Championing humanity in the age of AI

Services
Campaign Strategy
Messaging
Visual identity
Art Direction
Animation

Ultravirgo Project Team
Marina Csomor
Patrick Durgin-Bruce
Cynthia Escalante

‍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.

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.

“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 at the 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 our 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.