Giving for climate aid and prevention
Challenge. How can the Red Cross increase the willingness to give for preventive aid and thus better protect people from the effects of climate change?
Our approach. We employed our online community, BL*Campfire, along with online focus groups and three work sessions, working from the ‘How Brands Grow’ analytical perspective. This multidisciplinary approach yielded three strategic routes.
People are generous when donating for emergency relief following a climate disaster. However, the willingness to support other climate-related aid and prevention efforts is significantly lower. Beautiful Lives explored how the Red Cross can effectively communicate its critical role in these areas.
Challenge
Globally, more people are in need due to the impacts of climate change. While there is strong support for emergency aid in the face of visible climate disasters, people are not yet connecting climate change as the underlying cause of these events and don’t see the role the Red Cross plays in this field.
The challenge for the Red Cross is to communicate its role in climate-related aid and prevention in a way that resonates with people. The organization asked Beautiful Lives to investigate public perceptions and experiences of climate change, using these as a foundation for developing a new communication strategy.
Approach
Our research followed a five-phase process:
- A kick-off session involving the teams from the Red Cross and Beautiful Lives.
- Through our online community, BL*Campfire, we engaged 30 individuals who are concerned about climate change. Over two weeks, they shared their perspectives and feelings on climate change in three in-depth assignments.
- A brown paper session to discuss the results from BL*Campfire and gather insights for the focus groups.
- Five 1.5-hour focus groups, each consisting of five participants who also took part in the BL*Campfire community.
- A brown paper analysis session to review the results and further refine the three concepts for the communication strategies.
What results did the project yield?
We identified three distinct communication strategies that the Red Cross can choose from that improve the willingness to support climate-focused aid and prevention.
Hanneke Theuws of the Red Cross: “Together with Beautiful Lives, we succeeded in putting consumer needs much more at the heart of the issue we are facing.
To raise awareness of the importance of preventive help, we will have to tell this story in a comprehensible and consistent way. This research provides useful tools to do so.
In addition, the project with Beautiful Lives also helped us look at the question in a more multidisciplinary way and to work together on it.”
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