A new brand and website for an extraordinarily important global environmental and sustainability issue.
Getting access to clean and safe drinking water is crucial for travellers when they are off the beaten track. Whilst single-use plastic bottles have solved the problem, the negative impact to the communities through mountains of plastic waste has become overwhelming.
The team at Selective Asia set about exploring ways to remove single-use plastics from their operations, and leave a positive footprint with the holidays they created. They joined forces with other like-minded travel organisations, such as Steppes, Pura Aventura, Experience Travel Group, and Wild Frontiers, to create a plan and approached Wild Dog to create the brand and website.
The One Bottle at a Time initiative had various roles. By pooling resources, the founder members could create a new solution and best practice for on-the-ground services to provide plastic-free access to clean water. A new bottle was created to hand out to travellers, and a new system was designed to fit inside trucks and 4x4s.
The role of OBaaT was also to raise awareness of the problem amongst travellers, DMCs, NGOs and encourage them to take action and get involved. Meanwhile, the longer term vision was to recruit other tour operators to join in to add clout, expertise and support.
The brief for Wild Dog was to create a brand that stood independently from all companies involved. Even though there was a founder member, we needed to create a smooth path for the recruitment of a larger network of partners as the project evolved. However, it needed to convey the unifying theme of Independent Travel.
We had to position the brand to stand out from the host of other initiatives in the space, but also find an appropriate position to convey OBaaT’s scope to solve the huge, global problem. The companies involved are tour operators, not scientists or governments. Meanwhile, they did not want to come across as preaching to their travellers; the message needed to be positive and communal. We aimed to highlight the positive message of taking one bottle out of circulation, rather than the negative message of the impact of a single plastic bottle.
The logo Wild Dog designed was clear and adaptable. Designed to be used in various formats – brochures and other communication, but also on the bottles and in-car systems themselves. The unique shape of the bottle was set amongst the letters of the logo, and a supporting icon was created for smaller formats, also including the shape of the bottle.
The supporting website was simple and clear, highlighting the background to the project, the manifesto and a call to arms for operators, travellers and other organisations to get involved.
