TURNING CONSERVATION AWARENESS INTO ACTION

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• TURNING CONSERVATION AWARENESS INTO ACTION
• WARM AUDIENCES

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KEY COMMUNICATION SUPPORT TOOLS

• What are the gaps?
• Real audience insight
• Ways to share the insight
• Communication Support tools
• Enabling eco action
• One hundred ways to win a campaign
• The rules of the game (Futerra)
• Grunig and hunt
• www.campaignstrategy.org
• Motion Gallery
• www.filmmakersforconservation.org

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Recommendations for better practice in
communicating about conservation issues.

• Avoid jargon
• Clear messages
• Positive messages
• Linking it to local action
• Learning from advertising industry
• Humor
• Emotion
• Linking it to everyday life
• Images, photos
• Making it relevant
• Human ecology, weaving human life into natural
  world

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Examples of good practice - what has and has not
worked well?

• Partnerships, celebration, (Manchester is My
  Planet)
• Spring watch (people can make a difference,
  celebrating peoples success)
• Visitor attractions (e.g. Eden project), very
  simple message, digestible message, gives the
  feeling of joining a movement, integrity,
  encouraging initiative.
• World Fairs e.g. Aichi in Japan
• Jamie Oliver, about people and their real lives.
  Very emotional and idealistic. It touched the
  public.
• Suprising Coalitions (e.g. business on climate
  change pre G8).
• Bold leadership, risk taking with a vision
• Disasters
• Lack of recourses, no commitment from the top.

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Ideas and suggestions about how the effectiveness
of communication campaigns are best measured

• Inspiring learning for all (www.inspiringlearningf
  orall.gov.uk)
• Need regular feedback on your objectives and
  success
• Set measurable targets
• Number of pledges
• Live ongoing measurement (creates a sense of
  excitement)
• Membership increase success
• Comments, critique and reactions to a program
  should be recorded
• Allow evaluation of brave failures, and share the
  results

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Identify significant challenges and opportunities
in the delivery of your conservation agenda with
this target audience.

• Over saturation of messages
• Lack of coordination
• Cognitive dissonance
• Contradictory policy
• Aspirational products and services for the target
  audience
• Applying it to daily life
• Empowering the audience
• Joining the club, a feeling of belonging
• Caring and simple action
• Spread the heat
• Making it easy to take action
• Natural disasters, both challenge and opportunity

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Is there enough awareness around conservation
issues in your target audience? If not, who do
we still need to reach?

• Awareness is high
• But dont get involved
• Lack of depth of knowledge
• Lack of emotional engagement
• Lack of empowerment

What is the communications agenda for this
target audience is it awareness raising or call
to action?

• Raising awareness about what to do next
• Creating the air of permission
• Taking responsibility
• Wanting to do it
• Encouraging change and partnership between
  organizations
• Progressive consensus

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8) Limited budgets force us into important
choices where should our priorities lie?

• Warm Prospectors (people interested in changes
  that are fashionable)
• A diverse group that we need to segment before
  targeting them
• Policy makers, important persons
• Traditional people

Key communication issues related to conservation
and biodiversity over the next 5 years

• Biodiversity being knocked off by climate change
• Connecting the individual issues into a world
  view
• Flooding, land use
• Making global issues local

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Best Practice examples

• Spring watch
• Sustaining green places in Southville community
  in Bristol