Overcoming Local Opposition, a Barrier to Clean Energy Projects Everywhere
Nature Climate Change recently published a study on the efficacy of influencing climate change perceptions using targeted digital marketing — and the results are what the team at Bantam Communications has been seeing on behalf of our development clients for years. This stuff works.
Nature’s 12-page whitepaper is chock-full of fascinating insights around identity politics and how strongly-held sentiments can be shifted. It is also endlessly dense and behind a paywall. We synthesized the key insights and takeaways from the study for wind and solar developers to get a sneak peek of how best-in-class communications firms are changing hearts and minds.
The Study:
A relatively small percentage of Republican voters (about 28% compared to around 83% of Democrats) believe that climate change should be at the top of either the Congressional agenda or the President’s agenda. That poses a serious challenge for any efforts at addressing climate change, as a problem of this magnitude requires lawmakers from all sides of the political spectrum and all branches of the government to come together; at the very least in agreement on whether there is even an issue worth addressing.
28% of Republicans vs. 83% of Democrats believe that climate change should be at the top of the Congressional agenda.
Seeking a way around this problem, the researchers undertook an experiment to see if they could use social media marketing to change Republican voters’ opinions on climate change.
What Was Done (and Why)
In the United States, Republicans are one important audience, as the bipartisan support needed for ambitious and durable climate policy is currently lacking.
Nature ran a study identifying the effects of a one-month advertising campaign field experiment that deployed videos about the reality and risks of climate change to people in two competitive congressional districts — Missouri and Georgia. The videos were designed to appeal to Republicans and were targeted to this audience via online advertisements.
How It Was Done
To get around the inherent limitations in marketing lab experiments, the researchers set up a “field test” of a specific marketing approach they felt might be effective in changing Republican opinions on climate change. The approach that they wanted to test was one that used well-known principles of behavioral science:
- Social Identity: The idea that a large part of our own sense of self is tied to the groups with which we affiliate (including political parties)
- In-Group Messaging: Related to social identity, this insight suggests that we are much more receptive to messages that are brought to us by members of our own social group
- Elite Cues: Also related to social identity and in-group messaging, elite cues let us know that a particular message is consistent with our own (and our social group’s) worldview or moral code
To test this approach, researchers first identified two different Congressional districts: one in Georgia and one in Missouri. They then randomly selected individual zip codes within each district, and from those zip codes, they recruited a total of 1,600 registered voters.
The chosen voters were next placed in one of two groups: treatment (those who would be targeted for exposure to online videos and other strategic messaging) or control (those who would not be targeted).
The importance of having both a treatment and control group is so that researchers can see if opinions/attitudes change among those who are shown the marketing materials, but not among those who aren’t. When that is the case, it presents strong evidence that the marketing materials themselves are the cause of the change.
Once the treatment and control groups were set up and ready to go, voters in each group were given a survey that measured 3 things related to climate change:
1. Their beliefs
2. Their worries
3 .Their risk perceptions
After that initial survey, voters were targeted online (or not, depending on which group they were in) for exposure to a series of videos called New Climate Voices.
The importance of having both a treatment and control group is so that researchers can see if opinions/attitudes change among those who are shown the marketing materials, but not among those who aren’t. When that is the case, it presents strong evidence that the marketing materials themselves are the cause of the change.
Examples of these “trusted messengers” speaking about the risks of climate change were:
- A retired Air Force general who spoke about how climate change poses risks to national security
- A high-profile scientist and Evangelical Christian who spoke of how her concern about climate change is tied to her religious convictions
Over the course of that 1-month ad campaign, someone in the treatment group would have seen an average of 7 videos as they navigated their Facebook feed, browsed for videos on YouTube, or just surfed the internet.
What Was Discovered
The researchers found that after being exposed to the advertisements for one month, Republican respondents reported a statistically significant increase in each of the following:
- Belief that global warming is happening
- Belief that it is caused by humans
- Personal sense of the importance of global warming
- Worry about global warming
- Perception of personal risk from global warming
- Perception of risk to future generations from global warming
Bottom Line
The bottom line? Targeted digital advertising using a trusted messenger can change hearts and minds.
Polling data shows that over the past decade anxiety amongst registered Republicans related to climate change has only increased 6 percentage points. But among Republicans in this study, it increased by more than twice that amount, to 12 percent.
Leveraging known behavioral science insights is a powerful way to shift opinions and attitudes. From Virginia to Michigan, we’ve seen its effectiveness firsthand, working with developers to identify local voices that can share the project messages that matter most to a community and its elected officials.
A good example of what this looks like is the landowner video Bantam produced for Ørsted in order to increase their land lease prospecting initiatives in the southwest. Ranchers and farmers with land leases were our trusted messengers and our champions.
When it comes to the job at hand, it’s time to dial in the most resonating messages and create a drumbeat in project communities — the details change, but the essence is the same — let's empower your community while powering the electric grid with clean, homegrown energy.