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.
