{"id":88681,"date":"2016-05-17T10:02:14","date_gmt":"2016-05-17T10:02:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/?p=88681"},"modified":"2016-05-17T10:52:32","modified_gmt":"2016-05-17T10:52:32","slug":"spotlight-james-turner-uk-head-of-communications-greenpeace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/blog\/spotlight-james-turner-uk-head-of-communications-greenpeace\/","title":{"rendered":"Spotlight: James Turner, head of communications for the Arctic campaign at Greenpeace International"},"content":{"rendered":"

James Turner,\u00a0head of communications for the Arctic campaign at Greenpeace International<\/strong><\/span>, speaks to us about his life as an activist, climbing the Bank of England as part of a protest after the financial crisis, the challenges of having a tight budget, why television still has the edge in getting messages into the public domain, and why creativity is at the heart of Greenpeace\u2019s communications.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Before you became the head of communications at Greenpeace for the Arctic campaign\u00a0<\/span><\/strong>you worked as a broadcast journalist and TV producer, how does that inform and influence the work you currently do?<\/span> \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

I started my career on BBC Radio Newcastle in the North of England as a radio reporter and then I ended up reading the news on the radio. Soon after that I moved down to London and got a job as a producer on the\u00a0Jonathan Dimbleby programme which at the time was ITV’s flagship\u00a0politics\u00a0show. That was my grounding in TV and also in political issues.<\/p>\n

I’ve been at Greenpeace a lot longer than I was a journalist so it’s quite hard to reach back to my days as a journalist to think about how it informs the work I currently do, but when I joined Greenpeace it was quite easy to know what journalists were looking for when they called us. It also showed up in simple challenges like making sure that our press releases were accurate and suitable for journalists, and trying to figure out where the stories are in the Greenpeace world and how can we package them as effectively as possible. This can be quite challenging, so it takes someone with journalistic experience to pull out the newsworthy item and bring it to the top.<\/p>\n

\"GlobalWarming\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Have you always been passionate about the issues that Greenpeace champions?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

There are some people at Greenpeace\u00a0who were committed\u00a0environmentalists from childhood but for me it was very much something that I came upon later in my life. Before I worked as a\u00a0journalist\u00a0I was pretty sure I would go into the advertising industry, so I\u2019ve had quite an unconventional background for an activist or traditional environmentalist. I think what really drives me is not just the\u00a0ecological\u00a0imperative of\u00a0protecting\u00a0oceans and forests, but also the social aspect. We know now that there are elites of people in the world\u00a0who are trying to use the system for\u00a0their own ends, whether\u00a0that\u2019s\u00a0massaging the data on climate change to confuse people or hiding large piles of money in offshore\u00a0accounts\u00a0so they\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0have to pay\u00a0their dues to society. I think\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0that sense of injustice that drives me.<\/p>\n

Do you consider yourself to be an activist?\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Yes, I do consider myself to be an activist. It\u2019s\u00a0complicated because the word activist means lots of different\u00a0things\u00a0to different people. I’ve taken lots of direct action since working with\u00a0Greenpeace, like climbing the bank of England as part of a protest just after the financial crisis. I did it because I wanted to encourage the\u00a0Government\u00a0to spend the\u00a0stimulus\u00a0package on renewable energy rather than sinking it back\u00a0into\u00a0the failed system that had got us into this mess.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I think activism is very broad and takes many forms. I\u00a0think that\u00a0anyone who steps a little bit out of their comfort\u00a0zone\u00a0to do something\u00a0they\u00a0believe\u00a0in, whether\u00a0that\u2019s\u00a0writing a letter to your elected MP or going to a climate change march or just speaking up with your friends, is an activist. It\u2019s not cool to talk to about climate change, so if someone is known as that person who cares about these things and is\u00a0outspoken\u00a0I would say that they are an activist as well.<\/p>\n

What are the challenges of being the head of communications at Greenpeace?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

I suppose the really hard things are trying to operate on the same playing field as some of the\u00a0world\u2019s\u00a0largest companies with a tiny fraction of\u00a0their\u00a0budget. Greenpeace rarely puts paid media out there. We do billboards, and TV adverts once in a while but\u00a0that is\u00a0the\u00a0exception.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

One challenge with platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram is trying to compete on social media with brands who are able to put paid promotion behind every post.\u00a0If change-making organisations and charities want\u00a0their\u00a0fans to see their content they are going to have to pay in order to get it raised up the newsfeeds, and I worry what that means for the type of information people are\u00a0receiving\u00a0through social media and\u00a0their\u00a0exposure to issues that are perhaps\u00a0non-commercial and don’t have a brand behind them.<\/p>\n

\"Greenpeace\"<\/a><\/p>\n

How do you boil down issues like climate change to make people feel that they have the power to do something about it?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

I guess there\u00a0are\u00a0two different ways of approaching this. The first is, what\u2019s\u00a0the call to action at the end of a piece of content? or if we have a spokesperson on TV, what are they asking the public to do? With any issue there is a way to break it down to the type of action someone can take. What we tend to do is make that a political\u00a0ask with a clear outcome.<\/p>\n

We also say, what they can do in\u00a0their\u00a0own lives? There are so many ways in which you can shift things with yourself and the community.<\/p>\n

The most important is the second thing and that is how you make it feel relevant to them. We found that if you go in and talk about climate change in terms of and\u00a0droughts, storms and floods, people are\u00a0obviously\u00a0concerned, but the way in which it\u2019s often\u00a0communicated\u00a0makes it feel distant, impossible to eradicate, too remote. Instead we try to look at the local impact like the air pollution in London, which is also linked to climate change.<\/p>\n

Making it relevant and a part of\u00a0their\u00a0everyday life is key. And\u00a0it\u2019s also\u00a0about making these things feel hopeful and positive rather than\u00a0relentlessly\u00a0gloomy, and celebrating victories when we have them,<\/p>\n

If we can get a handle on climate change we can have a stable environment to live in that is more equal and just for us all, so it\u2019s really important to build those positive messages alongside those warnings.<\/p>\n

Do you think the online world is more powerful and effective than the\u00a0traditional\u00a0media in getting the message out there?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

I wouldn’t say\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0more effective at this point. I think\u00a0television\u00a0is still incredibly important for getting a message out there. If you want to reach millions of people at the drop of a hat, getting on ITV or BBC News is the most effective way to do it. But we are increasingly finding with the internet is that you can very quickly generate a global conversation that is unpredictable. Companies in the past might have had to deal with a few phone calls from Greenpeace supporters or perhaps supporters leaving letters on the doorstep, but now they are seeing tweets that are fully public mentioning\u00a0their\u00a0Twitter handles, asking what they are doing to say about deforestation\u00a0in\u00a0Indonesia. That conversation exists in the public domain forever and they have to deal with that problem.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Our goal\u00a0isn\u2019t\u00a0to always reach as many people as possible. Often we have targeted communications at policy makers or CEOs, in which case it\u2019s a very good idea to focus on the Daily\u00a0Telegraph\u00a0or the Financial Times, and that requires a different kind of approach and a different type of story.<\/p>\n

How do you find content that is fresh to news networks?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s about putting creativity at the heart of our communications work. It\u2019s about freeing up our own staff to apply creative thinking and creative processes to\u00a0environmental\u00a0challenges, and also collaborating with people outside the organisation, whether that is agencies, artists, comedians or\u00a0filmmakers. We are in an incredibly lucky position in that a lot of people would like to work with\u00a0Greenpeace\u00a0and one of the things I try to do is broaden that network as wide as possible. As\u00a0an example,\u00a0we collaborated with a US comedy website and the actor Alexander Skarsgard. We took him up to the\u00a0arctic\u00a0and we shot the\u00a0world\u2019s\u00a0first comedy series on the\u00a0Arctic Ocean. It was very funny and I think that is a clever way of presenting the\u00a0Artic\u00a0issue without going through traditional\u00a0news media outlets, using comedy as a way to\u00a0seed\u00a0that message. So, when\u00a0I say it\u2019s\u00a0about\u00a0creativity, it\u2019s not just in the production of the content, but in the strategy behind it in terms of how you go about getting a message out there.<\/p>\n

As\u00a0an example,\u00a0we collaborated with a US comedy website and the actor Alexander Skarsgard. We took him up to the\u00a0arctic\u00a0and we shot the\u00a0world\u2019s\u00a0first comedy series on the\u00a0Arctic Ocean. It was very funny and I think that is a clever way of presenting the\u00a0Arctic\u00a0issue without going through traditional\u00a0news media outlets, using comedy as a way to\u00a0seed\u00a0that message. So, when\u00a0I say it\u2019s\u00a0about\u00a0creativity, it\u2019s not just in the production of the content, but in the strategy behind it in terms of how you go about getting a message out there.<\/p>\n

What are the vital\u00a0ingredients\u00a0of content that goes\u00a0viral?\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

I definitely think that images\u00a0or video have a power that words often can’t match. I do think that finding something with cultural relevance is very important, whether or not that is in the public conversation at the moment or is close to people’s hearts.<\/p>\n

Finally, it is making sure your content is as emotionally compelling as possible. At\u00a0Greenpeace we\u00a0have started to understand that we can’t win by presenting facts to people,\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0important to target\u00a0their\u00a0heart strings and to speak to an emotional side of them.<\/p>\n

\"C.A.T.S\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Tell us about The Citizens Advertising Takeover Service (CATS)<\/a> Kickstarter campaign that you\u2019re currently working on?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

This is a\u00a0non-Greenpeace\u00a0project so this is something that I have done in my spare time. The CAT project is the first project from Glimpse<\/a>, which is a new collective of creative professionals of PR people who want to use\u00a0their\u00a0skills for good a little more often, not just when they get a charity brief once in a while or an opportunity to do something good within the framework of existing campaigns. What I am trying to think of is how we build an organisation from the ground up that uses creativity to make positive change in the world.<\/p>\n

Our first project takes a look at consumerism and how do we get off this treadmill where all of us feel that buying things\u00a0is going to make us happy when deep in our hearts we all know that the best things, the most lasting things in life, are free, like the relationships we have and the experiences we have in our lives. With the Glimpse project we tried to think about how we could transform a part of London which is very\u00a0associated\u00a0with commerce, new products, fashion, and transform it into something completely free, completely peaceful.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0currently on Kickstarter and if we raise enough money we are going to replace all the adverts in an entire\u00a0London\u00a0tube station with pictures of Cats.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s\u00a0your biggest achievement with working at\u00a0Greenpeace?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

I’ve worked on some fantastic projects but a highlight was definitely when Shell\u00a0abandoned drilling in the\u00a0Arctic following our campaign against it. There were obviously other factors that led to that decision but the level of public protest, the level of negative publicity certainly did play a part. Shifting\u00a0the behaviour of a multi-national oil company, protecting a large part of the Arctic\u00a0from oil drillings, has got to be right up there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

James Turner, head of communications for the Arctic campaign at Greenpeace International, speaks to us about his life as an activist, climbing the Bank of England as part of a protest after the financial crisis and why creativity is at the heart of Greenpeace\u2019s communications.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":423,"featured_media":88685,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7272,3584],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88681"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/423"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88681"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88681\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":100464,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88681\/revisions\/100464"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}