Care2

Bernadette Demientieff, a proud member of the Gwich'in community whose ancestors have lived in Alaska for thousands of years, has been at the forefront of a 30-year fight to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge—a vast 19-million-acre homeland that sustains the sacred Porcupine Caribou Herd. Recognizing the deep connection the Gwich'in share with the caribou, Patagonia, known for its commitment to environmental stewardship, joined forces with the Gwich'in community to raise awareness of the effort and tapped Care2 to engage consumers to take action to support the Gwich'in drafted policy action to defend the Arctic. Patagonia featured Bernadette in a 15-minute documentary, "The Refuge," and in partnership with Alaskan Wilderness League launched a Care2 petition calling on the U.S. Senate to safeguard the refuge from oil drilling. Care2 built a multi-channel marketing plan across shared, earned and owned media to raise awareness and drive petition signatures. The campaign was amplified through a robust influencer strategy—highlighted by National Geographic photojournalist Paul Nicklen sharing the petition with his 2.8 million followers—along with Care2 activating a blend of email marketing, native editorial content, proactive media pitching, and onsite advertising. The results were striking: we achieved over 50,000 petition signatures on day one, driving more than 30 million earned media impressions, and ultimately rallied 94,000 petition signatures in just 10 days, nearly doubling our initial goal. With over 75,000 views of the documentary and 500,000 views of its trailer, our efforts made a small contribution to a historic milestone achieved by the Gwich'in people when, on December 20, 2016, President Obama designated most U.S. Arctic waters off limits to oil and gas drilling.