The Friendly Year of 2021 - Maria Nila for Beluga Whales
As a step towards a friendlier world, Maria Nila starts The Friendly Year every year on November 1st, World Vegan Day. This way, we make it easier wants to make it easier for salons and consumers to choose friendly products while also contributing to important projects around the world. By inspiring through our different activations throughout the year, we hope salons, partners, and consumers around the globe want to join in.
The Friendly Year is our yearly global campaign, which consists of different activations, all connected to raising money and awareness for a certain cause. It consists of:
A larger campaign that starts on Vegan Day each year, highlighting a specific animal or issue, with the aim to raise money to a select charity organization that is working with the highlighted cause. This year, we’ve selected the endangered Beluga Whale, and this is how we will support:
Launching our Vegan Day campaign on World Vegan Day. Between October 23rd – November 10th we run our annual online Vegan Day campaign on marianila.com, and between October 16th – November 19th we run our campaign to salons. During these days, parts of the proceeds from orders will be donated directly to the cause.
The launch of the new Friendly Reader magazine. This year’s magazine will focus on our oceans, the animals we encounter there, and what we can do, as businesses and individuals, to help preserve it. In the magazine, salons and clients will find information about the Beluga Whale Sanctuary and be directed to a specific donations site if they would like to donate directly.
A PR campaign aimed toward our global community, reaching stylists as well as consumers. Starting on November 1st, for one week we will offer a promo code that our ambassadors can share with their followers to our website. The code offers a certain promotion on our web shop and for all the purchases made with that code, we will donate the profits to the selected charity.
The launch of our “Friendly Year”-sticker. This way, salons can communicate that they support the charity campaign, and at the same time inform customers about this year’s activations. The sticker will include a QR code which will lead the reader to more information about the campaign. We highly encourage salons to put this sticker onto mirrors to activate and start conversations on the topic while having customers in the chair.
The charity organization
World vegan day is a global movement where the benefits of veganism for humans, animals and the environment are celebrated. This year, Maria Nila has decided to put the Beluga Whales in the spotlight. Together with our long-time partner, the trusted wildlife charity organization The Perfect World Foundation, we will contribute to Sea Life Trust’s Beluga Whale Sanctuary whose mission is to provide formerly captive beluga whales with a safe and natural home. Today, the sanctuary houses its first two residents, two female Beluga Whales, Little Grey and Little White.
The animal in need
Today over 3,000 whales and dolphins are currently housed in traditional captive facilities or performing in shows around the world. Whales that have been born in captivity, have a small chance of returning to their natural habitat in the ocean. If they do get the chance, they must get help to survive in these new environments. Therefore, sanctuaries are so critical to help rehabilitate and acclimatize captive whales into natural environments and give them a life in a safe and more natural home.
Beluga whales, orcas, and bottlenose dolphins all have higher death rates in captivity than in the wild. Free-ranging beluga whales can live for up to 60 years, while captive belugas have a shorter average lifetime. We hope that through this campaign we can bring much needed attention and donations to the important work of The Perfect World Foundation and Sea Life Trust.
Help up spread the word. Together, we can make a difference!
