Nokia to help make Austin greener with its #ijustplantedatree campaign at SXSW

With SXSW in full gear, the parties are rockin’, the booze is flowin’, and the BBQ is sloppin’. The yearly SXSW Interactive event in Austin is commonly referred to as “spring break for geeks” and it seems like this year is no exception.

Some companies are choosing to continue previous traditions like grilled cheese trucks and party houses, but phone manufacturer Nokia is doing something extremely different, and quite valiant, at this SXSW.

In a campaign the company is calling “#IJustPlantedATree“, Nokia has given out some of the latest Lumia devices to fifty Twitter users in hopes of raising awareness for helping to rebuild in Texas after a devastating year of wildfires. Here’s how the company explains the campaign:

So, during our time at the Interactive portion of SXSW, we invited 50 of our favorite Twitter friends to help us out in our mission. They will take part in a 48 hour online Twitter challenge using the hashtag #ijustplantedatree. Each time they tweet with that hashtag, 5 trees will be planted locally by our friends at the Arbor Day Foundation. To make sure we keep up the pace, an online leaderboard has been established, and will start to keep track of who is planting the most trees.

For each tweet using the hashtag “#ijustplantedatree”, the company will donate money to plant five trees in a coordinated effort with the Arbor Day Foundation in central Texas. The company is pledging to donate up to 10,000 trees and is inviting the public to get into the tweeting act as well.

Starting today (March 11th) at 9PM CDT, you can tweet with the hashtag #ijustplantedatree and Nokia will plant five trees! It’s a great way to support the awesome yearly location of the SXSW conference and an outside of the box way to get some attention for those Lumia handsets as well.

Our own Brad McCarty is participating in the tree building and awareness experiment and here’s his tweet that planted five trees:

So yeah. Lumia 800 is really as good as everyone says. And #ijustplantedatree in Austin.

— Brad @ The Next Web (@BradMcCarty) March 11, 2012

While most companies who are spending money for marketing its products or services at SXSW in the form of free drinks or food, I can appreciate what Nokia is doing. You can get involve too, even if you’re not on the ground in the great state of Texas.

And hey, this post just helped plant five trees thanks to its headline.

➤ #IJustPlantedATree