Winner: United Nations Foundation - A Global Collaboration Wins the Day for Climate Science
Working with the UN Foundation, Havas’ strategy for this campaign was simple and straightforward: Deliver the facts. Highlight the science. Make it local, clear and accessible.
With the release of the first part of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report in Sept. 2013, Havas focused on delivering the key message that “scientists are more certain than ever that humans are causing the climate to change” and talked about what matters most to people, based on significant global research: health, extreme weather, local communities and wildlife.
In Sept. 2013, just ahead of the release of the report’s first phase, Havas PR launched Climasphere.org, a comprehensive website that it developed with the United Nations Foundation as a resource destination hub for a specific audience of climate change influencers. Climasphere includes top global climate stories, infographics, and exclusive announcements and posts from people like U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, Sochi Olympians, Nobel Laureate Mario Molina and New York Times columnist Andy Revkin, one to two new posts every day, plus one Climate Click.
Virtually every major media outlet worldwide covered the first-phase scientific findings, released in late 2013, for 412 million media impressions. Over the following six months, climate change received 85 percent sustained, on-message positive coverage—versus 61 percent the previous half-year. The response marked a huge achievement compared with the previous assessment release and was an important accomplishment that laid the groundwork for subsequent releases.
The second and third phases, both released in April 2014, had even more impressive coverage, with media impressions around 17.5 billion; coverage was 57 percent positive and 40 percent neutral. The final synthesis report generated more than 7 billion impressions with over 90 percent combined positive/neutral coverage—a real achievement given the lack of a solid news story.
Honorable Mentions:
• American Heart Association - Step Up to the Plate for School Meals
• Chesapeake Public Strategies - Reimagine Twinbrook Campaign
• Greenbrier - Safer Tank Cars Now
• Hearth, Patio & Barbecue Association - Utahns for Responsible Burning
• PhRMA - From Hope to Cures
• Purple Strategies - AHIP: Protect What Matters Most