Going virtual with Wales Climate Week

At a glance

Freshwater was commissioned by the Welsh Government to design, market and deliver Wales Climate Week from 2-6 November 2020.

It consisted of free, digital, live broadcasts and interactive events from national and global policy makers, pioneers and innovators, discussing and interrogating the actions for tackling the climate emergency in the context of a global pandemic.

Brief

The Welsh Government asked us to create a series of free, digital and interactive events to enable anyone passionate about climate change to join conversations with national and global policy makers, campaigners and innovators.

Delivery

We designed an event platform that included a programme by day, speaker profiles, useful resources, live content and an on-demand area.

Our marketing team worked with the Welsh Government to identify all target groups, including under-represented groups such as BAME, senior citizens and those with a disability. We created profiles for each audience including a broad consumer group with interests in the outdoors, nature and climate change as well as business groups in Wales. We advertised using LinkedIn for business and Facebook for other groups. We also created a marketing toolkit for sharing with all stakeholders to tap into their social media channels.

To raise awareness of the event further, we delivered a press and media programme and engaged with a series of Welsh influencers who were passionate about climate change and sustainability. They shared the event on their websites and on social channels.

Freshwater managed all correspondence with nearly one hundred speakers and provided technical drop-in sessions to make sure everyone was familiar with joining the speaker line and using the audio-visual facility. We also held one-to-one technical sessions with high-level speakers including Nigel Topping from the United Nations and Patricia Fuller, ambassador for climate change at the government of Canada.

Results

The first ever Wales Climate Week was delivered online with more than 2,490 registrations. Over five days, 19 fringe events were organised and nearly 100 speakers took part.

Articles published on influencer websites achieved over 2,000 page views in just one week. Spreading the message through their social channels resulted in nearly 25,000 impressions and reach across Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

The First Minister of Wales, Mark Drakeford, and Ambassador for Climate Change at Government of Canada, Patricia Fuller were just two key names to take to the stage at Wales Climate Week.

The hashtag #WalesClimateWeek was also trending at number one in Wales.