In May 2021, Sheba, a Mars Petcare brand and one of our key business partners, announced the launch of the Sheba Hope Grows campaign, a purpose-led initiative to create hope for the world’s coral reefs. This campaign builds upon a decade of Mars research in the Coral Triangle and includes a commitment to restore 185,000 square meters of coral reefs around the world by 2029, forming the world’s largest coral restoration program.

The beacon of this campaign is Hope Reef, a 150-foot-long restored reef on Salisi’ Besar, which spells out the word HOPE and is visible from space. To create the first piece of outdoor media visible from Google Earth, Sheba joined forces with AMV BBDO, Mars Sustainable Solutions and media partners MediaCom and Google.

Fast forward to July, 2022 and Sheba Hope Reef has recently earned the prestigious honour of not one, but two, Grand Prixes at Cannes Lion Festival in the Industry Craft and Media categories.

• The Industry Craft Lion champions the creative artistry, vision and skill needed to deliver a visually compelling and skilfully executed solution to a brand’s problem. Sheba Hope Grows campaign is not only a solution to a brand problem, but also a real-world problem, as scientists predict that if the world does nothing, 90% of tropical reefs will be gone by 2043.
• The Design Lion celebrates visual craftsmanship and celebrates how design can be used to define a brand or communicate its key messages. Sheba Hope Reef highlights the urgent need for more to be done to safeguard the future of our critically endangered coral reefs and also represents a living, growing symbol of our ability to restore coral reefs at scale.

There were 24,456 entries at the Cannes Lions Festival from across 87 countries. Out of these, 0.11% won a grand prix. A single campaign won two grand prix: Sheba Hope Reef. This makes it the 0.01%. Here at Mars Sustainable Solutions, we are incredibly proud to be part of that 0.01%, generating much needed HOPE for both our planet and people.

This campaign would have been impossible without the invaluable support of the Bontosua Island community, our agency partners and Mars Associates from all around the world. Achieving this recognition allows us to reflect on the lessons we’ve learnt, give thanks and celebrate how far we have come from the once barren coral reef on Salisi’ Besar in 2019. But, more importantly, it encourages us to look towards the future, have hope and continue along this wonderful journey to undertake the world’s largest coral restoration program.