Sea Shepherd launches ‘Get Behind the Defenders’ online experience via Cypha

To raise awareness for Sea Shepherd’s latest anti-whaling campaign ‘Operation Relentless’, Sea Shepherd has teamed up with Design & Technology studio Cypha, to produce an online experience called ‘Get Behind the Defenders‘.

The site aims to put users on to the seas as part of the Sea Shepherd crew, see what they see, feel what they feel as they make split second decisions that impact their crewmates and the life of the whales. The audience is asked to explore a variety of discomforting video segments and make choices based on their own understanding of outcomes. The audience is then directed to a concluding video segment explaining the consequence of their choice.

The audience is then asked to get behind the ‘Defenders’ by making a donation and physically showing their support by uploading their photo to the ‘Wall of Defenders’ which doubles as a virtual petition.

Says Alex Christian, creative partner, Cypha: “Because organisations like Sea Shepherd exist, some complacency has developed over the last few years but the reality is, without the public’s support, Sea Shepherd can no longer continue to protect our oceans. So we shifted the focus from defending our oceans to defending those people who defend our oceans. The endangered species this year are the Sea Shepherd crew.

Sea Shepherd has a strong social reach through its numerous Facebook pages, including over 550K fans internationally so the campaign was designed to tap into this viral network. Users can connect with Facebook to make a donation and add their profile picture to the wall behind a Sea Shepherd captain. The bigger the donation is, the bigger the photo. The app also creates a themed version of this profile pic to be shared on social networks.

Says Daniel Christos, technical partner at Cypha: “People proudly donate to a cause because it says something about who they are and what they stand for. We made it easy for users to share their support with their network, while at the same time tapping into the power of the group by showing photos of others who are already behind the crew. This creates a unique and novel experience compared to traditional donation mechanics.”

Says Adam Burling, media coordinator for Sea Shepherd: “Sea Shepherd seeks to work with talented and like-minded people whether in the frontline defending whales or creating interactive content like this for supporting our campaigns. We are proud to be working with the team at Cypha.”

The site is the first instalment of a range of digital executions that Cypha will produce for the organisation.