Author Archives: Liz Sharma

Bioversity International

The Challenge: CGIAR’s Bioversity International produced a comprehensive review of the existing evidence on agrobiodiversity which they asked Marchmont Communications to help them launch ahead of an important United Nations conference. The goal was to raise awareness of the importance of preserving crop biodiversity and to drive traffic to the report.

Our approach: As the report was a literature review, it did not have original findings that could act as the hook for the media outreach. 

• Our strategic idea was to position the report instead within a broader public narrative that we saw emerging in the media around the “sixth mass extinction” of animals (that had mostly focused on the risk of large mammals like elephants and tigers going extinct).
•  We wanted to use the report to reframe that narrative and shine a spotlight on the fact that many crop species are also at threat from the same phenomenon – in other words, to dramatize “the sixth mass extinction of our food supply”.
• A launch date was set three weeks ahead of an important United Nations conference where the report would be showcased in person, so that the media coverage would build an online groundswell of interest which could be carried into the event itself.
• A short media summary of the report was drafted to highlight key takeaways and case studies and appeal to different media desks and regions, and a press release and series of op-eds were drafted along the same insight.

Outcomes:

• The resulting effort produced more than 60 pieces of coverage in nine languages, including a slot on Al Jazeera’s news at ten. 
• Three separate articles appeared in The Guardian: the news piece was shared on Facebook more than 11,000 times and also appeared in the print edition; the op-ed was shared more than 4,000 times and received over 300 comments; and a third article appeared as their “top news story” online on launch day. 
• Additional coverage was secured in National Geographic, BBC Radio 4, Reuters and the Financial Times. Bioversity International’s overall web traffic doubled and the book was downloaded over 1,000 times in the first week.

World Bank Group

The Challenge: As the largest and arguably most prominent development bank in the world, the World Bank Group provides financing to developing countries across a wide array of issues. The Group has come to Marchmont for support with various of these initiatives, including branding and launching new programmes, facilitating workshops, conducting stakeholder mappings, and raising the visibility and support for existing activities globally. These include their:

• Climate Funds Unit
• Disruptive Agricultural Technologies (DAT) Challenges
• FoodSystems2030
• Food Systems, Land Use and Restoration (FOLUR) Impact Programme
• Global Food Safety Partnership

Our approach: Every scope of work is first carefully planned to meet the broader goals of the initiative as creatively and efficiently as possible. 

• Marchmont will typically lead a kick-off call after reviewing the existing background materials, querying objectives, audiences, calls-to-action and channels before refining the approach to deliver results worthy of the World Bank’s global profile.
• We often coordinate in tight timeframes and with teams working across different time zones.

Outcomes: Highlights of media coverage include top-tier outlets like the Economist, the Telegraph, Deutsche Welle, CNBC Africa, Xinhua and the Independent, as well as key specialist and regional media like The East African, Africa Tech and KTN News.

Marchmont also created several new brand identities, logos and related design collateral for various new initiatives: 

Marchmont also oversaw the production of several video assets, including a documentary-style photofilm for the Disruptive Agricultural Technologies (DAT) Challenge in Nairobi (viewable here) and an introductory video for the Global Food Safety Partnership (viewable here).

Danish Red Cross (DRC)

The Challenge: Danish Red Cross has plays a prominent role in promoting humanitarian principles and actions to save human lives. They approached Marchmont for support with promoting to the media the concept of a blockchain-based currency as a potential alternative to direct cash transfers for humanitarian aid. They were launching a pilot programme in Kenya involving multiple partners, followed by a second phase of scale-up across other Kenyan communities.

Our approach: To achieve this objective, Marchmont:

• Led media planning efforts, identifying the different target audiences and segmented messages for  different media outlets accordingly, from the humanitarian and development fields to specialist technology and finance outlets. 
• Ensured that messaging prioritised both the potential benefits of the alternative currency for building resilience among vulnerable communities (to resonate with development and humanitarian donors) and also its agility and efficiency during emergencies or shocks like the Covid-19 pandemic (to appeal to the wider news agenda).

Outcomes:

• In total, the pilot received almost 70 pieces of coverage across global and specialist media, including articles from the Reuters newswire, Forbes, National Post, AllAfrica,  Asia Blockchain Review, This is Money, the Fintech Times, and Coin Telegraph, as well as  thought leadership in City AM and Business Fights Poverty, and a field report from Voice of America.

Global Resilience Partnership (GRP)

The Challenge: The Global Resilience Partnership advances resilience through identifying and scaling on the ground innovation, generating and sharing knowledge, and shaping policy. They approached Marchmont for support with raising understanding and visibility for the role of resilience in tackling global development issues over the long term.

More specifically they wanted to leverage the work of their global network of 38 Challenge winners – from a series of competitions hosted by GRP to find innovative, scalable solutions – all working on different aspects of resilience across the Sahel and Horn of Africa and in Southeast Asia.

Our Approach: To achieve this, Marchmont:

• Delivered a comprehensive support package designed to make the complex, abstract concept of “resilience” come to life – in other words, to make it personal, tangible and urgent. This included an initial landscape analysis, which informed the communications planning.
• Created a detailed editorial calendar to identify opportunities for proactive media outreach on behalf of the Challenge winners and organised several media field visits of their work on the ground.
• Ran communications workshops and strategic planning sessions to build capacity amongst Challenge winners so they could amplify their work in-house more effectively.

Outcomes:

• Marchmont secured a range of top-tier and specialist media coverage of GRP and its Challenge winners over a two-year period, including multiple articles from Reuters, The Telegraph, BBC, Voice of America, El Pais, Xinhua, Thomson Reuters Foundation, Devex, The Conversation, Quartz Africa, World Economic Forum, AllAfrica, CGTN Africa, USAID Climate Links, Inter Press Service, Zilient and Mongabay.
• Marchmont also managed the production of two documentary-style thematic videos on Challenge winners’ impact on the ground – one focusing on innovative financial products in rural Kenya and a second on flood resilient homes in Vietnam and Bangladesh – and helped promote an Investor Forum designed to attract additional funding to the Challenge winners.

We Mean Business Coalition

The Challenge: The We Mean Business Coalition is a global non-profit coalition that works with some of the world’s most influential businesses to accelerate the actions needed to build a climate resilient net-zero economy. From developing engaging media campaigns to organising roundtable discussions, Marchmont has been supporting the coalition to communicate its climate policy asks to global leaders in a highly competitive media environment.

Our Approach: To achieve these aims, Marchmont:

• Developed an evolving, multi-phased, flexible media plan. This included building momentum by launching an open letter signed by 600+ companies across the world calling on the G20 to halve emissions by 2030. This initial outreach was then sustained through ongoing reactive pitching in the lead-up to COP26 itself.
• Capitalised on We Mean Business’ presence at COP26 to reinforce these messages and secure media opportunities for their spokespeople, including from the Coalition as well as CEOs of their partner companies.
• Managed virtual press offices for COP28 and COP29, providing written media content, media pitching and advisory support to the WMBC team.
• Crafted and executed a campaign to shift the narrative on investments in nature based solutions (NBS) and the importance of voluntary carbon markets (VCMs).
• Organised a series of virtual media roundtables with  key target journalists across different regions, highlighting the importance of VCMs in broader climate action and building connections for ongoing media engagement.

Outcomes: Media outreach resulted in:

• Widespread coverage of the G20 open letter, including coverage in mainstream outlets such as The Guardian and The National, as well as coverage in specialist, sustainability-focused outlets such as BusinessGreen and ESG Today.
• Coverage in top-tier outlets around the COP26 climate talks, including Reuters, CNBC and the Wall Street Journal, as well as specialist titles such as Edie.
• Additional media coverage was also through the placement of a series of opinion pieces, including in Reuters, Euronews, and Euractiv.
• Top-tier coverage around the announcement of a new chairman of the Coalition in 2022, including write-ups in the Financial Times, and The Times, and broadcast interviews on BBC Radio 4 and Times Radio.
• COP28 coverage in top-tier and specialist outlets including  Reuters, The Guardian, Financial Times, Mongabay and Carbon Brief.
• Coverage in Forbes, BBC, FT’s Sustainable Views, Reuters, Carbon Pulse, Grist and many more following the roundtables.

nextProtein

The Challenge: When French-Tunisian start-up nextProtein successfully secured their series A funding, they approached Marchmont for support with highlighting the growth potential and sustainability of their insect-based protein to a broader international audience.

Our Approach: To achieve this, Marchmont:

• Collaborated with nextProtein to identify angles that would help elevate the pitch beyond the investment announcement and position the company both around its cutting-edge technology and its corporate ethos. 
• This also included identifying opportunities to frame the announcement in the wider context of the EU’s Farm to Fork policy.

Outcomes:

• The media outreach resulted in widespread coverage both in top-tier and specialist/trade media, in both English and French, which was further amplified  across social media. 
• Highlights included coverage from Agence France Presse (AFP), Quartz Africa, Crunchbase, Les Echos, and AgFunderNews.

Inclusive Business Action Network (iBAN)

The Challenge: The Inclusive Business Action Network (iBAN) is a global initiative supporting the scaling and replication of inclusive business models. They approached Marchmont seeking support with raising visibility for, and drive traffic to, its online platform and bi-monthly magazine ‘CLUED-iN’. This included targeting entrepreneurs, social enterprise leaders and other key stakeholders engaged in inclusive business development.

Our Approach: To achieve this, Marchmont:

• Led media outreach support and distributed media alerts and drafting and placing opinion pieces with relevant specialist media outlets.
• Led social media outreach support and created e-bulletins, social media toolkits and graphics cards for social media dissemination, both via iBAN and the magazine’s contributors as well as iBAN’s wider networks. 
• During the launch period, Marchmont also managed iBAN’s Twitter and LinkedIn accounts.

Outcomes:

• Each round of Marchmont’s social media activity helped iBAN reach an average of 341K users on Twitter, and led to a 50 per cent increase in iBAN profile visits and more than tripling its number of new followers. 
• Marchmont also secured coverage around iBAN’s online platform launches from Next Billion, DevDiscourse, Business Green, Pioneers Post, Business Fights Poverty, International Agri-Food Network and Endeva.