K4 Fins

USING WATERSPORTS PASSIONS TO HELP CONSERVE MARINE LIFE

Who more likely to be concerned about marine life than a dedicated water user? K4 Fins’ customers are global, regular water users windsurfing, surfing and free diving their way around the world in a multitude of environments. 

Whilst branding up the latest fins for one such nature-inspired passion, I saw an opportunity for the brand to give back to the animals whose home the sea really is. 

Dugongs Eat Weed. 

Whilst K4 isn’t a dedicated green or eco brand, we introduced a piece of environmental responsibility into this brand that was really genuine.

“A few years ago we were philosophising about how to get rid of the seaweed in the Baltic Sea. The idea of exposing Dugongs to eat the seaweed was unfortunately not entirely feasible. Therefore we had the idea to develop sea grass fins in honour of the Dugong.”

– Frithjof Blaasch

While researching the Dugong to develop the illustration, my attention was drawn to the plight of the Dugongs. Dugongs have suffered a 20% global decline over the last century. They have a long life span and low reproduction rates meaning that they have a long generation time and so are faced with extinction through human activity, pollution, hunting and loss of habitat. 

K4 Fins decided to give 3% of their sales for every Dugong fin sold to Sirenian International who are fighting to conserve both the Dugongs and the closely related Manatees.

Here is how the project was run

The marketing activity, design and management included:

//Refinement and finalising the design of the proposed Dugong illustration to accurately represent a Dugong and creating the final illustration to be made into the printing plates for multiple sizes

//Liaising with the beneficiary charity to ask permission (after all, they might not naturally lean towards donations from a plastics-based brand!)

//Copywriting and tone of voice

//Slider video banner animation for the website homepage

//Social media product graphics sized for Instagram and Facebook 

//Website blog and website updates

//Email newsletter campaign 

//Product information sheets and lines to take for shop retailers

You can find out more about Dugongs and this project here.

Collaborators

Bulgenslag (photography and logo concept)

Steffi Wahl (logo concept)

Current manatee deaths problem

K4 Fins have just made their first donation to Sirenian International. The money is going to help fund research into two understudied manatee populations: the Antillean and Amazonian manatees.