Understanding People’s Fears
A key part of the campaign was to reframe climate change for everyday people, so it reflected things that affected their lives and reached their hearts.
We undertook a rapid national insight campaign to understand what really motivated people to act and found one common fear: losing local green spaces and associated memories.
Bringing the star power
Once we understood what would unlock the British public, we reached out to some of the UK’s most influential advocates for our green spaces. These included Gary Lineker, Paula Radcliffe, Judge Rob Rinder, Ben Shepherd, Carlton Cole, Glasgow Warriors, Taunton Town, Kevin Nolan, Jamie Farndale, Mya-Rose Craig, Helen Glover, Steve Backshall and many many more including Strictly Come Dancing Star, Paul Merson!
Reframing Politics
To deliver impact, we needed to prove to the new Labour government that Britain’s green spaces matter – so alongside our partners The Climate Coalition, Hope for the Future and the Local Storytelling Exchange, we invited MPs, climate charity CEOs and press to our series of events.
Events including a game of Football in Wellies with Paul Merson at Hackney Marshes, Running the Cardiff Half-Marathon in a wet suit, Taking over the Half Time Announcements at Taunton Town and a VERY muddy day with the Glasgow Warriors in oversized kits!
Infiltrating Mainstream Media – how we broke out of the climate bubble
We created a campaign that would have kerb appeal for outlets that historically avoid environmental stories. But how?
Well, it was quite simple really – we never directly framed the campaign around climate change. Instead, we framed it around the people and lifestyles it would affect. We mentioned the parks, the sports teams, the woods, but never offputting terms like carbon or climate… Because of this, we reached well over 200m people, we trended on the social platform X and on Match of the Day too!
