Hello in Elephant

Translating an endangered language to help save an endangered species.

Hello in Elephant is a world-first human-elephant translator – part utility, part sharing generator, part donation mechanism.

Powered by four decades of research into elephant communication, it uses artificial intelligence and voice recognition technology to translate voice, text & emoji into the corresponding elephant emotion or expression.

Launched on World Elephant Day, an online film introduced the idea, demonstrated the humanity of elephants through their language, and pushed people to the campaign site. The website gave everyone the opportunity to speak in elephant, donate and adopt an elephant via sheldrickwildlifetrust.org, and learn about the causes of elephant population decline.

The idea launched on World Elephant Day where other conservation organisations were hijacked to change the conversation from poaching to the growing problem of human-wildlife conflict.

In just one month, with no paid/donated media, Hello in Elephant generated global impact, garnering 400 million impressions across 53 countries, worth $6.53 million in earned media.

The idea took the story out of the traditional environment friendly places into internet culture. Social media impressions were 170 million; social views of the campaign were more than nine million. And importantly, it brought the unknown issue to the fore. The majority of our media coverage covered the human-conflict / habitat-loss situation we needed to tell the world

A decades-long relentless focus on the issue of poaching for ivory couldn’t be changed in an instant, it would take time. But Hello in Elephant was so powerful that more than 20 of the world's leading conservation organisations - including the UN, United for Wildlife, and Born Free - got involved, shared the idea and message, and their influence was used to start to change the conversation beyond solely poaching.

By translating the endangered language, Hello in Elephant reignited passion for this fading cause and will earn over USD$1.1 million for DSWT to continue to save the endangered species.

David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust - Hello In Elephant

CREDITS

Gold partners