Climate Solutions & RSGS:
Educating for Change PR Campaign

The Campaign Brief

How do you get business leaders to take climate change seriously and turn awareness into action? That was the challenge facing Cunningly Good Group when the Royal Scottish Geographical Society (RSGS) approached us to launch Climate Solutions, a groundbreaking online learning programme developed in partnership with the University of Edinburgh, University of Stirling and Institute of Directors (IoD) Scotland.

Designed to equip business leaders and managers with the knowledge and practical solutions to tackle climate change, the programme offered two courses: Climate Solutions Professional and a shorter, 90-minute Climate Solutions Accelerator.

Our objectives were to secure 150 course participants by March 2021, launch a dedicated website and drive traffic to it, while supporting the longer-term ambition of engaging 50% of Scotland’s senior managers and businesses. With a budget of less than £5,000 and a global pandemic about to change everything, we needed to make every penny count.

Cunningly Good Group’s Approach

Launching a climate change education programme just as the UK entered its first COVID-19 lockdown presented a rather sizeable challenge. The pandemic dominated headlines, environmental correspondents were furloughed and climate change had slipped down the media agenda.

But the climate crisis wasn’t going anywhere, and neither were we.

We developed a focused, multi-channel campaign combining targeted media relations, creative storytelling, digital advertising and a dedicated Climate Solutions Network website, designed to explain the courses and encourage sign-ups.

Our strategy centred on making climate change relevant to business leaders, highlighting both the commercial consequences of inaction and the legacy they would leave for future generations.

We capitalised on the programme’s high-profile contributors, including former Bank of England Governor Mark Carney and Christiana Figueres, a key architect of the Paris Climate Agreement, to lend authority and impact to our messaging.

When traditional media engagement proved challenging, we changed tack, appointing a specialist environmental journalist to take the story directly to editors. This secured significant coverage in The Herald and across its social media channels, alongside exposure in relevant online communities.

As the media landscape recovered, we invited leading environmental correspondents to experience the Climate Solutions Accelerator course for themselves, creating opportunities for informed coverage and longer-term engagement.

We also delivered full-page advertorials in Scottish Business Insider’s Spring and Summer 2021 editions, supported by digital advertising, and ran a targeted LinkedIn video campaign featuring the programme’s influential contributors. It was a carefully coordinated campaign designed to deliver maximum impact on a minimal budget.

The Cunningly Good Results

Despite the considerable challenges of launching during a pandemic, the campaign delivered impressive results, exceeding its primary participation target and establishing Climate Solutions with influential business and media audiences. Key achievements included:

55,829 people signed up to Climate Solutions by March 2021, exceeding the original target of 150 by more than 37,000%.
726 website users recorded on 22 March, coinciding with the publication of Scottish Business Insider’s Spring edition.
114 website clicks generated through Scottish Business Insider’s digital advertising campaign.
16 senior Scottish business leaders driven to the website through targeted LinkedIn advertising.
Significant media coverage secured across The Herald, The Scotsman, The Courier and Scottish Business Insider, raising awareness among business audiences.

Importantly, our media engagement went beyond securing headlines. Climate correspondents and journalists from STV, The Scotsman, The Courier, The Herald’s Business HQ magazine and Scottish Business Insider took up the opportunity to experience the course, helping build understanding and generate further editorial coverage.

While the pandemic slowed progress towards the ambitious longer-term goal of reaching 50% of Scotland’s senior managers and businesses, the campaign established strong foundations for continued growth. RSGS retained the agency in 2021 to support that ambition.

The campaign was shortlisted in the low budget campaign category at the CIPR Scotland PRide Awards 2021.