Six steps to supercharge climate communications — Act Climate Labs
This guest blog was written by Ellie Malpas of ACT Climate Labs.
The VCSE sector in Cumbria and the North East has an exciting opportunity to drive sustainable change, both within their own organisations and workforce, and in the communities they work so closely within. Everyday people play an important part in Going Green Together’s vision of realising this potential, so we need to make sure we bring them on board.
Climate Outreach’s research shows that most of the public, 69%, aren’t climate activists or sceptics. We call these people ‘Persuadables’, and although they are likely to accept that climate change is an issue, sustainability communications could be excluding them from the conversation, making them less likely to engage with our campaign.
At ACT Climate Labs, all our projects are focused on making climate action relevant to Persuadables. Last year we carried out qualitative and ethnographic research in Leeds, Newcastle and Birmingham to do so.
Here’s 6 steps we can take to engage colleagues and communities in our communications.
1. Lead with personal benefit
Climate change is a massive, hard-to-comprehend issue, and most people have other pressing issues on their minds. When talking about sustainability measures, leading with personal benefit over climate credentials is more effective with this audience. For example: ‘insulation helps keep your house warmer for less,’ or ‘less traffic on the roads means safer streets for residents to enjoy.’
2. Prioritise diversity
The climate conversation has some excellent spokespeople, but Persuadables see it dominated by white, middle-class voices, leaving them feeling excluded or thinking that it’s not for them — one of our respondents from Birmingham said ‘I have never seen an Asian Greenpeace person’, capturing this sentiment perfectly. We must make sure we are jargon-free, using gender neutral themes and design, and amplifying non-white voices, to invite these audiences in.
3. Loosen up and be cheeky
Whilst climate change is a serious topic, your communication doesn’t need to be! Using humour can help alleviate feelings of doom and gloom and engage people in unexpected ways. We can afford to loosen up our tone of voice to bring people along with us.
4. Get local
People are much more likely to feel connected to outside spaces in their local areas, than intangible global biodiversity loss. We spoke to one lady in Newcastle who was sceptical about climate activism but would do anything to make sure her local park was kept safe and clean for people to enjoy. We recommend you use local imagery and language, and bring benefits back to their community.
5. Expand ‘climate action’
Climate action comes in many forms. While some people can afford bigger measures like solar panel installation, for many smaller steps like trying to reduce the amount of one-use plastic they consume is much more realistic. Make sure that your campaign embraces action of every scale so everyone can feel involved.
6. Experiment with different media channels
Social media might feel like the most obvious choice to get our message across, but we have found that Persuadables think it’s the least trustworthy channel. Other digital outlets, such as displays on websites popular with our audience or search engine results, can be more effective. If you do choose to use social, it is best to pair your campaigns with other media, whilst ensuring you have a proactive approach to monitoring comments.
To find out more ways to improve your climate communications, sign up to ACT Climate Labs for regular misinformation alerts, advertising guides, webinars and in-person events that will help you to supercharge the effectiveness of your climate communications.
ACT Climate Labs are a group of advertising and climate experts with a track record of creating innovative and impactful creative campaigns around social issues and climate change. Their mission is to supercharge the effectiveness of climate communications with advertising techniques that allow us to make climate action mainstream, and get others to follow our lead. Their focus is the ‘Persuadables’, AKA the 69% of the public who are neither climate activists nor climate deniers and aren’t being reached by climate communications. They offer marketing, advertising, and misinformation expertise through:
ACT Intelligence: newsletters highlighting current misinformation trends and practical guides to combatting them
ACT Network: webinars and in-person events with experts
ACT Advertising: creative campaigns to test different approaches to making climate communications more effective
