To reduce emissions in line with the Paris Agreement, behavioural and policy change around car usage is key, but initiatives such as ULEZ have seen major backlash this year. Media Bounty project ACT Climate Labs partnered with Possible, an NGO enabling climate action on a local scale, to support their ‘Car-free Cities’ initiative in Birmingham.
ACT and Media Bounty carried out In-depth research on ‘The Persuadables’, the 69% of Brits who believe climate change is happening but aren’t too engaged. This, as well as the expertise developed through working on advertising campaigns for NGOs, and bi-weekly reporting on misinformation trends, helped us outline the following challenges:
For this campaign the strategy team carried out additional ethnographic research in Handsworth, Birmingham, to better understand locals’ attitudes to cars and transport specifically. This informed a creative approach that employed hyper-local cues that created familiarity, and featured residents as trusted messengers delivering a benefits message.
Cars are deeply intertwined with notions of status and personal achievement, so it’s no surprise that campaigns asking people to give up their cars or diminish their quality of life provoke backlash. However, while people didn’t like the idea of driving less, they loved the benefits of streets with fewer cars in the streets: tighter communities, better health, and cleaner air.
Instead of trying to convince people to reduce their car usage, ‘Bump into Brum’ showcased the social, health and community benefits of leaving the car at home: better air, health benefits, and the ability to socialize with the community. We featured local people from the Handsworth area and their quotes and what they loved about their city made the headlines of our ads, increasing relevance and trust. The shoot was also done in the local community with a photographer from Birmingham, and we were able to capture and include cultural hyper-local cues to boost familiarity of our ads.
Budget was split across 6 channels including trusted media (out of home like billboards and posters, press, buses) and digital media (social media, display, digital media) to maximise impact.
Our use of positive messaging, local cast and cues led to a successful campaign both for Possible as a brand and for changing transportation behaviour for the better:
