Selfridges' Project Ocean campaign a smashing success

Jessica Shankleman - 

Swanky department store Selfridges certainly pulled out all the stops to help save endangered fish with its Project Ocean campaign, which ended this week – not least by securing Prince Charles and Queen Noor of Jordan to launch and close the high-profile campaign.

The store reported it nearly doubled its £50,000 fundraising target, raising £90,000 over five weeks, which will pay for a new marine protected area in the Philippines.

But despite the star-studded line-up, Selfridges says it owes much of its success to age-old corporate fundraising tactics, such as the "wax your manager" challenge, raffles and bungee jumps. Internal campaigns raised £10,000.

Speaking at the closing event on 7 June, creative director of Selfridges Alannah Weston did not reveal if she had taken part in the wax, but paid tribute to the "huge" number of ticket sales to Selfridges' staff who wanted to see their managers depilated.

She wryly suggested sales had been so successful that hedge fund managers could try the same trick for their next fundraising exercise.

The Marine Conservation Society, which urges supermarkets to source only sustainable seafood, applauded Selfridges' decision to remove all MCS red-rated fish from its shelves.

As a demonstration of how retailers can influence customers to make more ethical choices, Weston hailed the success of Selfridges' sustainable purchasing policy and its distribution of 45,000 Marine Conservation Society Fish Guides.

""The number-one selling dish in [the in-store] Hix restaurant is coley and
chips – a kind of fish most of our customers had never heard of before," she said.

"We have seen green-rated alternatives at our fish counter gaining popularity. Sales of lemon sole are up more than 50 per cent. So is squid. And pollack is replacing a quarter of cod sales."

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