Media Advisory

“Champions for Earth Tournament” Reaches 213 Countries

FOR RELEASE October 13, 2015:
From Earth Day Network

Champions for Earth Tournament Reaches 213 Countries|
Earth Day Network and Rovio Use Gaming to Educate Players on Climate

WASHINGTON DC, OCTOBER 13: Earth Day Network (EDN) and Rovio today announced results of Angry Birds Champions for Earth, a weeklong global tournament that challenged players to learn about and help solve the climate crisis. The tournament, which coincided with Climate Week, attracted players from 213 countries and territories who completed 20 million game sessions cumulatively adding up to 350 years of game time.

According to demographic figures released by Angry Bird’s creators Rovio Entertainment, the key player demographic was millennials but the game was also played by younger and older players from the US, UK, Germany, Canada, Russia, Mexico and France. Participants also came from the far-flung reaches such as Moldova, Mauritius, Suriname, Aruba, Fiji and Gabon.

Champions for Earth lit up social media, too, with 150 million Twitter impressions, 1 million Facebook views, 6 million Instagram impressions and 2 million video views during the week.

EDN has been a trailblazer in engaging unique and often difficult to reach audiences in environmental issues. This partnership—EDN’s first attempt to reach the gaming community with an environmental message—proves that by employing a popular hook like Angry Birds, millennials and youth can absorb climate messages and move from gaming to action in large numbers.

EDN and Rovio developed 23 Champions for Earth climate change fact cards that popped up on players’ screens during the tournament. Each climate fact card was presented by a participating celebrity: Don Cheadle and Ian Somerhalder, Goodwill Ambassadors for the UN Environment Programme (UNEP); comedian Danny DeVito; actor Matt Damon; Indian superstars Anil and Sonam Kapoor; and members of Korean pop sensation VIXX.

Christiana Figueres, the UN’s top climate official and head of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) narrated an introductory video.

An “Act Now!” button took players to EDN’s online engagement platform, with a climate petition and a call to plant trees through EDN’s Canopy Project. The platform was optimized to appear in one of five languages– English, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian or Korean–depending on where the player originated. Thousands of petition signatures were collected and 150,000 trees will be planted as a result of the tournament.

To create and promote the tournament, EDN and Rovio partnered with UNFCCC, Connect4Climate (a Partnership Program of the World Bank), the documentary series Years of Living Dangerously, The Climate Reality Project, Water.org and UNEP. Ogilvy India promoted the tournament in India.

“We want to thank Angry Birds and all our partners,” says Kathleen Rogers, president of Earth Day Network. “Mobile gaming is a powerful way to engage people of all ages—especially young people—in learning about climate change and becoming activists. We need everyone’s voices to be heard, especially as we get ready for the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris this November.”

“We are delighted with the results of this tournament. Millennials and young people are engaged and want to take part in fixing the environmental issues we all face,” said Blanca Juti, Chief Brand Officer of Rovio.

About Earth Day Network

The first Earth Day on April 22, 1970, activated 20 million Americans from all walks of life and is widely credited with launching the modern environmental movement. Growing out of the first Earth Day, Earth Day Network works year-round with tens of thousands of partners in 192 countries to broaden, diversify and mobilize the environmental movement. More than 1 billion people now participate in Earth Day activities each year, making it the largest civic observance in the world. For more information, please visit archiveedn.wpengine.com

Press Contact:

Attiya Sayyed
Earth Day Network
[email protected]
202.518.0044