When Greenpeace wanted to involve their fearless leader in the organisation’s flagship Arctic campaign, I developed a media strategy and messaging to help them make big noise on a global stage.
The Challenge
How does Greenpeace best involve its International Executive Director, Kumi Naidoo, in their global Save the Arctic campaign, without overshadowing both the campaign, and the nature of his role as organisational leader?
The Strategy
Position Kumi as hero and father acting for and on behalf of the everyman around the world.
The Solution
To support the campaign, we created editorial, news, video and photo story opportunities leading up to and including the Kumi’s scaling of a Russian oil platform in the Pechora Sea.
Told with heart, emotion, and science, we successfully spread the story of one man’s plight to defend the Arctic in the name of Greenpeace supporters and onlookers.
My tailored approach to content allowed Kumi and the story to connect to different supporter groups and constituents in meaningful ways while at the same time staying true to the campaign’s key messages.
The results
Kumi’s daring action in the icy Arctic created instant headlines at major news outlets around the world, including the New York Times, Huffington Post, Democracy Now! and RT, among scores of others. Carefully managed together with the organisation’s media and mobilisation teams, we were able to amplify and snowball the coverage to become a major international news story.
We kept Kumi’s Twitter stream updated throughout the event, allowing journalists and supporters to connect and follow the action in real time.
Kumi was also a significant factor in tipping the Polar campaign petition over the 1 million signatories mark, and the campaign was considered a resounding success within and outside the organisation.
