#TeamTrees

Overview

#TeamTrees is a joint campaign and collaboration project organized by YouTubers MrBeast and Mark Rober in an effort to plant 20 million trees by raising $20,000,000 USD for the Arbor Day Foundation. The campaign was launched on October 25th, 2019 and included support from a large number of creators in the YouTube community.

Background

On May 22nd, 2019, MrBeast asked Twitter^[1] "What should I give my 20 millionth subscriber? I was gonna give him 20 million pennies but I procrastinated and I think it’s to [sic] late to get them in time." The tweet gained over 133,400 likes and 5,300 retweets in five months. Redditors began suggesting that MrBeast plant 20 million trees and MrBeast took notice and the next day replied to his own tweet with examples of the suggestion on Reddit (shown below). The tweet garnered over 145,400 likes and 18,500 retweets in five months.

Notable Developments

On October 25th, 2019, both MrBeast and Mark Rober anounced their partnership to plant 20,000,000 trees through YouTube videos (shown below). The videos gained over 23.8 million views and 6,1 million views respectively in three days. Viewers were encouraged to donate to TeamTrees.^[3]

That same day, The Infographics Show uploaded a YouTube video explaining the impact planting that many trees ith have on the environment (shown below, left). The video accumulated over 4.3 million views in three days. Other famous YouTubers like DramaAlert uploaded videos promoting the campaign (shown below, right).

That dame day, Verge ^[2] published an article about the initiative which quoted the Arbor Day Foundation in saying "“We’re just not planting and walking away” warning that "the US Forest Service, which it partners with, estimates a 3 percent mortality rate per year." On October 25th, vidIQ posted a "Live Tree Planting Counter – TeamTrees" to YouTube. Within three days, viewers had planted over 5.5 million trees.

On October 28th, Redditors posted numerous memes relating to the tree planting initiative to r/pewdiepiesubmissions.^[4][5] Redditors sammanahve777 and lezz_ posted images which received over 700 points (92% upvoted) and 7,700 points (96% upvoted) respectively that day (shown below).

Elon Musk Donation / Treelon Musk

On October 29th, 2019, Elon Musk tweeted a that he would donate one million trees in a thread replying to MrBeast and Marques Brownlee (shown below). Within 24 hours, the tweet gained over 349,000 likes and 58,600 retweets. Additionally, Musk changed his Twitter name to "Treelon Musk."

Goal Achieved

On December 19th, the Team Trees Official Twitter^[6] account announced that the campaign had reached its goal of 20 million trees planted (shown below, left). The tweet gained over 34,100 likes and 8,200 retweets in a day. That day, @MarkRober^[7] responded to the news by tweeting, "20,000,000 TREES!! HOLY CRAP!!That’s the power of our community!! With over .5M donors (<$5 average donation) this only happened because everyone played a roll. Please go thank/congratulate the person who first told you about #TeamTrees. They the real MVP. So stoked right now!!!" The tweet received over 14,400 likes in a day.

That day, @MrBeastYT^[8] and YouTube responded to the news on Twitter with gratitude. The tweets accumulated over 384,700 likes and 95,400 likes respectively. Team Tress continued to encourage donations after hitting its goal they raised another $200,000 in a day.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References