Posted on January, 06 2020

WWF-Bulgaria received a prestigious award for its SOS River Campaign. The organisation won gold in the "Social, Media, Political” category. Effie Awards honour the most effective national advertising efforts all over the world. WWF-Bulgaria’s campaign addresses the country’s highly polluted and dammed rivers that have led to a rapid decline in fish species. To raise awareness and get people to sign the European petition in support of the EU Water Framework Directive, the campaign presented a disappearing fishing lure. The lure dissolves in water leaving behind only its skeleton and the web address of the campaign site where visitors are asked to sign the petition. Prototypes were first sent to fishermen to test, driving buzz and initial traffic to the website. The campaign added 8000 signatures from Bulgaria for the EU campaign and engaged more than 100,000 people (with focus on angler communities) with river and freshwater issues. The creativity and success of this campaign, and others around the region for the WFD significantly contributed to the ultimate success of the European campaign when the European Commission declared the WFD “fit for purpose” on December 12.


For more information:
Kalina Boyadzhieva
Events Officer,
WWF-Bulgaria
kboyadzhieva@wwf.bg, Tel: +359 878 843 494