Chevrolet Tree Widget

As gas prices skyrocketed, the American consumer was looking for an environmentally conscious car. Most consumers think Toyota, but Chevrolet wanted to make consumers aware of its commitment to environmental sustainability and conservation.

Chevrolet’s research showed that most consumers do not want to make the big changes in their life to become a true environmentalist. They will however, join and champion a cause that requires little personal time or involvement. The campaign was launched on Earth Day across several media type, concentrating on key digital spaces that provided a one-click platform where consumers could make a real world difference and show off their environmental commitment to their friends and family.

Chevrolet teamed up with MySpace to develop and launch a virtual tree widget. The Chevrolet widget allowed users to plant a seed within their profile that over 30 days grew into a tree to showcase their support for the environment. If users stayed committed to the cause for the full 30 days, then Chevrolet and MySpace pledged to plant up to 225,000 real-world trees in partnership with the Nature Conservancy in Florida.

The widget was promoted within MySpace, but was spread virally. To get the message across, each recruit would receive a note from GM’s VP of Environment, Energy, and Safety Policy stating that Chevrolet has “dedicated time, resources, and the brightest minds available to make our processes more sustainable, our vehicles less petroleum-dependent, our suppliers more conservation-minded, our plants more efficient and our planet more livable.

Financial resources limited the number of tree plantings to 225,000, and this number of Tree Widget downloads was achieved in days. To date, the Chevrolet Tree Widget has been downloaded by more than 18m MySpace users. Awareness of Chevrolet alternative fuels improved by 53%.