Earth Day is on the near horizon, and we’re deep in campaign creation at this time of the year for a number of our clients. Typically we recommend 3-5 months of planning for core moments of time like Earth Day, so what better a time to reflect and unpack our learnings and share some of our best practices to drive engagement in your own Earth Day campaigns.
The History of Earth Day
Earth Day came to be after the 1969 Californian oil spill which released an estimated three million gallons of crude oil into the ocean and covered the pristine Californian coastline in oil slick. This tragic disaster not only resulted in the death of thousands of birds, fish and sea mammals, but it sparked the realisation that modern-day technologies came at a cost to our planet and ultimately to ourselves.
Twenty million people took to the streets across various U.S cities on April 22nd in 1970 and this first Earth Day achieved incredible results in protecting the planet. New environmental laws were created including the National Environmental Education Act and the Clean Air Act followed by the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act.
Earth Day 2023
Nowadays, Earth Day is marked as a day of action by millions of people across the world. The annual event shines a light on the severity of the environmental issues we’re facing from climate breakdown to nature and biodiversity loss. Today more than ever, global citizens are rising up and demanding businesses and governments take action.
People are assembling at protests and strikes across the world with the aim of mobilising a global audience, and social and digital media are helping to document and share these stories, inspiring people to join the fight in protecting the planet.
What Makes a Strong Earth Day Campaign?
If you like it or not, Earth Day can be a great opportunity for businesses to talk about the sustainability work they’re doing year-round and in turn, help them build brand awareness. That being said this creates a lot of digital noise and so if you’re thinking of putting an Earth Day campaign out into the world you’ll need to make sure that you have a strong piece of strategy/content that will actually benefit from the Earth Day focus.
Below are some tools and resources that we suggest using to gain a clear understanding of the preferences and behaviours of your audience.
We’ll share a campaign we’re proud of below, but before this, we’ve asked the Enviral team for some of their input on what makes a credible and robust Earth Day campaign.
Here’s what they have to say…
Messaging with Emma Pauw – Copy and Messaging Strategist
“Make it stand out! Let’s be honest, most sustainability messaging is dull. It doesn’t engage, it doesn’t cut through and it doesn’t stop the scroll. Use Earth Day to hit your audience with some stand-out copy that actually makes people feel something. Whether you’re pulling on the heartstrings or making people laugh, work out the feeling you want to give and go for it!”
Timing and Wider Planning with Tara Parashar – Strategist and Planner
“Make sure you’re prepared for the three phases that accompany any awareness day: before, during and after. Sounds simple but it’s something brands often forget. In the lead-up to the day you want to be upping your messaging around sustainability or what Earth Day means to you. On the day itself, start with a strong message and then drip-feed relevant content throughout the day. Hopefully on Earth day you’ll have brought in a whole new audience, or affirmed to your existing audience that the climate is a priority for your brand. If it’s really a priority then you’ll need to prove it. Make the climate one of your content pillars and talk about it regularly. The golden rule for communications stands – make sure you’re offering value, being genuine and adding to the conversation.
Single Minded Proposition with Daniel Salzer Strategy Lead
“Be you. Make sure you don’t get blinded by the shining light of Earth Day and let that outshine your brand. A credible, impactful and brand-building Earth Day campaign needs to come from the core of who you are (personality), what you do (product) how you do it (proposition) and most importantly, why you do it (purpose). Don’t make it complicated, dig where you stand and speak about stuff you know.”
Creative Direction with Louis Trew Art Director
“Around these purpose days, too many brands are focused on beating their own chests rather than doing real good. Don’t just talk about your brand. Talk about what you are doing to make a difference. Communicating these efforts in the ever-busier online world can be tricky, creative ideas need to work harder than ever – toeing the line between a brand’s ambitions and actions. Sticking to unexpected brand storytelling rooted in authenticity is a good starting point to engage an audience, and with any luck to embrace what Earth Day is really about… changing our behaviour.”
Production with Emma Blake Morsi Partnerships and Campaigns Manager
“Your production must live and breathe the campaign values. Ensure your production – or the campaign’s “how” – is a reflection of your values, so authenticity and credibility run throughout. A production’s highest emitter, transportation, can be significantly lowered by collaboration with local crews to sourcing catering locally. Likewise, consider disposal (and rehousing!) of any props, waste and resources at the start of your planning stage as an integral part of your processes. Our Enviral social-first productions live and breathe our values: they are assessed using AdGreen, with an internal production team trained to use both AdGreen and Albert, the leading industry environmental production assessment and carbon calculator.”
An Earth Day campaign we’re proud of at Enviral
In the past, we worked with Ecologi to put together a video for their Earth Day campaign. We brought in George The Poet who co-wrote a beautiful poem called ‘Seeds of Hope’ that celebrates the importance of nature and the impact we can have if we work together.
Fancy seeing what this was like behind the scenes? Check out a short breakdown video below.
5 other national sustainability days that might be worth looking at instead of Earth Day
Hopefully, this blog has inspired you to take your sustainability thought leadership to the next level across Earth Day and Earth Week.
But if you’re wanting to stand out from the crowd, you could consider these surrounding sustainability days:
World Water Day – 22nd of March
Fashion Revolution Week – 18th – 24th of April
World Environment Day – 5th of June
World Ocean Day – 8th of June
World Nature Conservation Day – 28th of July
To conclude, here are 5 core things to take into your Earth Day campaign or other sustainability campaigns :
Stick to strong, clear messaging.
Make sure you’re offering value, being genuine and adding to the conversation.
Don’t make it complicated, dig where you stand and speak about stuff you know.
Stick to brand storytelling rooted in authenticity.
Make sure the production lives and breathes the campaign values.
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