COMMON ACTION

LOCAL ACTIONS

CAMPAIGN MANUAL 

CAMPAIGN STRATEGIES 

ACTION IDEAS 

!!! Common action !!! 

 Captain Climate has become recently eager to explore the world! It's not just a pleasure cruise however; she wishes to have a first-hand experience of the realities in different countries. Also, she is looking forward to meeting the young greens and climate enthusiasts all over Europe...

 

Needless to say, it is the first time she hits the road - in a more or less chaotic world -, so perhaps it would be nice of us if we could guide her through, show her the monuments, invite her to join the actions, present to her a polluting plant etc.... She would definitely like to see how things really are, with positive and negative sides!

 

Oh, and as any other tourist, she would definitely like to take photos during her sightseeing tour... Also, she thought that it would be a good idea to keep a diary of her journey and to share impressions and experiences with other climate enthusiasts.

 

Her first trip was in Nantes, where she received a warm welcome at the FYEG's Wintercamp 2008. She told us that it has been a fantastic start for a long-time journey, as she met a bunch o jolly gree-minded fellows and had a lot of fun joining the street action. She learnt also some important phrases in French, such as "Vive les jeunes Verts!" and "Arretez les changements climatiques!". Of course, she would be delightful to enhance her language skills in more languages, so perhapse we could all teach her how to convey the message so dear to her: KEEP IT COOL! STOP CLIMATE CHANGE!

 

So, best wishes on behalf of Captain Climate. Looking forward to SEEING you soon!

 

 
Local actions

 

Debate

Invite speakers from the governmental authorities and civil society and create the framework for a lively debate. Unlike a conference, such an event engages to a greater extent the audience. Inputs come from both the speakers and the audience. Since climate change is a complex issue, structuring the debate is essential. Therefore, there is a strong need for a moderator, who should permanently keep track of the discussions and channel questions and answers. A debate is usually a great starting point for people who want an insight into the topic.

 

Conference

A conference is particularly useful if you want to acquire external expertise. Speakers should be specialists in the field but should also highlight the relation between let's say climate change and other social or economic phenomena. For example, a topic could be "Climate Change and Future Migration Patterns".

 

Press conference

Get some animal suites preferably of animals that are threatened by climate change (polar bears penguins, or a local national animal) or CAPTAIN Climate and announce that those animals or the captain will be visiting your town/city to be present at an event. There these animals turn out to be humans in suits but they can make a press statement. Organise some more action around these animals like the possibility to be on a photo with them or street theatre.

 

Workshops

Workshops are excellent means to further stimulate the target group to provide their input in a more creative way. They are usually thematic, so it would make sense to divide participants into smaller groups that would tackle different issues (energy, transport, lifestyle etc). Another example would be conceiving a video clip, a role play, a song or anything that may creatively illustrate the campaign.

 Another type of workshop would be based on a (video) material presented at the beginning. For example, a film like "An Inconvenient Truth" (by Al Gore) would be a great starting point for discussions and activities on climate change.

"Open Space" is a third type of workshop, which aims at gathering ideas about future (follow-up) projects and activities. Participants are asked to brainstorm and afterwards the apparent random issues merge together, thus providing the framework for future projects.

 

School campaigning & "Peer-to-peer education"

An excellent way of targeting young people (especially pupils and students) is to run campaigns in educational institutions. The idea is not only to provide accurate information, but also to encourage the audience to ask questions, to speak up their ideas and to think of solutions. Case studies, examples and catchy materials will more likely draw the interest of young poeple. Therefore, such a class should be dynamic and interactive.

 

Interviews & Surveys

Measure the level of awareness or the level of interest of the community with regards to the issue you are campaigning for.  This is particularly useful if you are planning some follow-up practical activities for which public support is highly needed.

If your campaign focuses on the effects of climate change, the testimony of those affected by floodings or draughts might be quite impressive than mere figures. So try to gather as much testimonies, record them and attach images.

 

Foto exhibition

A foto exhibition is always appealing. Depending on your realtions to the authorities, you set it up in open air, in the main squares of the city. In such a case, it is quite important to change the location every now or then in order to keep visibility high. A less sofisticated manner would be to place the exhibition in universities. Last but not least, an web gallery is also appropriate.

 

Eco-camp

What can better convey a message than your own actions? Gather a bunch of jolly young greens set up an environmentally-friendly camp somewhere out in the nature. Invite young people (and not only) to join you! Apart from being extremely fun, a camp strengthens the ties between individuals and illustrates the possibility of a more eco-friendly lifestyle, with less access to modern technologies such as electricity. A more focalized camp could also comprise more practical activities, such as planting trees on a mountain that has witnessed abusive deforestation.

 

Image of the future

Show something that will happen in the future as a result of climate change, like sea level rise, drought, more rain, high temperature. Than invite bypassers to take a picture of themselves with that disturbing background. so that they can see a glimpse of themselves in the future. For an example see the pictures where people were asked to go on a photo with 2 pinguins in the middle of the Netherlands.

 

The good old protest

Gather attention with singing, shouting, juggling, street theatre, or any other cool trick you can think of. The more people the better and more fun for sure.  Then distribute folders, the people will be curious to read what the fuzz is about.

 

Hang out our posters

On the website you can find posters with positive actions for the environment. Invest a couple of Euro's, translate the text print them and hang them around in your school, work, office, house or the street. Don't forget to ask for permission because it would be a waste of trees if they are taken away the next day.

 

"Find the intruder" / Eco-energy puzzle

For this action you need a panel consisting of an image of a semi-urban landscape that would comprise all sorts of energy sources, including controversial ones like nuclaer or biofuels. Ask people to identify the environmentally unfriendly facilities and to replace them with sustainable solutions. Based on their results, on behalf of Captain Climate you award them a "Climateer Diploma".

 

 Make a carnivals procession

 

In the procession you show positive solutions for climate change, you could for instance walk the posters around. Go dressed as Captain climate and her Climateers. Take bicycles with you or dress up as a carton board bus. Be creative!

 

A fashion show ("ClimeShow")

A fashion show that will represent the main elements that are causing climate change and these are going to be the "models" dressed in costumes as TV, cell phones, fast food etc, but also "green" costumes, which are helping reducing the pollution and climate change. Each "model" will have a small presentation (a funny text) regarding its "qualities", a small clime-fashion show which in the end will have a winner, as in the "best costume". That will depend on its qualities or defaults, influence on climate change. The most not harmful costume will win. This fashion show could take place, most probably, during a workshop. The costumes could also be used in a street action, and we will draw a "stop" sign on it (the costumes that contribute to climate change).

 

Show the greenhouse effect on street

Global warming... make it on street. Try to make construction similar to one which is used to carry tent cloth, but instead of it put nylon courting. Ask citizens to spend more than 5 minutes inside of it to experience how the life will look like if we don't stop global warming. This action is possible to work out only during hot weather when the heat inside of the construction becomes more than 45 c.

  

How to prepare your action for the Federation of Young European Greens

KEEP IT COOL CAMPAIGN

Campaign strategies

     1.  Guerilla Marketing (G.M.)

 

Guerilla Marketing is an unconventional system of promotions on a very low budget, relying on time, energy and imagination instead of big marketing budgets. The term also describes aggressive, unconventional marketing methods.

      Practically the differences between Guerilla Marketing and the traditional marketing are as follow:

-          Guerilla Marketing can be used for small organizations contrary to the traditional marketing which works best on organizations with plenty of resources.

-          The Guerilla Marketing is based on profit (in our case outreach instead of sales, objectives, traffic).

-          Unlike the traditional marketing which relies on "competition" the G.M concentrates on cooperating with other organizations.

-          Another difference between the two comes from the fact the while the traditional marketing builds its strategy based on statistics and estimations the G.M. relies on human psychology.

The Guerilla Marketing nowadays includes mostly non-traditional media such as:

a)      viral marketing: refers to marketing techniques that use pre-existing social networks such as e-mail services, messenger, global virtual communities, to raise awareness, through self-replicating viral processes. It can be word-of-mouth delivered or enhanced by the network effects of the Internet. Viral marketing is a marketing phenomenon that facilitates and encourages people to pass along a marketing message voluntarily. Viral promotions may take the form of funny video clips, interactive Flash games, images, or even text messages.

b)     buzz marketing: also known as word of mouth marketing, this highly valued strategy relies on the fact that individuals incline to believe words of mouth rather than more formal ways of promotion. Practically the key is to target individuals that have an authority and a high number of personal connections and get them to talk about the topic you are focusing on.

c)      e-media marketing: online marketing campaigns.

d)     experiential marketing: also known as customer-experience marketing, attempts to connect consumers/target groups with brands/organizations in personally relevant ways. The campaigns are built in such a way that they require a one-on-one interaction between the brand and the individual consumer. The success of this type of campaign relies on the fact that having an experience or history with the brand/organization a stronger relationship is created between the two (consumer & brand).

e)      undercover marketing: relies on the subject unaware that he is targeted. As an example we have undercover advertising blogs, in which a person states his opinions on certain things (including the message); the blog is apparently independent, being created as a personal blog.

 

 

   2. Teasing campaign: a type of campaign which is used before launching a brand/product/service or an idea in the public space and which has as a purpose attracting people to the event, without knowing what it is about.

 

   3. OOH: (out of home - oops media, bill-boards)

 

   4. Conventional media (ATL - Above the Line): Advertising strategies which use the five conventional media: written press, radio, television, cinema and outdoor.

 

   5. Unconventional (BTL - Below the Line): an advertising strategy which relies on other means then the conventional ones. BTL includes events (fairs, conferences), direct marketing, and promotional items.

Direct marketing: the most common form of direct marketing is direct mail, after which follows telemarketing (marketers call people using a selected data-base). E-mail marketing is another type of direct marketing strategy, which is definitely gaining field due to the development of the internet. Infomercials are used as a direct response marketing due to the fact that they try to achieve a direct response through television presentations.  Direct marketers also use media such as door hangers, package inserts, internet banner ads, pay-per-click ads, billboards, transit ads.

 

   6. Public relations - PR: while advertising is a paid form of communication, the public relations do not have a well determined sponsor. Many organizations use the PR activities together with the paid advertising in order to inform the target group about the organizations and its aims as well as to build awareness and credibility for the organization. Ex: press releases, events.