I’m a little late to the game but I had to make a little comment about a great digital campaign that is currently going on from the wonderful people at the Audubon Society. I stumbled across it this morning, as I was visiting one of my favorite sites- Inhabitat and I was greeted by the prettiest little bird. So, of course I clicked on the dancing darling and it led me to the Audubon’s Facebook page.
With the goal of teaching a younger generation about the pleasures of spotting and naming all kinds of feathered friends, Audubon set loose digital birds across the internet. That’s right, 100′s of birds finding homes across the world wide web. The birds behave just like they would in real world with perching, flying, hiding, and shying away from those that move to fast. Much like birding in real life, you have to search all around the Web World to encounter these birds. There are over 200 web sites participating from the Discovery Channel to Inhabitat to Slate.
As I experienced with my stumble, clicking on the animated birds takes players to an Audubon Facebook page where they can sign up to collect and trade “bird cards” that feature recordings of birdsong, bird facts and video. The first players to collect all species of birds will win a trip to the Galapagos Islands.
Unfortunately,I’m late to the game and there is only a day left to participate in their online game. However, I’m beyond impressed by Audubon’s digital campaign. They tied in social channels with Facebook, and Twitter (that’s where you got tips on birding on the net), they have great educational content- videos, audio, images and facts about the birds, and lastly they made education fun by making it a game that required participants to stay involved. Truly a great campaign. Audubon stated that they have had 10,000 players sign up, and 37,000 people have “liked” its Facebook page.
I can’t wait to see how they continue to use the web to share information about our feathered friends and what they do in the future to involve their new digital followers .
