Case study: Creative Climate Action
The challenge
To bring together and communicate the full scope of the British Council’s work at the intersection of climate and culture. This included an active presence at COP conferences and the delivery of international Creative Commissions that connect artists and scientists to address climate change through cultural programming. The challenge was to unify this activity under a clear digital campaign, advocate for creative climate action, grow international engagement, and attract new applicants to commissions.
The goal
The campaign aimed to drive applications from global creatives and researchers to collaborate on creative responses to the climate emergency. We wanted to showcase good-news stories and facilitate real-world climate outcomes—from shifting community behaviour to informing policy and government partnerships—highlighting how international collaboration and creatives can be powerful agents of change.
My role
I led a cross-channel content strategy to amplify the Creative Climate Action programme, working with international teams and partners to align messaging across COP and broader climate activity. I commissioned video, photography and editorial content to showcase the impact of our commissions and ran a paid social campaign to recruit applicants for the open call. I created toolkits to support localised promotion and used audience insights throughout to refine strategy and demonstrate impact.
The solution
We delivered a cohesive, values-led campaign that celebrated the power of arts to influence climate thinking.
Storytelling focused on tangible outcomes that made meaningful changes to the climate emergency.
We created a resources section on our website that kept our content relevant for audience needs.
Paid and organic social media amplified voices from commissioned artists and local collaborators.
We used a paid campaign to grow a segmented email subscriber list interested in arts and climate change.
Toolkits and creative assets enabled international teams to promote the campaign locally.
Results
We’ve reached over 4 million people so far.
We worked with over 100 partners in 80 countries.
Built a new subscriber segment to enable more targeted and effective email campaigns.
1,300+ high-quality applications to the Creative Commissions open call.
2.1M impressions across digital channels during COP29.