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.
The Coalition wanted to communicate its climate policy asks to governments ahead of the UN COP26 climate talks – one of the biggest climate policy events of the year, and also a highly competitive media environment.
Our Approach: To achieve these aims, Marchmont developed an evolving, multi-phased, flexible media plan. Firstly, to create early momentum ahead of COP26, Marchmont worked with We Mean Business to launch 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.
Marchmont then 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. This outreach included providing reaction to the progress of negotiations, as well as a series of thought leadership pieces before, during, and after COP26.
Finally, we used the announcement of a new Chairman of the Coalition in the New Year as an opportunity to pitch “year ahead”-style briefings designed to consolidate their visibility and profile into the new year.
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.
- Around the COP26 climate talks, Marchmont helped secure a range of opportunities in top-tier outlets, including Reuters, CNBC and the Wall Street Journal, as well as specialist titles such as Edie.
- Additional media coverage was also secured through the placement of a series of opinion pieces, including in Reuters, Euronews, and Euractiv.
- Marchmont also secured 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.
