Through the social media promotion of ancillary video produced around Participant Media's original series 'Fortitude,' Pivot endeavored to accomplish two objectives:
1)Increase awareness of climate change and its impact on our environment, economy, and wildlife and then provide users the opportunity to make impact.
2)Drive tune-in to Fortitude premiere episodes on Pivot from within the science enthusiast and environmentally-friendly communities
STRATEGY
Underneath the fascinating fiction of Participant Media's scripted series Fortitude is the reality that climate change is already transforming life on Earth. With dangers of higher temperatures and changing landscapes provoking the spread of infectious disease, biodiversity loss, stronger weather disasters, and other crises, the time to act is now.
While more traditional social media marketing content develops characters or creates parallel storylines to draw in audiences, Pivot's Investigate 'Fortitude' goes beyond the show's fiction to reveal the real-world science behind the series. What ancient animals will be revealed when permafrost melts? Could environmental impacts cause infectious disease outbreaks? We wanted the world to know. Through interviews with top scientists, Investigate 'Fortitude' uncovers the unintentional effects of climate change that lead to important, unexpected, and fascinating realities. The nine-part digital video series rolled out with premiere episodes, recapping the night's episodic plot developments and discussing the real-world environmental implications behind them.
IMPLEMENTATION/KEY FEATURES
Pivot worked with production company, Fancy Rhino to create nine-part video series 'Investigate Fortitude' – filmed in an interview-style format and hosted by Huffington Post / MSNBC TV personality Jacob Soboroff. To grant the series the credibility it deserved, Pivot's Advocacy and Social Impact team partnered with Eco-Health Alliance, a global nonprofit known for their innovative research on the relationships between ecosystems, wildlife, and human health. In an effort to uphold Participant's mission of inspiring and compelling social change, 'Investigate Fortitude' encouraged viewers to take action by signing a petition to stop oil drilling in the arctic.
Pivot utilized various social media platforms to directly play videos in native platforms and promoted ancillary content co-created by its sister site TakePart.com such as infographics about pandemics, photo galleries about endangered Arctic animals, and climate change-related stories with an emphasis on targeting to Fortitude fans, scientific communities, and climate-change advocates.
Pivot also utilized social media influencers with large and relevant followings to increase breadth of exposure to the right audience. Pivot worked with their sister site TakePart.com, the series' host Jacob Soboroff, and EcoHealth, alliance to share the video series on their respective social media handles as it rolled out with weekly premiere episodes. To leverage the ethos of it's parent company, Participant Media, Pivot also worked with its company's film division to share the content through An Inconvenient Truth's Facebook page, which has over 200K followers who are educated about Climate Change.
Lastly, considering the timely and relevant topic of climate change at hand in the series, Pivot supported Investigate Fortitude through paid promotion on Facebook which was targeted to users with science/environmental interests to increase overall engagement rate.
Investigate Fortitude proved to be popular among both viewers and non-viewers of the series alike – accruing a high number of video views, prompting significant engagement on social media, and directly leading to petition signatures.
Additionally, in 2015, Participant Media completed two impact assessment studies to examine what effect 'Fortitude' had on audiences. Results demonstrated that 54% of audiences expressed interest in taking action on climate change after viewing. 'Investigate Fortitude' provided these viewers with additional information and a tangible way of taking action on the issues presented in the series.
•Videos
•Over 400,000 Video Views
•Social Media
•1.5MM Impressions
•337,000 Engagements
•22.46% Average Engagement
•Social Action
•Over 147,000 Action Impressions
Over 25,000 Petition Signatures on "Say No To Unsafe Oil Drilling in the Arctic"
