GabiH2O is a London-based eco-brand which campaigns to promote water efficiency to children across the UK, which includes Gabi the Rapping Water-Saving Camel, who appears in GabiH2O's water-saving initiative interstitials on Nickelodeon UK and Ireland, NickToons UK & Eire, and a dedicated campaign website on Nick UK's official website, Nick.co.uk:
Campaign involving animated camel saves UK 540m litres of water a year
Gabi the camel spreads a message of water conservation to around a milllion children in 29,000 schools
Gabi the camel is the UK's first animated character dedicated to educating children about environmental stewardship. Photograph: GabiH2O
Gabi, a water-conserving camel, was at the centre of a national campaign that has captured the imagination of children and saved the UK 540m litres of water a year.
The character came to life in educational spots on Nickelodeon and Nicktoons TV, rapping to promote water use.
A bespoke website featured videos, downloads, games and goodies for kids while an educational campaign in partnership with Eco Schools, Southern Water and United Utilities reached a million children in 29,000 schools.
The approach was developed by GabiH2O in association with the UK's leading authority on water efficiency, Waterwise, and Nickelodeon UK, along with major sponsors from the water industry.
Waterwise also lent support to the development of GabiH2O's range of water-saving devices – including a shower head that delivers an optimum flow of 7.6 litres per minute as opposed to the more common 12, 15 or even 25 litres.
Gabi the camel is the UK's first animated character dedicated to educating children about environmental stewardship.
The challenge for GabiH2O's founder, Avi Djanogly, was how to bring about lifestyle change on a mass scale. It was decided that spurring behaviour change among children would not only form better life-long habits, it would create "pester power" and encourage parents to get involved too.
A series of 30 and 60-second educational advertorials featured Gabi encouraging things like switching off taps while brushing one's teeth, taking a five-minute shower instead of a bath or using leftover water to water plants.
Online competitions offered prizes including a singing toothbrush, activity books and trump cards; and schools – through the children's newspaper First News – were able to stage a Save Water competition backed by posters and a lesson plan.
Waterwise provided advice on the development of schools materials and the company's commercial water and energy saving kits. The latter were made available via a major online retailer, enabling customers in an average family home to save up to £238 a year on utility bills and reduce CO2 emissions.
GabiH2O reached 5.5 million TV viewers a month during the campaign, distributed more than 50,000 trump cards, received 315,000 online page views and more than 38,000 game plays and downloads.
The campaign on TV and in schools saved a further 175 million litres, proving the power of creative animation in sustainability education.
Introduced in May 2012, the "we oughta save water" campaign aired as the UK faced its worst drought in 36 years and at a time when every UK citizen uses, on average, 150 litres of water a day.
Lynn Beavis is part of the wordworks network The Guardian Sustainable Business Sustainability Case Studies contain articles on all the initiatives that met the criteria for the GSB Awards
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