World Wetlands Day 2015. New digital strategy & clear target audience for a campaign.
Helder Santana, 23, a self-taught photographer and musician from Brazil, won the first Wetlands Youth Photo Contest with this incredible image of a horse and its rider rising out of a river near his hometown of Passira in Pernambuco state.
I developed proposals on how to increase the impact of World Wetlands Day (WWD), the Ramsar Convention's annual awareness day - and its single biggest PR activity.
After interviewing stakeholders and reviewing previous studies, I recommended the following strategy and steps for WWD 2015:
- Specifically target WWD at youth aged 15-24; savvy extroverts who act as transmitters to families & friends
- Give them a reason to experience wetlands for themselves: the Wetlands Youth Photo Contest (see photo)
- Provide a range of materials on the importance of wetlands and the urgency of their loss for teachers and organizers to download
- Center the campaign around a new dedicated website and support with an extensive social media campaign
- Link all materials to Ramsar Convention pages on facebook, twitter and Instagram
Result: major increase in impact
Extensive measurement and evaluation of World Wetlands Day 2015 activities showed:
- Record number of countries involved
- 2200 photo contest entries from 80 nations
- Quadrupling in downloads of campaign material from 2014 to 2015
- Tripling in press mentions - with coverage spread much more globally
- Over 56,600 website visitors
Support materials World Wetlands Day 2015
Beyond coming up with the strategy, I then authored all WWD 2015 support materials, including four hand-outs and a teacher and organizer guide. In parallel, I was also asked to write a series of Fact Sheets on key wetland issues, with a lifespan beyond the event itself. Spanish and French versions were based on my English originals.
Click image to view/download:
World Wetlands Day 2015 hand-outs
Single-sided sheets designed for teachers to use as mini-posters or hand-outs ahead of World Wetlands Day
Teacher & organizer guide for WWD
Ideas, tips and source materials for educators and event organizers around World Wetlands Day 2015
Wetlands Fact Sheet series: 1-4
The start of a range of reference sheets on the importance and benefits of wetlands, framed for an interested but non-expert audience
Wetlands Fact Sheet 7: Sustainable Livelihoods
Outlines how conserving wetlands supports sustainable livelihoods and communities, with two short case studies. This supplemented WWD in 2016.
Graphic design for Ramsar Convention publications by Stefan Wassmer