Digital Non-Profit Conference on Paris Climate Talks

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We’re a marketing invention agency. We invent new ways for organizations to achieve their marketing ambitions.

We work with non-profits and companies that care, like Mountain Equipment Co-op and Greenpeace International and, most recently, the United Nations.

High-level leadership event.

Here’s what the room looked like, with the Canadian Prime Minister and five provincial premiers.

First lesson from COP 21: If you ever have to interrupt a head of state, do it politely but firmly.

LPAA – Lima to Paris Action Agenda

Show the groundswell of climate action from sub-national governments and non-state actors and the private sector.

Events over 10 days in parallel with the negotations, focussing on an action day halfway through the conference.

There were 3500 media at the event. Many of them were not necessarily climate or even environment reporters. So, the LPAA and Action Day in particular functioned as a Weapon of Mass Distraction. Gave them something shiny and positive news.

This is Akon. We love acronyms at the UNFCCC. SDM. CDM. CERs. I could go on all day.

He’s not a UN programme. He’s a famous hip hop artist.

He was one of the target of the Twitter Mirror, which was this gimmick we used throughout the conference to engage with celebrities and luminaries.

Everybody had to do it three times.

Partnerships, and relationships both formal and informal, really matter.
This happened because we had relationships with Twitter, Twitter Music, Akon and the UN HQ.

Even the UNFCCC needs to make partnerships on this scale to make this work.

Along with the climate change negotiations, there was a massive sideshow—a circus. Organizations spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to grab the attention of all the government officials, private sector executives and journalists who were there.

This is a robot from the China pavilion. It would greet you for a chat. It was a little persistent. Climate Change Expo 86

This booth was the size of a two-bedroom apartment, and they always had excellent snacks.

This is part of the French pavilion on the day before the event. As you might expect, they had a wine bar.

But, in truth, the biggest attraction was mostly this giant animatronic polar bear that roars on command. It’s about the size of a double-decker bus, and was the backdrop of a thousand selfies over the two weeks of the conference.

Example of a remarkable. A gimmick, campaign or platform that makes a splash, excites fans and captures the attention of potential customers.

Flipped social listening on its head. Accesses the Twitter fire hose to capture several million tweets about the climate conference, and we visualized it in a number of interesting ways.

Appropriate to the UN. Important role as butler.

Turn social listening on its head. Make it public instead of private.

This stream view was really helpful to our team and to the media, as it showed what was trending in real time.

Partnerships, and relationships both formal and informal, really matter.

Place de la Republique, mourning the victims of the attacks and the loss of the people’s climate march.
Has that emotional hook that is so difficult to find in the climate movement.

There were lots of NGO actions on-site and throughout Paris.

You’re probably not going to want to hear this, but this is the least important thing an NGO can do. A unique opportunity to make or develop relationships with the media. How to make the most of this opportunity?

It can be a transformational environment for staff.

We brainstormed and developed 25 alternatives, which is an old less from The Onion and Upworthy. To come up with 25 headlines, because the first one or the third one will not be the best.

My speechwriting colleague did not write the Other Speech.

We waited and waited around for the right moment. All of our work essentially came down to one final question.

Each of the top three tweets had a reach of about 250,000

About 15 minutes later.

The environmental movement is maybe not great tthis.

Kim Kardashian, a few more retweets.

The world bought the gym membership. Now we need to actually go four times a week.

We got it done, and have faith that you can do.

Darren

Digital Non-Profit Conference on Paris Climate Talks

Darren Barefoot

Digital Non-Profit Conference on Paris Climate Talks