The Cunningly Good Group was appointed by Mike Robinson, CEO of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society (RSGS), in April 2020 to officially launch a new online Climate Solutions course, a collaboration between RSGS, University of Edinburgh, University of Stirling, and Institute of Directors (IoD) Scotland, which aims to educate business leaders and managers on climate change and the actions that can be taken to mitigate the impact. The course comes in two versions – the Climate Solutions Professional and the Climate Solutions Accelerator, a shorter 90-minute version for the time poor.

The objectives were:

• To get 150 people on Climate Solutions before March 2021
• To establish and drive traffic to the Climate Solutions Network website: www.climatesolutionsnetwork.com
• Work towards 50% of senior managers and businesses in Scotland participating

Our strategy was to launch the course to business leaders in Scotland by making use of the high-profile public figures featured on Climate Solutions itself, such as Mark Carney, Former Governor of the Bank of England. To raise the profile of Climate Solutions we decided upon the following:

• Launch Climate Solutions to Scottish & UK wide media and key influencers
• Offer Climate Solutions to climate change correspondents
• Create a Climate Solutions Network website, enabling those interested to sign up or find out more
• Run advertorials in Scottish Business Insider, to reach senior decision makers in Scotland, coupled with a digital advertising campaign on its website
• Run a LinkedIn advertising campaign using videos of the high-profile public figures who appear in Climate Solutions

Whilst the campaign tactics have had to be continually reviewed throughout because of the pandemic, the results remain clear. The media uptake of the course was significant, with resulting coverage achieved in The Courier, The Scotsman, Scottish Business Insider and The Herald.

A formal media partnership was established with The Herald which means Climate Solutions has a focus every week in the paper and online. The Cunningly Good Group has worked closely with the client to ensure there is a steady flow of articles for this weekly focus. The content continues to be repurposed into blog posts on the Climate Solutions Network website, used to drive more traffic to the site.

Since the course was launched in April 2020, over 60,000 people have signed up to date (February 2022), a number exceeding the client’s original target in excess of 37,000%.