Screenshot of website titled 'How to Reach New Climate Audiences'. Image of the world.

How to Reach New Climate Audiences

By ,

Introduction

Climate messaging has a distribution problem. We need new tools for a new era of climate communications. Always put the audience first. A lot of climate content is only reaching existing supporters. That’s because it doesn’t align with the values of audiences outside the progressive base, and because it’s delivered via news, which many audiences just aren’t consuming.

This interactive guide, How to Reach New Climate Audiences, by Harmony Labs (in partnership with Earth Alliance) dives deep into audiences based on what they value, the media they engage with, the voices that speak to them, how they relate to climate, and the storytelling approaches that resonate.

This research invites climate communicators to start with audience values (based on Schwartz’s Theory of Basic Human Values) and engage people where they are, organically and authentically, in addition to relying on traditional messaging strategy or approaches.

The techniques they use to think about reaching audiences are useful to any issue area.

Contents

  • 01 TL;DR
  • 02 Background
  • 03 A New Audience Map
  • 04 The Opportunity
  • 05 Climate & Cultural Profiles
  • 06 Storytelling Tips
  • 07 Key Takeaways
  • 08 Methods & Acknowledgements

Summary

This interactive report answers why climate communications hasn’t delivered on the promise of engaging the masses, who has been left out of the conversation, and how to reach people more effectively. Three key things to know:

  • Climate messaging has a distribution problem
    A lot of climate content is only reaching existing supporters. That’s because it doesn’t align with the values of audiences outside the progressive base, and because it’s delivered via news, which many audiences just aren’t consuming.
  • New Tools for a new era of Climate Communications
    This report dives deep into a map of audiences based on what they value, the media they engage with, the voices that speak to them, how they relate to climate, and the storytelling approaches that resonate.
  • Audience-first FTW; RIP Message-first Approach
    This research invites climate communicators to start with audience values and engage people where they are, organically and authentically, in addition to relying on traditional messaging strategy or approaches.

Excerpts

Here is a sneak peek into this interactive guide.

Screenshot from interactive online guide titled 'How to Reach New Climate Audiences'. The title of this page is 'A new kind of audience map based on values and media consumption data'. Text below reads 'Existing maps see audiences through the lens of those who care about climate change and those who dismiss it. But these maps don’t reveal what people are interested in when not thinking about climate. To build a media strategy that reaches new audiences, and contributes to a better climate future, we need new maps!People’s values predict where they hang out in media culture. When we group audiences by their values, we get groups of people who tend to listen to the same artists, who watch the same TV shows, and who play the same games.' Below this is an axis that shows peoples values divided in to 4 quadrants. The four are People power with Value of Community, If you say so with Value of Autonomy, Tough Cookies with value of Order and Don't Tread on Me with Value of Authority.

Take the Quiz to find out what Audience you are

Screenshot from interactive online guide titled 'How to Reach New Climate Audiences'. Text below reads '06. Storytelling Tips Strategic starting points for reaching and resonating with every climate audience After synthesizing insights from audiences’ media diets, here are a few storytelling strategy hypotheses, tips to get the creative juices flowing. Click on a card to flip it over and see highlights from our actual testing of media concepts, created to validate these ideas (read more about the testing process and these results in the full report). These hypotheses and test results are just a starting point—if this work generates additional inspiration for you, please let us know.'. There are five cards with text and a photo of the earth from space.

Access Interactive Resource

How to Reach New Climate Audiences

About Authors

Harmony Labs
Harmony Labs researches and reshapes society’s relationship with media, using science, data, and creativity. For more than a decade, our work has helped storytellers and strategists, decision makers and dreamers, harness the immense power of media to shape a positive, pluralistic future. Learn more about our media research lab here.

Earth Alliance
Earth Alliance works at the intersection of climate and creativity to inspire action. We collaborate with diverse networks of people and organizations to accelerate solutions to the climate crisis. Therefore, we are deeply committed to understanding how to move culture towards climate positive behaviors and beliefs. Learn more here.

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