Since its inception, The One Academy has willingly taken a committed role in nurturing promising creative talents to the artistic field by embodying an effective syllabus into the international standard curriculum. One exemplary manifestation of this effective education is the ‘Turtle Conservation Campaign Project’.

This project acts as an awareness campaign aiming to relay more information about the dangers faced by sea turtles due to human activities, and hopefully stimulates more actions to help save the species from the brink of extinction. Besides that, the campaigns fill two needs with one deed as they also allow final year Advertising and Graphic Design students to gain practical experience supported by their theoretical knowledge. 

This collaborative effort of a campaign project was birthed from the alliance amongst The One Academy and its students, Gaya Island Resort Marine Centre, YTL Foundation and public schools which are involved in the campaign’s execution. Founded in 2013, Gaya Island Resort Marine Centre is the first turtle rescue centre in Malaysia. YTL Foundation is dedicated to secure better opportunities and hence brighter futures for Malaysia’s younger generations by providing many forms of aids. 

The very notion of the campaign project’s concept of turtle conservation excited the final year Advertising students and had immediately triggered them to devise elaborate campaign plans that proved creative and original: 

Group 1 ‘Plastic Ranger’ aspired to make the best out of their opportunity at their assigned school SJK (C) Choong Wen, Kuala Lumpur in curbing turtle extinction.  The masterminds behind this campaign are students Cheah Jean Ning, Kuek Mei Yun and Wong Susi. As a testament against human neglect, this group centered their idea on the recycling of imperishable plastic. Group 1 incorporated ‘3Cs’ (Collect, Clean, Create) in efforts to curb the amount of plastic waste in a more creative and artistic method – turning waste like plastic bags and plastic containers into beautiful art using detailed tutorial videos. This campaign sends a message relaying that anyone can be a ‘Plastic Ranger’ and take part in saving precious future generations of sea turtles. 

Another group who branded their campaign ‘999 Turtle Emergency ‘consists of students Marissa Lim, Wong Tsu Ann and Yap Eva. The 360 campaign was carried out at SMK (L) La Salle Brickfields. 999 emergency was derived from the fact that only one in a thousand hatchlings survive in the wild waters. To further highlight the urgency of the situation, a red color scheme was used. The main event for the campaign duration was similar to a sport’s day event because of the athleticism in an all-boys environment. Named ‘999 Emergency Run’, students had to empathize with wild turtles as they overcome mock hurdles that are faced by them such as predators, human activities, net entanglement, oil spills and boat accidents. Despite being students, this group evidently emanates mature and holistic ideas, seemingly prepared for the challenging and competitive advertising world. 

Group 5’s campaign is named ‘Zero or Hero’. The members, Alyson Lai, Chin Li Hao and Francine Siew believe that western comic motif can best capture the attention of the young crowd in SMK Puchong Batu 14. To educate them effectively about turtles’ alarming population status, the group devised a highly interactive main event called ‘Strike A Heroic Pose’. In this competition, school students submit photographs of them striking heroic poses with interesting costumes, props and backgrounds. Some of the themes for photographs provided include preventing littering and egg stealing, sales of turtle products, among many others. The interactivity and reach of the campaign were further boosted as the photographs were uploaded to Frog Virtual Learning Environment (VLE), a social network site for schools, where other student members from all around Malaysia can vote for their favorite photographs. 

Observing the intricacy of each campaign, this year’s final year students have definitely raised the bar in advertising for their juniors. They have effectively assimilated a lot of aspects worth considering into their respective campaigns, most notably audience’s preferences. For younger generation of students, the groups did not miss out on using all forms of multimedia in campaign promotion, showing adeptness in knowing their audience and current technology. Some of these initiatives include the use of Frog VLE, TVC and videos to showcase their campaign to the wider audience. The groups also excelled in Graphic Design. Group 5 (Zero or Hero) recognized that western comic motifs can better appeal to school students, and hence the comic-styled artworks and color schemes. Also, ‘999 Turtle Emergency’ had chosen a wise color choice of red to underscore seriousness of the situation. 

After much deliberation, YTL foundation had decided to give the masterminds of ‘Plastic Ranger’ a token of appreciation for their outstanding assortment of creativity and love towards the wildlife. The three Advertising students were sent away on a 3 days 2 nights stay at Gaya Island Resort, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. 

All the gifted Advertising students were very grateful for their effective application of media might not have been fruitful if not for the cutting-edge industry technologies provided by The One Academy. 

Given a span of a month in average, all three groups have successfully carried out their campaign under the strenuous guidance of Mr. Chan Kon Loong, The One Academy’s Assistant Course Director. He has decades of advertising experience and numerous projects under his belt, and hence is a proponent of the Masters Train Masters philosophy of the Academy, continuously grooming students who are eager to be at their best. Besides having top-notch leadership and supervision, The One Academy also exposes students to authentic working experiences such as this turtle conservation project, while also aiming for projects that contribute to the betterment of society. Hence, students are provided with a constructive platform to learn and grow in terms of skills, knowledge, and intellectuality.