, each

country develops a communication strategy based on the principles established by the

WWF in a document called "WWF Communication Strategy Template" (Kazakova,

2009).

Communication activities usually seek to promote a product and building a relationship

is it with a client or with partners. This is one of the definitions raised by studies

Hallahan (2001) on the communication strategy. According to the authors, the essence

of communication is represented by practices on behalf of the institution, its causes and

social movements.

To Hallahan, communication has reached a high level of complexity and importance

within companies and institutions, seeking attention, admiration and affinity exploit

communication and marketing their own benefit and recognition. In the author's view,

this does not happen just in the centre of the thought of the big corporations, but also in

activist organizations that strategically think communication to achieve their goals. If

this does not happen, definitely Earth Hour campaign would not have the importance it

has today, or could not achieve its primary mission of engaging people and other

corporations.

Hallahan also reports that in the midst of activist organizations (such as WWF), the

definition of strategic communication or marketing is seen as a tool to encourage people

to participate. This definition is directly linked to the practices of the Earth Hour

campaign in digital media, for example, when it launched the campaign "I will if you

29

are." This is a challenge launched by WWF-Brazil in partnership with WWF-Global to

ask people "what do they are willing to do to change the world."

The MSLGROUP (2012), specializes in creating strategic communications for clients,

at the time he published an article in 2012 about Earth Hour, says communication

processes and the challenge of creating it to achieve overall company levels. The group

noted that during much of this process, it is performed through decentralization that

WWF does not always have control over what is being done. Despite advertising in

magazines, newspapers and the Internet, the volunteers who sign up to participate in the

campaign also help spread posters in cities where they live.

4.2.3 Analysing the social networks

Facebook is no longer a common social network where people met their friends and

would add them to stay in touch for a long time. Since multinational companies began

to join this network creating interactive pages and integrating your content with this

particular media to be closer to its customers, Facebook is now seen as an important

tool not only for marketing but also the relationship with the client and users in general.

Pages from companies like Starbucks, where you can share your gift card information

and even enter contests, or even Coca-Cola, famous page to tell your story in a line of

interactive and dynamic, beyond to also function as a virtual store and community for

their fans.

As already shown in previous sections in this dissertation, not only large companies

have begun to realize the potential of Facebook, and other social networks, but mostly

environmental organizations and social movements that credit to the important role

these media to engage people, to build online communities and be part of the

movement, which means, these are people who make the move. Campaigns like "I'm

Mad as Hell", launched in 2010 by the United Nations Food and Agriculture (known as

FAO) Famine in the world, became a hit thanks to the video released on YouTube and

shared instantly by thousands of people.

Weber (2009) states that the Internet today allows people to be heard and be more

participants. That is exactly what campaigns like "I'm Mad as Hell", Earth Hour, among

many others, are increasingly using these platforms to achieve their goals. The

30

campaign organized by WWF does not follow a different path. Rather, their presence on

social networks is what makes it an interesting study of how social marketing can be

used in this media keeping the main goal is to change people's behavior case. The

Brazilian profile Earth Hour has over 51,000 people who receive daily information

about the campaign, data, images, videos and news about other campaigns.

Communication Earth Hour in Brazil is in three channels: Facebook, Twitter and

official website. Facebook, which is the first platform tested, is made not only

communication but also the marketing campaign. In 2013, for example, in the months

leading up to the day of the campaign, WWF released posters and art submitted by users

in order to promote the campaign.

From then until arriving the day itself, the Facebook profile announced the participation

of leading companies like McDonald's, for example. But it is the same on the profile

campaign receives more publications, mainly of photos uploaded by other users that are

sensitized to the issue and turned out the lights. Pictures of monuments, government

buildings, roads and other regions in Brazil also help build the gallery that becomes

instrumental in demonstrating the value and success of the campaign.

According to data published in the official listing of Earth Hour on Twitter in 2013, the

campaign had the support of 113 cities (22 of them capitals), plus more than 480

companies and organizations. The campaign was opened in Brasilia, the federal capital

of Brazil, with performances of bands in the historic National Museum of the Republic,

the Ministries, which had its lights off for one hour. In Rio de Janeiro, famous

landmarks such as the Christ the Redeemer, the Arcos da Lapa and Orla Copabacana

also had their lights off for one hour.

All this information is published in real time for people on the official campaign

website or Facebook. And all this engagement of people, cities and companies make

innovative and interesting ideas appear. It was the case of the group "Go Bike" in Sao

Paulo that brought together 100 cyclists for a ride through places and monuments that

went dark in the largest city of the country (WWF Brazil, 2013). The department store

clothing Renner was more creative and turned off the virtual shop for an hour (see List

of Figures 1). Any person entering found a message in support of Earth Hour.

31

The significant number of people who now access this social network in the country can

explain the success of campaigns like Earth Hour on social networks like Facebook in

Brazil. In a recent article published by the CEO of Hootsuite in Forbes magazine, Ryan

Holmes, villages in the state of Pará, where Indians struggle against the construction of

Xingu hydroelectric, it is difficult to find water or other basic survival riches. However,

it is possible to access Facebook.

A report released by consulting firm eMarketer published in 2013 (see List of Figures 2)

shows that 79% (corresponding to 78 million people) are the social networks in Brazil.

Regarding Facebook, the country already has 65 million users (after the United States).

Moreover, it is also the second country in the world in number of Twitter users (41.2

million). According to a report from comScore (2013), Brazilians spend more than nine

hours accessing social networks per month.

These impressive figures of Brazilian Internet connected together to participate in social

networks makes the movement organized by WWF - Brazil is steadily growing year

after year reaching new cities and engaging more people and partners who wish to

support and participate in the movement. Because these networks have turned into

specie of online communities, the campaign seeks to exploit this to try to make that one

influences the other to also participate.

However, despite the campaign to work on that chosen day in March during that hour,

the main challenge for the WWF, both in Brazil and globally, is to make the campaign

to continue after Earth Hour. This is the case, for example, the program called

Challenge of Cities, where each presents plans for low carbon development and the

considerable increase in the use of renewable energies. A city that is chosen by an

international jury will be chosen as the Capital of Earth Hour, a title that helps to give

recognition to the city selected.

If Facebook and Twitter campaign specializes in tracking real time Earth Hour, as well

as interact with users and with companies involved in producing content about the

development of the campaign on YouTube and the official blog of the Hour Planet of

the type of coverage is done differently. Marketing is used to invite people to participate

using their own employees of WWF-Brazil, which make the call and explain what the

challenge that they have and need to achieve. These videos are also posted directly to

Facebook, so anyone who has access to the page in the social network can watch.

32

The General-Secretary of WWF-Brazil, Maria Cecilia Wey de Britto, said that the

symbolic gesture of turning off the lights is a way to show to the world that citizens

want more. Also important for WWF-Brazil has, since the year 2013, begun to put faces

to the campaign in the country as already happens in other countries. The Brazilian

singer and composer Lenine, who has a garden in the city of Rio de Janeiro with

collection of orchids and has always been concerned about the environment, also

recorded videos on YouTube at the invitation of the organizers of the campaign to invite

people to participate.

Another artist invited to participate in the marketing and promotion campaign on social

networks was the musician, composer and poet Tom Zé, active participant in the artistic

and cultural movement known as Tropicália in the 60s and became a voice of the

independent middle Brazil. Like Lenine, he also recorded a video on YouTube inviting

everyone to turn off the lights.

The idea of putting these videos on the Internet, the online medium is an outlet for the

low budget that the organization has to run commercials in prime time on Brazilian TV.

Moreover, knowing that the main target audience is even connected to these networks,

YouTube has emerged as a platform that helps to convey promotional videos like these.

In Blog, a platform created within the WWF-Brazil's own website, is another means of

information and advertising with a purpose to show the results of the campaign

throughout the year. It's a good tool if you had more interaction recurrent updates.

However, the blog is not published for a long time and it should turn off members, and

not well positioned in the area of the site.

Nevertheless, what can be seen is that the WWF-Brazil is mirrored in other model of

WWF-Global since the launch of the campaign. Despite the growth in numbers, the

campaign in social networks has so many innovations if compared with other countries.

However, Earth Hour has achieved its objectives in Brazil not only in social networks,

but also in the number of participating cities and major landmarks that turned off the

lights.

33

5 CHAPTER 5 - Concluding Thoughts on the Contribution of this

Research, its Limitations and Suggestions for Further Research

 

When I started thinking about the theme of this research, the objective was scientifically

investigate the Earth Hour campaign, bringing authors who could support the idea

behind the movement. The campaign has emerged as an interesting line to get both

elements theme, because the research include not only concepts about management and

how to make a productive year, but a deeper analysis of why Earth Hour has achieved

so much success in world and in particular in Brazil.

One of the contributions that this research made to future work is an investigation into

the WWF campaigns, more precisely about Earth Hour and the Social Marketing it

used. With so many few studies on this area of marketing, this research brought updated

information about what has been studied and, especially for new authors, who have

proposed to study social marketing and contributed to the development of this area, for

the development of new concepts with the changing world and constant updates on the

way to communicate.

Finding research, articles, texts and studies in this specific topic was not an easy task

during this process, but that proved quite interesting because knowledge gained in the

area surely remain and the discovery of these authors as well. Having looked at the

documents of Manuel Castells, my research shows that his thoughts on the influence

and impact of technology, especially in culture and activism, were important for

campaigns like Earth Hour, to be created and be the subject of studies seeking

investigate this phenomenon that occurs around the world each year, on a day during

one hour.

In relation to Brazil, my research showed important results of a study from eMarketer

consultancy that examined the rapid growth of Internet usage, and social networks,

making the country in second place - behind the United States - in number of users

accessing the network. This research also presented another study, published by

ComScore, that Brazil is the country where most accesses the Internet compared to the

other countries that make up Latin America. Despite the size of Brazil in relation to

neighbours, this study demonstrated the importance that Brazil has within Latin

America.

34

Beyond that important information about the growth of these media in Brazil, Earth

Hour campaign took advantage of these networks very hard to transform their

volunteer’s users able to form online communities that could give help and support to

the campaign, taking to remote regions in the big cities, or even in large cities.

5.1 Implications of Findings for the Research Questions

One of the main questions that the research aimed to clarify is how WWF could make

Earth Hour campaign through social networks, as responsible for leaving important and

famous monuments around the world switched off for one hour in order to reduce the

impact the environment.

The Earth Hour website is very organized and makes content available on campaign

throughout the year (reference). Facebook is the social network that the public has

greater access to information that is published in real time during the coverage, and

through other actions that happen in cities that participate in the campaign being

organized by the same volunteers.

One of the problems found by my research is failing to gain access to the WWF, either

through global office or office in Brazil. The only access to the same information was

given from annual reports that are disclosed and released for consultation, information

obtained through the official internet page or profiles on Twitter, Facebook and

YouTube. Another source of research and information that was used in this project was

the vide produced of TED by the founder of the the campaign, Andy Ridley

(TEDxTalks, 2013).

The point to investigate documents and raise questions about the subject was to analyse

the communication power of the campaign, the methods of engagement and the impacts

that people really have in achieving the same. My research concluded that despite the

action being organized by WWF, the campaign is only possible thanks to the work of

volunteers who are responsible for the content and engage others to participate. Already

thinking about the 2014 campaign, it is clear by the slogan "Your power amplified,

multiplied, globalized" (Earth Hour, 2014).

35

5.2 Contributions and Limitations of the Research

During the research process of this dissertation, I found a few articles and studies on the

Earth Hour campaign or any other campaign. In the field of environmental

communication, there are many articles that review or analyse the available literature in

this area. Nevertheless, the study was limited because there are few studies that report

the use of this practice in the area of communication campaigns like Earth Hour.

As my analysis was more empirical oriented in order to observe the impact of the media

campaign and how their communication strategy works, this can be an important

contribution that research brought. On the other hand, if there are few empirical studies

regarding this subject, it is not possible to say the same about theoretical articles. The

number of studies and the diversity of authors made the ideas of a each were contrasted.

And it helped research have diverse visions that deepen the theme.

The biggest problem was not getting access to the WWF to conduct interviews with

those responsible for the campaign. And it became an unexpected limitation to the

research process but that forced me to look into document analysis which proved to be,

ultimately, very useful. Also served as an important learning experience in coping with

time pressure it was necessary to find an outlet for something that did not work.

5.3 Recommendations for Future Research

Because of problems with the interviews, it would still important to try to listen to those

responsible for the campaign to enlarge the view of this study, which was attached to

the researched material and the annual reports of WWF that are available on the

Internet.

But during the search, some other themes emerged from the Earth Hour campaign,

namely {say which}. And it would be important to compare the image for this event by

comparing it with other related events and how these other organizations use social

networks to communicate with their volunteers, and especially the importance of social

marketing techniques to achieve campaign objectives.

Although each year the campaign needs to modernize, especially in terms of impact on

what actions are performed, it would also be important to do research on the Internet

36

asking users how much they know about the Earth Hour campaign, if they participate, if

they think that this kind of action can change people's behavior regarding the excessive

use of energy and also they care about these issues that are affecting and transforming

the world in which we all live.

5.4 Final Conclusion and Reflections

Finally, it is possible to conclude that, despite the social marketing have relatively new

theories in relation to commercial marketing, these practices has grown gradually once

that Internet are giving more visibility and access to campaigns that previously existed,

but now rely on social networks to they can reach a much larger audience than before.

The Internet has been an important ally in this regard and actions like Earth Hour, and

was an example that the social marketing found its engagement channel through online

communities that are formed with people who are interested in protecting the planet, in

organizing themselves for a better environment and people's behavior, in order to

achieve the objectives to change it.

In Brazil, since when the campaign had its first edition in 2009, the number of cities,

governments and companies participating has increased considerably - as well as the

participation of users in the network and also the press coverage (Penteado and

Fortunato, 2010). But the campaign still has much to achieve, especially regarding the

fact that last longer than one hour. Herself coverage WWF works as a marketing itself,

illustrating the passage of this hour by images of famous landmarks with lights off

around the Brazilian cities.

37

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