Boondoggle and Antwerp Zoo write internet history with www.baby-olifant.be

Friday evening: In the Antwerp Zoo, the progesterone level in the blood of the pregnant elephant Phyo Phyo showed a clear dive. For  thousands of Belgians, it was a signal to follow the birth live on www.baby-olifant.be. Since its launch the digital platform set up by Boondoggle and the Antwerp Zoo has created a level of emotional involvement with the Zoo which has rarely been seen before, and a huge community has sprung up around the birth of the baby elephant. Or: How the clever and authentic use of digital media can lead to a deep commitment to a brand.

Record figures

It was the first time that the birth of a baby elephant had been streamed live on the internet, and it obviously appealed to the Belgians: last weekend, as many as 555,584 people watched the birth of Baby K live. The total number of visitors from Friday to Sunday was 1,594,831. At peak moments, over 30,000 visitors were watching the ups and downs of mother Phyo Phyo at the same time. These are absolutely record figures: never before have so many people watched a live streaming on the internet. Boondoggle and the Zoo have improved on the figures of earlier live streaming events such as the Olympic Games and Music for Life.

Keeping a site with such extremely high traffic figures on air required permanent monitoring and control. At Boondoggle, they had to work hard through this eventful weekend. For streaming, Boondoggle collaborated with Rambla. By installing extra servers and using scalable infrastructure, they were able to respond continuously to the ever rising demand.

Announcement of birth via sms and e-mail

On Friday evening, Boondoggle notified around 40,000 people via sms and e-mail that the birth of Baby K was imminent. Everyone who had left their mobile number on the site in the past months received a message to say that the birth could be followed live via the cameras in the maternity section. In a few hours, the e-mail had been read by around half of those registered, and - previously unheard of - every one of those immediately went onto the site.

Enormous community, deep commitment

Because this unique event had to be shared with as many people as possible, Boondoggle built up a huge online community over recent months. The baby elephant blog has kept Belgium fully informed of the comings and goings in the elephant house, and anyone could ask questions, raise concerns or send messages of encouragement to the carers directly. This meant that a huge number of people felt involved with the birth: this weekend alone, there were 23,369 posts on the elephant blog. Convincing proof that the clever and authentic use of digital media can lead to a deep commitment to a brand. On Facebook and Twitter too, the birth of Baby K did not pass unnoticed. The fan page created by Boondoggle on Facebook now has more than 1000 fans, and the trunk avatar became a digital must-have in no time. And the campaign has not stopped there: in the meantime, a birth register has also gone online and everyone can leave his or her congratulations, and there's much more to come...