Climate Change Public Awareness and Behavior Change Initiative

The Media Alliance is currently developing a regional campaign to raise public awareness of climate change issues to be piloted initially in three Southeast Asian countries in 2011/12, with other countries being added in future years. The project is being undertaken in collaboration with, and with the support of, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) and the Asian Development Bank.

The objectives of the campaign are to raise awareness of the factors impacting climate change, encourage consumer demand for socially responsible products and services to minimize impact on the environment, and achieve behavior change in respect of collective and individual practices and patterns of consumption that affect the climate.

Asia is the most rapidly economically developing region of the world with approximately one-half of the world’s population comprising a formidable base of consumers demanding transportation, energy and manufactured goods that outstrip the consumption of other industrialized nations. Correspondingly, the exploitation of natural resources and degradation of the environment is exponentially increased, resulting in rising levels of carbon emissions and an increase in the rate of climate change and its consequences.

Greater social awareness of the factors affecting climate change and an increase in demand for 'green' consumption is necessary in encouraging business and government to move toward sustainable consumption in the burgeoning consumer economies of Asia. Increased access to knowledge and information for mass audiences is required to educate populations of emerging consumers on the need to reduce individual carbon footprints, and on the individual actions that can be taken to accomplish this.

The Media Alliance is convening partners from multiple sectors to produce and launch this campaign. The stakeholders in this initiative will include the media, advertising, creative and entertainment industries, multi-lateral and bi-lateral development agencies, and private sector sponsors to create a range of educational and public awareness materials including country-specific public service advertisements (PSAs) and other content for use in broadcast, print, digital, interactive and online knowledge sharing networks, outdoor advertising, cinema and in-flight media. Other content will include informational vignettes, online banner ads, and content for mobile phone messaging and social marketing sites aimed at communities and governments of countries most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.

The pilot phase of the campaign is now in development with the advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather engaged to provide the regional creative brief, campaign branding and design. The campaign will be piloted in the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. Other countries will be added annually for up to five years.

‘University Creative Teams’ comprising final year communication students in the above countries will supplement the work of the advertising agency in developing youth-to-youth communication content for dissemination through social media, and designing more locally and culturally relevant messages based on the based on the priority climate change concerns of their country and as determined by their national climate change commission and the United Nations Framework for Climate Change Commissions.

Discovery Networks Asia Pacific and MTV Networks North and Southeast Asia are two of the campaign’s confirmed regional media partners, and national media companies in the participating countries are being invited to join the awareness campaign to provide airtime and editorial space in support of the campaign, and production assistance and facilities for the University Creative Teams and for meetings with climate change experts and stakeholders.

Microsoft has been providing technical guidance for the online and social media elements of the campaign, and market research company, Synovate, is supplying pre- and post-measurement support through a climate change market survey on consumer awareness and attitudes. This research will provide information on the existing levels of awareness and individual concerns on the impact of climate change.

The campaign and its initial content will be launched on 7 December 2011 at a Media Leaders’ Forum on Climate Change to be held as the opening session of the Asia Television Forum (ATF) conference in Singapore. This high-level forum of Asia-regional media leaders discuss the role and responsibility of media companies in affecting positive social action and behavior change on climate change and is being organized jointly by The Media Alliance, Reed Exhibitions, CASBAA and ContentAsia in collaboration with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and with the support of the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA), the International Advertising Association (IAA), the Asian Federation of Advertising Associations (AFAA), the Asian Media Information and Communication Centre (AMIC), the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) Singapore, the Association of Accredited Advertising Agencies, Singapore (4As), the Singapore Compact for Corporate Social Responsibility and Ruder-Finn Asia.