TEENAGE VOICE 2019

TitleTEENAGE VOICE 2019
BrandKIKO NETWORK/CAN-JAPAN (CLIMATE ACTION NETWORK)
Product / ServicePREVENTING CLIMATE CHANGE
CategoryG04. Social Behaviour & Cultural Insight
EntrantDENTSU PUBLIC RELATIONS Tokyo, JAPAN
Idea Creation DENTSU INC. Tokyo, JAPAN
PR DENTSU PUBLIC RELATIONS Tokyo, JAPAN
PR 2 PEPPERCOMM New York, USA
Production DLX INC. Tokyo, JAPAN
Production 2 TYO INC. Tokyo, JAPAN
Production 3 KAIBUTSU Tokyo, JAPAN
Production 4 SEMITRANSPARENT DESIGN Tokyo, JAPAN
Production 5 BIRDMAN Tokyo, JAPAN

Credits

Name Company Position
Daima Kawamura DLX General Producer
Takeharu Hanokizawa TYO CampKAZ Producer
Ryoji Tanaka Semitransparent Design Art Director / Graphic Designer
Reietsu Hashimoto DENTSU INC. Creative Director / Planner
Nobutaka Hayashi DENTSU INC. Executive Officer
Tadashi Inokuchi Dentsu Public Relations Inc. Chief PR Planner
Tomomi Ueno Dentsu Public Relations Inc. Senior PR Planner
Aya Shoji Dentsu Public Relations Inc. Senior PR Planner
Yoichi Kanazawa Kaibutsu Director
Subaru Matsukura NUE inc. Supervisor
Yujiro Kaizawa DENTSU INC. Supervisor
Shin Yamaguchi knockonwood Producer
Jun Yoshikawa AOI Pro. GLOBAL Producer
Hiroto Kato Freelance Editor
Ryuichi Sato Freelance Editor
Amo Nakajima Freelance Editor
Shinnosuke Takizawa SPLUCK Sound Producer
Shohei Amimori Freelance musician / composer
Matt Lyne DLX Writer
Takuhiro Yoshizawa DLX Coordinator
Aki Ikeno Marcom Coordinator
Junya Hoshikawa BIRDMAN Web Art Director
Yoshihiko Abe BIRDMAN Web Designer
Yosuke Fujimoto BIRDMAN Front-end Engineer
Tim Yoshida Dentsu Public Relations Inc. Senior PR Planner
Masato Ichimura Dentsu Public Relations Inc. Senior PR Planner
Melissa Vigue Peppercomm Senior Vice President
Amanda Roston Peppercomm Vice President, Influencer Marketing Lead
Katie Skelly Peppercomm Account Executive
Elise Vue Peppercomm Senior Account Executive

Why is this work relevant for Direct?

#FRIDAYSFORFUTURE, a project gathering the voices of children internationally responding to the environmental crisis of climate change, has gained massive momentum across 116 different countries. Against this backdrop, the United States will withdraw from the Paris Agreement. Working with the executive office of Climate Action Network (CAN) Japan, which leverages a network of 850 grassroots and environmental NGO/NPOs in over 90 countries to combat climate change, Kiko Network has spearheaded activities globally to send a strong message hoping to spark a momentous climate change awareness social movement.

Background

Each day seems to bring fresh news of catastrophes caused by climate change: from heatwaves to cold snaps, floods, droughts, hurricanes and more. 2015 saw 196 nations come together for the Paris Agreement, a resolution to restrict average global temperature rise to 2°C above pre-industrial levels (and ideally no more than 1.5°C), via substantial net reductions in human-caused CO2 emissions. Unfortunately, in June 2017 one of the most influential signatories, the US, announced its intention to withdraw from the agreement––described by President Donald Trump as “extremely unfair” to US interests––in November 2020. This was followed in October 2018 by the release of a special report by the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The report, which predicts average temperature rise of 2°C by 2030 if global warming continues to advance at its present rate, provided the spur for young people around the world to take action.

Describe the creative idea (30% of vote)

The goal of this initiative was to lend momentum for the #FridaysforFuture movement by collecting messages from young people around the world. The project was also intended as an opportunity to build consensus support among mainstream environmental groups by creating a shared platform for children from around the world to make their voices heard on environmental issues, thereby circumventing the national or organizational priorities of individual bodies.

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

Many adults take a keen interest in news coverage of activities led by children acutely aware of environmental issues. Their words often convey the essence of an issue more effectively than that of adults. However, most of this involves people in other countries. In order for every country to notice the activities of their children, and shift the focus to themselves, we have presented a collage of messages of children from different parts of the world. By creating a platform where individual NPOs / NGOs can easily come on board, we hope to instil a mindset shifting from “for us,” to “for the Earth.” By adopting a format for all media that allowed signatures to be gathered directly, we garnered support across generations.

Describe the execution (20% of vote)

Message ads that consolidate the voices of children all over the world who have called for and taken action to address environmental issues were published in major newspapers such as the New York Times. Readers can scan the barcode in the advertisement with their mobile phones to access the dedicated website and sign the petition. Alternatively, they can sign directly in the boxes provided in the news or magazine advertisement and mail in their signatures. In addition to newspapers and magazines, our advertisement modes were expanded to outdoor poster displays and social media to further raise awareness around the world. Finally, information was disseminated through our collaboration with influencers for environmental issues, as well as the platform we have created where individual NPOs / NGOs can readily contribute to our efforts.

List the results (30% of vote)

In the first week of its launch, the project elicited 30,000 signatures. Media coverage of the project’s launch, along with social media posts by environmentally active influencers including Mommas Gone City, Jamie Margolin, and Jaden Anthony, have reached a combined audience of approximately 90 million. Meanwhile, and significantly, representatives of Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth gave their approval and said the initiative had broken down barriers, enabling environmental groups to work together – precisely what Kiko Network had set out to achieve. This spirit of cooperation has materialized in plans for a Global Climate Strike to be held this year on September 20, marking the first day of Climate Week and timed to herald the UN’s Climate Action Summit in New York on September 23. The global demonstration is already being backed by 35 global and 86 regional partners in what is an almost unprecedented display of inter-organizational solidarity.

Please tell us about the social behaviour and/or cultural insights that inspired your campaign

NGOs and NPOs often find themselves tackling similar issues, but differences in the stance and circumstances of individual organizations can make it difficult for them to work together. If these invisible barriers between organizations could be overcome, it should be possible to consolidate their isolated activities into a bigger movement for more powerful results. As a first step, a need was identified for broader perspective-taking in order to delineate domains and platforms where organizations could pool their efforts to greater effect. This campaign sought the help of young activists—like the ones driving global movements such as FridaysForFuture—to bridge the gaps between organizations, given their sincere desire to engage with issues as an all-inclusive team, unhampered by politics. Thanks to their genuine identification with the many different initiatives and messages that have been put forward, these young people helped to forge a framework for cooperation from the ground up.

Links

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