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The Lion's Share Fund takes off with a big roar.....

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Let’s ROAR for wildlife!

On World Lion Day (the 10th August), it’s great to announce a really exciting piece of news for wildlife conservation.

There’s a really fantastic opportunity for business to make a difference and have a real impact on wildlife.

Drum roll please for….. The Lion’s Share Fund!

You may have heard of The Lion’s Share.  If you haven’t, let me tell you more.   It’s an initiative which is aiming to transform the lives of animals around the world by asking advertisers to contribute a percentage of their media spend to conservation and animal welfare projects.



I am really excited by this initiative.  The hope is that $100 million a year will be raised within 3 years.   The money will be invested in a range of animal conservation and animal welfare programmes, to be implemented by the UN and civil society organisations. 

The Lion’s Share is working to contribute to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, which are aiming to end poverty and project the planet.  Goal 14, Life Underwater and Goal 15, Live on Land, involve supporting animals and helping to conserve their key habitat. 

The UNDP (that’s the United Nations Development Programme) will host the fund.   A joint steering committee will take decisions on priority programmes. Money raised will go into creative, game-changing solutions which focus on achieving real impact for the animals and their habitats.

Ambitious for sure - but if the top 10 advertisers alone were to participate, this would bring in a staggering $47m each year alone!

Partners in the fund will contribute 0.5% of their media spent to the fund for every advert they use which has an animal in it. 

And cartoon animals will count as well.  So if your company has an ad with a cartoon animal in it, they can participate!

Mars is the first advertising partner.  It will sit on the executive and steering committees of The Lion’s Share and encourage other businesses to get involved.

Worldwide advertising network BBDO and leading measurement and data analytics company Nielsen are also involved.  BBDO is contributing the benefit of its experience in advertising, whilst Nielsen will ensure that companies are contributing correctly.

The Lion’s Share Fund has a website, and a very helpful FAQ page.  This answers a number of questions which spring to mind – how can we be sure the money goes to where it should, for instance.  (Nielsen will watch that side of things like a hawk.) And 93% of the funds raised will go to the animals that need it.  

Rob Galluzzo, founder of FINCH, initiated the idea with Christopher Nelius, a film director.   Galluzzo says that 9 out of 10 of the most popular animals seen in commercials are endangered or threatened and they don’t always get the support they deserve.   

FINCH have partnered with Clemenger BBDO to bring this initiative to life.

The fund was launched in Cannes  at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, by UNDP Goodwill Ambassador and actor Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, who said quite rightly that it is our responsibility as people to safeguard all life on our planet. Coster-Waldau plays Jamie Lannister in the Games of Thrones.

So how can you help?

Well, if I see an advert with an animal in it, I'm going to let the advertising company know about the The Lion’s Shares Fund.  It was only launched recently in June 2018, so they may not know of it yet.

 

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