Submitted by OgilvyAgency IPI Score 95/100

Last Tree Standing

PR & Communications

Ogilvy rebuilt Europe's last primeval forest as a 1:1 scale Minecraft map for Greenpeace, then took it away to dramatise the threat of illegal logging.

Case in 60 seconds

Illegal logging was destroying Bialowieza Forest, Europe's last primeval lowland forest, and the government had closed it to visitors, so the public could not see what was being lost.

People will fight harder for a place they have experienced and grown attached to than for an abstract cause they have only read about.

Rebuild the forest inside Minecraft at 1:1 scale so audiences could explore it, then take it away to make the potential loss tangible.

Ogilvy Warsaw built a 1:1 Minecraft map of the forest, 17 million trees made of 50 million blocks, which the gaming community embraced and which was used in schools and art installations, before the team removed it.

No metrics are reported on the source page; the outcome is described qualitatively as strong gaming-community adoption and use in education and art. Any reach, engagement, or policy-change claims come only from third-party coverage.

Strategy Breakdown

The primary strategy-learning section — interpretation, not a press-release summary.

Gamers, particularly the Minecraft community, alongside the broader public who could not physically access the closed forest.
A unique natural site was being lost, yet it was closed off and out of sight, which made it easy for audiences to feel removed from the issue.
Conservation messaging is easy to scroll past; Greenpeace needed people to feel a personal stake in a forest most would never visit.
Greenpeace positioned itself as giving people a way to experience and defend the forest, using a platform its target audience already lived in.
Attachment drives action; letting people build a relationship with the forest inside a game, then removing it, converts distant concern into felt loss.

Creative & Execution System

Assets & channels

  • 1:1 scale Minecraft map (17 million trees, 50 million blocks)
  • Use in schools
  • Use in art installations
  • Live streaming and supporting films reported by third parties, not on source page

Partners

  • Ogilvy (Warsaw / Ogilvy Poland)

Participation mechanic

  • Players could explore the recreated forest in Minecraft until it was removed

Creator role

  • Not disclosed on source page; a Polish streamer is cited in third-party coverage

Why Ogilvy's strategy worked

  1. 1

    Rebuilding an inaccessible real place inside a game people already love turned a distant cause into something audiences could enter and care about.

  2. 2

    Using a platform native to the target audience, Minecraft, put the message where gamers already spent their time.

  3. 3

    Removing the recreation after building attachment used loss, not lecturing, to make the threat felt.

  4. 4

    Extension into schools and art installations gave a digital idea reach beyond the game itself.

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