Objectives

Climate change can seem distant – it’s happening far away, or in the future. A global problem, that’s outweighed by more immediate issues closer to home. And one where collective action or viable changes are seemingly difficult to achieve.

We wanted to build awareness of the Met Office’s role as an impartial, trusted informer and advisor on climate change, and help people to understand that "The changes in our weather impact things that matter to me" and that they "need to get climate ready for tomorrow … to find out what [they] can do." – enabling them to #GetClimateReady by:

• Raising awareness of the link between extreme weather and human induced climate change
• Enabling and encouraging people to take action, by driving traffic to the Met Office website

The Met Office wanted to reach audiences currently sceptical, or less concerned about climate change. Using a combination of Met Office and YouGov data  – in particular focusing on areas in the UK that had experienced extreme weather conditions, and the Met Office had conducted existing polling – we identified BC1 and C2 males and females, aged 25-34 years old, as the target audience.

This audience has some limited awareness of the link between extreme weather and climate change, but they will not feel a sense of urgency to get climate ready:

• Only 22% believe that the link between extreme weather and climate change is ‘quite likely’
• 29% believe that climate change is less important or not at all important to them

We needed to connect the climate emergency to day-to-day life – connecting the climate science with the audience’s passions, and showing how immediate actions can make a difference.

Our target audience is traditional, ordered & hard-working – leisure time with their families and holidays, a beer in the pub, football and other sporting events are all passion points for this group.

Strategy and Execution

Method deployed

As the UK's National Meteorological Service, the Met Office’s role is to provide data that helps the British public make decisions and shape their lives. So it was vital that our campaign was rooted in science, and the tone informed and educated, rather than seeking to lobby or campaign.

The Met Office’s extensive scientific research base provided a number of creative routes to tap in to our audience’s passions – increasing potato blight caused by rising temperatures is putting the Friday fish and chips at risk, and extreme weather in Africa could double the price of the great British cuppa.

But there was a clear winner, a sweet spot that combined scientific rigour, spoke to our target audience’s passions, while also being relatable to the wider public, and had strong creative potential: climate change means football might not be coming home….

Around a third of grassroots pitches are losing six weeks to two months of the year from flooding due to severe weather – including during some heavy rainfall events in the UK that can be attributed to human-caused climate change – and by 2050 it’s predicted that this will rise to a quarter of all UK football grounds experiencing flooding.

• If the younger generation can’t practice, football might never come home again.
• What can fans and clubs do to reduce the exposure and vulnerability of their club to future severe weather?

It was time to get the ball rolling on climate change.

For our audience, online is king – they’re 39% more likely to engage with social media ads, and in particular they love video content (spending almost x2 the amount of time on Snapchat, 1.5x as much time on Instagram, and 1.3x as much time on YouTube as the average person in the UK).

Creativity/originality

So we showed that the game we love is at real risk – with content based in scientific research, that appealed to the passions of our target audience specifically, while maintaining broader societal appeal.

Authentic social videos (carefully combining stock footage, members of the public, and professional filming, to create authentic, budget-conscious content) asked if players soon be encouraged to dive?! How teams might adjust their tactics on a waterlogged pitch. And showcased the many local pitches already being regularly flooded.

The campaign was amplified by influencer Samantha Miller (Instagram: @samanthajademiller) – who, as an ex-professional footballer and strong advocate for women’s football had a strong following amongst fans, an even split of followers between men and women, and the ability to bring to life the climate change message in an authentic way.

Results

Attributing Extreme Weather to Climate Change was Smarts’ first campaign with the Met Office.

By drawing on the agency’s scientific rigour; identifying our audience’s passion points; and delivering creative, low-cost content together with an authentic influencer partner, we:

• Exceeded a benchmark of similar government digital awareness marketing campaigns by up to x15
• Delivered 1.8m visits to the Met Office website
• Reached 825,000 people with the message to #GetClimateReady.

There’s no doubt that tapping into personal passion points clearly resonated with our target audience, and drove genuine, significant engagement.

• There were 1.8m visits to the campaign page on the Met Office website.
• The original KPIs of driving 50,000 users to the Met Office website via Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat were smashed in the first week of the 4-week campaign (significantly higher new KPS were set mid-campaign, for example resetting our target for YouTube views from 90,000 to 250,000).
• The engagement rate across the campaign’s social content was 13.08% - far exceeding the 1.64% - 3.48% benchmark for similar government digital campaigns.
• Samantha Miller’s x1 Instagram and x1 TikTok posts gained more than 36,000 views alone.
• More than 31,000 link clicks were recorded across the campaign.
• Cumulative reach across the campaign exceeded 825,000 – 50%+ higher than the Met Office’s KPI.

Across every channel, Attributing Extreme Weather to Climate Change was one of the highest performing government digital campaigns:

Channel and Metric    

• Facebook Click-Through-Rate — 16%  — (Govt Digital Benchmark: 0.90% / Benchmark exceeded by: 1677.78%)
• Instagram Click-Through-Rate — 0.95% — (Govt Digital Benchmark: 0.65%  / Benchmark exceeded by: 46.15%)
• Snapchat Click-Through-Rate — 4.67% — (Govt Digital Benchmark: 0.35-1.5%  / Benchmark exceeded by:  211.33%)
• Snapchat View Through Rate — 29.53% — (Govt Digital Benchmark: 15%  / Benchmark exceeded by: 96.87%)
• YouTube Cost Per 1,000 impressions — £6.10 — (Govt Digital Benchmark: £13.38-£15 / Benchmark exceeded by: 54.41%)
• YouTube View Through Rate: 53% — (Govt Digital Benchmark: 15%  / Benchmark exceeded by:  253.33%)

Media