New billboard campaign promotes FOT partnership with the Portland Timbers

By Chris Crabb

Friends of Trees debuted a billboard campaign this month that playfully mimics the iconic portraits of diehard Timbers fans seen on billboards around Portland earlier this year. The two Friends of Trees billboards feature illustrated Portland Timbers fans, but instead of axes, they’re wielding saplings and spades. The messaging is simple – Friends of Trees: Give. Volunteer. Plant.

Marketing firm Frank Creative conceived the campaign and hired local artist Amy Ruppel to design the billboards in the same illustrative style she used on the ongoing FOT Plant It Portland! campaign.

“The campaign is a fun way for Friends of Trees to acknowledge our partnership with the Portland Timbers,” explained Friends of Trees Executive Director Scott Fogarty. “Both organizations share many of the same passionate fans.”

The upcoming 2012 Major League Soccer season will mark the second of a three-year partnership between FOT and the Portland Timbers. Through the Timbers’ “Score a Goal, Plant a Tree” partnership, for every goal the Timbers scored during a home game, the team agreed to plant a tree in the Portland community.

Plant It Portland! debuted in 2010 as a way to bring awareness to the need for street trees through whimsical graphics and grassroots efforts – including yard signs, door hangers and community outreach. The campaign highlights four key benefits that “grow” on trees: better health, energy conservation, a safer community, and money.

–Crabb is a Communications Associate for Lee Weinstein & Associates.