Tree of Hope – A WhatsApp Adventure
Award: Wood Pencil
Wood Pencil / Gaming & Virtual Worlds / Educational Experience / 2024
Overwhelmed with bad news and notifications, young people are switching off from the climate crisis. To gain the attention back, WWF entered a new habitat: WhatsApp. To reach out to people where their friends are, and 90% of messages get read. To hold attention, we created the world's first fully automated WhatsApp adventure. In The Tree of Hope, players make choices to save a forest's ecosystem, while spending 20 minutes learning about climate issues – in an unseen interactive WhatsApp experience. With this new game engine and many new friends, it's now set to get help whenever WWF needs it.
What did the judges have to say?
They made gaming in a place where the primary function is not gaming, but texting. With environmental purpose.
Juliana Utsch, Creative Director, GUT
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