Coinciding with World Environment Day (Saturday 5th June 2021), MG OMD today launches a whole agency partnership with Media Trust and the Garfield Weston Foundation to support the strategic communications of 29 UK environmental charities, pro bono. The 29 charities are all taking part in Media Trust’s Weston Communicating Climate Programme which was initiated and funded by Garfield Weston Foundation after their Prioritising the Planet report found that more than half of environmental organisations are struggling to communicate the scale and complexity of the climate crisis. This is the largest demonstration of media industry support for the programme and reflects MG OMD’s commitment to forge a more sustainable future and tackle climate change. This partnership follows MG OMD and Omnicom Media Group’s wider commitment to Ad Net Zero.
The partnership will bring together cross-discipline teams from across MG OMD including strategy and measurement, channel buying, non-traditional communications solutions and client planning. Each team will be partnered with a charity and will spend time delving into the specific comms challenges their charity is facing. Each charity will present a brief for their MG OMD team to respond to. The MG OMD teams will work on the briefs across a two-week period and pitch their communications strategies to a judging panel made up of leaders from across the industry including representatives from MG OMD and Media Trust, as well as from Facebook and Snap, who will provide feedback and announce the winning pitches. Following the event, Media Trust will support the charities to put into practice the comms strategies and action plans created by the MG OMD teams who will be actively encouraged to maintain contact with their charity partners and also help them reach their goals.
The environmental charities MG OMD will be working with include:
- 2050 Climate Group
- A Rocha UK
- Action for Conservation
- British Society of Soil Science
- Bumblebee Conservation Trust
- Butterfly Conservation
- Eastside Community Trust
- Energy Sparks
- Food Ethics Council
- Groundwork Greater Manchester
- Hebridean Whale & Dolphin Trust
- Hope for the Future
- Institution of Environmental Sciences
- Julie’s Bicycle
- People’s Trust for Endangered Species
- Possible
- Rewilding Britain
- Royal Meteorological Society
- Scotswood Garden
- Paul’s Youth Forum
- Students for Global Health
- The Bike Station
- The Ecology Centre
- The Orchard Project
- The Rivers Trust
- The Town & Country Planning Association (TCPA)
- Trees for Life
- WEN (Women’s Environmental Network)
- Wildlife Trusts Wales
Katrina Bozicevich, Managing Director, MG OMD said: “Creating a more sustainable environment is everyone’s responsibility and one we take very seriously. This partnership with Media Trust and Garfield Weston Foundation allows us to use our expertise as communications professionals to make a real difference to charities who make such an important difference to tackling climate change.”
Su-Mei Thompson, CEO, Media Trust added: “As Sir David Attenborough noted last year in his debut Instagram post: Saving the planet is now a communications challenge. We whole-heartedly agree. We also know, however, that communicating the complexity and urgency of the climate crisis, while giving a voice to the under-represented individuals and communities, is challenging. That’s why we’re helping environmental charities engage with media industry partners to ensure they’re leveraging cutting edge expertise that will enable them to drive positive behavioural change. We’re so grateful to MG OMD for engaging so meaningfully with the programme and we can’t wait to see the creative ideas the teams come up with.”
Philippa Charles, Director, Garfield Weston Foundation added: “Our vision is for effective environment and climate organisations to have great skill and capacity for impactful communications so they can reach new and wider audiences and accelerate change. This programme will help us achieve that.”