Four practical tips to communicate on climate innovation
After four and a half years at Climate-KIC as the partnership’s Head of Communications, Angela Howarth has gained some unique insights that could benefit anyone who is keen to raise the profile of climate innovation.
We sat down with her at Climate-KIC’s London headquarters to take a look back at some of the key challenges and opportunities for communicators focused on climate change solutions.
Entrepreneurs, public officials and researchers in Europe and around the world are keen to increase the impact of their often groundbreaking projects and inventions. As part of this, communications is sometimes more of an “afterthought” Howarth said, “but integrating communications into your overall strategy is the key to success.”
Howarth is moving on from her role at Climate-KIC as per September 2016 to focus on new consulting opportunities, but not before sharing four practical tips that could help you overcome some of your everyday communications challenges – and get started with your strategy.
1. Focus on the opportunities of climate change, not the dangers
“I’ve always been passionate about the environment. I grew up in the countryside – we had holidays on the emerald isle of Ireland, and I was brought up not to waste anything. So recycling and reusing are second nature to me.
But climate change really started to get everyone’s attention around 2005 when Al Gore released his ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ documentary. His message was powerful, strong and attention grabbing. But the way it was marketed was dark, negative and scary.
In the meantime, research has indicated that this negative approach is not very effective in the long run. Over the last five years, the messaging has moved on and there’s now a very positive story to tell.
There are business opportunities around climate change, and Europe is leading the way. America is following suit with Hillary Clinton saying she wants to turn the United States into the world’s ‘clean energy superpower.’ There has been a shift in attitude, and the growth of clean technologies is seen as an opportunity to kick-start the economy.
Climate-KIC, with the unique mix of science and business expertise within its community, is very much part of that opportunity. From a communications perspective, there is a story to be told around innovation, and how it can be used to adapt to a changing climate and mitigate further damage while creating growth and jobs.
The COP21 climate summit in Paris was a key opportunity for Climate-KIC to reach out to world leaders and business executives to find new ways to collaborate to address climate change. Instead of focusing on the now well-documented dangers of climate change, we brought together exciting examples of innovations like the Climate-KIC supported Volocopter start-up and the next generation of climate leaders – like the hundreds of millennials who joined our global hackathon-style Climathon that year.
A little over a decade since his documentary launch, Al Gore now likes to talk about climate change as the biggest business opportunity in the history of the world.”
2. Your climate project needs a brand, not just a logo
“Having a brand doesn’t just work for Coca Cola or Apple – it can also work for you. Before you start communicating, you should have your branding figured out. If your organisation already has a brand, you’re lucky. Make sure to get in touch with your communications colleagues and work with them on how you can use it to raise the profile of your project or initiative.
If you you haven’t got a brand, you’ll need to develop one. But your brand is not just a logo and a name, it is so much more than that.
For example, it should also include a set of key values that you include in all your communications. Your branding should communicate what you stand for. It’s what you promise your stakeholders and sets up the foundation of your position in the market place.
At Climate-KIC, I helped develop what was initially just a logo into a brand by talking to the community and defining our values and our story. Many of the students and entrepreneurs I spoke with became our brand ambassadors, and that’s key, make sure to get your brand ambassadors!
Climate change doesn’t care about borders, but it’s more complicated for branding and communications. If you’re part of a European organisation or project, your brand has to work across borders to be meaningful. Your brand has to focus on your values and bring them to life, regardless of language or cultural differences.
If you think your brand is not strong enough yet, consider doing some co-branded communications. Sometimes another organisation or project with a well established and strong brand can help raise the profile of your own brand.
I had the opportunity to work with the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) – the European Union body that supports Climate-KIC – to align the new EIT brand and that of its Knowledge & Innovation Communities (KICs). Critical mass is what’s needed to rise to the challenges of today.”
3. Start with your communications objective, not the channel
“As communications professionals, we frequently get very specific requests from researchers and innovators. But often that doesn’t include their communications objective – even though that is the most crucial bit. So that’s always the first question to ask: ‘What measurable result do you hope to achieve, with what audience.’
In a way, communications people are a bit like lawyers. If you sit down with them and explain exactly what you hope to achieve in the end, they can make a lot happen for you in the court of public opinion. But if you keep certain things to yourself, you might end up getting a bad deal.
So don’t hold back! Whether you work with a communications professional or handle it yourself, start by defining your objective and take it from there. Only then can you figure out your message, timing and the most effective communications mix in terms of form, perhaps a news article, infographic or video – and channel – say, a print report, social media or an event.
At Climate-KIC, our global Climathon is a great example of how to reach the right audience effectively. The project’s objective is to get engagement and raise awareness about the opportunities of climate action with the next generation of innovators, while kick-starting the creation of real solutions.
The Climathon’s audience is particularly digital savvy, so social media spearheaded our communications mix when Climate-KIC first organised the global challenge in 2015. By being strategic, we were able to maximise the impact of our resources while getting amazing stakeholder engagement – ranging from the hackathon’s participants, to the Mayor of London’s environment team and the EU representation in Washington DC.
The Climathon was trending on Twitter on the historic day the Pope spoke about climate change – not by accident, but because we had a strategy from the get-go. So define your objective, write it down, and take it from there.”
4. Get professional help if you can, always!
“The good old communications adagios ‘business to business’ and ‘business to consumer’ often don’t apply anymore. Nowadays, everyone is a communicator and audiences are getting more blurred.
Instead, we’re talking citizen journalists and your messages going global in less time than it takes you to boil your tea water. Getting a communications expert on board to promote and protect your organisation or project is well worth the effort.
Now that everyone is a communicator, it is increasingly difficult to cut through the noise and stand out. While you’re busy trying to keep your project on track, the media landscape changes on an almost daily basis.
By making sure your communications is handled by specialists, you will end up saving money and headaches in the long run. It will help you get the results you needs, so innovators can concentrate on what they are good at – innovating.
At Climate-KIC, I was able to create and develop a marketing communications team that operates like a ‘well-oiled green machine’. I can thoroughly recommend you get in touch with them if you need professional advice!”
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