What do mental health and climate change have in common?

While the research is climate-focused, its applications are broader. Take mental health. Climate and mental health could both be perceived as conversation-stoppers down the pub. But, the same tactics have proven effective in engaging the mainstream in these subjects.

How? By using the right cultural codes. Wrapping messaging up in topics that people are already discussing. Making issues feel real and relevant, giving people clear ideas to think about, and then importantly, to talk about.

But how do we do this? I recently took part in a webinar hosted by Media Bounty alongside Dan Bradbury, Director of Brand and Communications at World Land Trust, and Oliver Ellis, Sustainability Lead at beverage company Jacobs Douwe Egberts Peets – to talk about how we can make climate-friendly messaging mainstream.

Back yourself

Everyone’s been in a meeting where your beloved campaign is turned into something that’s all things to all people – and so ends up speaking to no one.

Back yourself to know your audience best, and be brave enough even to be wrong in some people’s eyes. Our recent Grand National campaign for suicide prevention group Men’s Minds Matter could have been misunderstood by many. It traded on the tropes and language used by betting companies to target men.

Rather than changing the messaging to have more mass appeal, we stuck to our guns. We used language and a visual style that are part of male culture in the UK. The campaign worked, gaining big spikes in web traffic and conversions.

Whether you’re dealing with mental health or sustainability – consumers will quickly ignore messages that don’t feel right, real, and authentic.

Creating a message that does cut through is easier said than done. Success often lies in using words backed up with actions, but it also comes from picking the right cultural codes. If your message is true to your brand’s mission and identity, and wrapped in something that your audience cares about, it will most likely connect.

Be wary: the more specialist you get, the harder it is. Football fans will know if an ad is made by someone who asked why Beckham wasn’t playing in the Euros.

Speak local

Of course, you have to pick the right channels. But don’t forget to put a creative spin on media.

In our gambling campaign, our posters were posted directly next to bookmakers, and published in the pages of the Metro the day before the race. Both are places where people go with betting on their minds – a perfect example of the media boosting the message.

But it’s also more than just being in the right place. People walk past hundreds of ads a day without actually noticing them.

You need a hook. World Land Trust used local language in its recent campaign. ’Mom’ is a typo everywhere, except for in Birmingham. They used this word on their billboard in the city’s center, next to a picture of a red-eyed frog, with the message: “More red eyes than a babby’s mom and daddy”. The ad promoted the work the trust does to save the red-eyed tree frog’s natural habitat.

That tiny detail made a big difference – and World Land Trusts’ ads were way more effective for it. The brand saw a 93% increase in income from the cities targeted during the campaign – each with select messages. And this was even though the ads didn’t feature an explicit call to donate