Wikimedia Foundation

Championing humanity in the age of AI

Generating brand love for the nonprofit behind one of the internet’s most vital resources.

Services
Campaign Strategy
Messaging
Visual Identity
Art Direction
Animation

Ultravirgo project team
Marina Csomor
Patrick Durgin-Bruce
Cynthia Escalante

Collaborator
Hannah Jacobs
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Wikipedia is the largest online encyclopedia in the world, viewed more than 15 billion times per month. It’s also the only top 10 website run by a nonprofit, the Wikimedia Foundation. Not only does the Wikimedia Foundation support the technical infrastructure and communities that power Wikipedia and more than a dozen other free knowledge projects, but it also works to protect free expression, fight disinformation, award community grants and advance better internet regulations.
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CHALLENGE

While most people know Wikipedia, not everyone has an understanding of its unique role in the knowledge ecosystem. In an era where AI and chatbots are increasingly present in our daily lives and the prevalence of misinformation and disinformation is on the rise, the work humans do to ensure free and neutral information is accessible to everyone is more crucial than ever before. The Wikimedia Foundation asked us to help develop a brand awareness campaign that sheds light on the Foundation’s role in helping ensure that humans remain central to compiling and curating knowledge.

Tech’s human touch

Drawing on the recent AI and chatbot craze – including a New York Times article titled “Wikipedia’s Moment of Truth” – we created the campaign rallying cry “knowledge is human” to convey that, as machine-generated content becomes commonplace, the work of real people is more important than ever.

To elevate the people behind the Foundation and the broader Wikimedia volunteer community, we infused campaign materials with a quirky and clever tone. We worked with illustrator Hannah Jacobs, whose hand-drawn, surrealist animations reflect the inimitable human touch.

For the campaign’s cornerstone digital ads, we wrote couplets that define the relationship between technology and humanity, highlighting collaboration between humans and machines as the key to expanding knowledge and creating tools that help us all.

“In a year defined by growing tech concerns, Ultravirgo helped the Wikimedia Foundation differentiate. They identified our unique commitments to human-driven technology and expressed these commitments in a simple yet evocative creative approach. The results were a deeper connection with our users and potential donors.”

Zack McCune
Director of Brand
Wikimedia Foundation

IMPACT

Following this campaign, recognition of both Wikipedia and the Wikimedia Foundation’s role in advancing free knowledge increased significantly. Wikipedia’s brand awareness among the target audience witnessed a significant increase of 19 percentage points. The campaign even prompted a good number of people to consider editing Wikipedia, with 30% of the respondents saying that they’re more likely to edit Wikipedia after being exposed to the campaign.

30%
more likely to donate
after seeing the campaign,
with 20,000 clicks on "Donate"

30%
more likely to edit Wikipedia after seeing the campaign

17 million
total impressions

Read the Full Campaign Results Report

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“We’re still using Ultravirgo’s ‘Knowledge is Human’ at the center of our global brand marketing two years on from the launch of this campaign! The reason is that it still works, still engages, and still inspires. I believe that Ultravirgo’s approach to our singular business problem has proved universal because of how culturally-grounded and brand-centered they are. We plan to continue rallying around this brand line and the credit is all to Ultravirgo.”

Zack McCune
Director of Brand
Wikimedia Foundation

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