True Planet

Positioning the University of Oxford's climate and biodiversity research at the heart of the global policy debate

The aim of the True Planet campaign was to associate Oxford research and researchers with the policy debate in the run up to and during the UN climate conference COP26. 

And a key objective was to position Oxford researchers as leading and trusted voices in this policy area.

The core of our strategy was simple but effective – connect Oxford research to the themes of the conference as set out by the UK government.

I researched how Oxford's research could meet individual policymakers' needs, and move forward the policy debate in traditional and social media. I grouped the research according to the conference themes. And I shared this knowledge across the team, collaborating with them to develop effective tactics.

Among our many tactics, I coached leading Oxford academics on how to present themselves in different media and rewrote their profiles for a custom page on the university's Find an Expert database, to which we directed journalists throughout the campaign – multiplying our impact. 

I also had the idea to prep researchers to comment on the daily events of the conference, as they unfolded. We set up a 'newsroom' sending their commentary to the media each day of COP26.

It was so successful that during the two weeks of COP26, Oxford’s climate and biodiversity research was mentioned 644 times in the media, with a potential reach of 3.1 billion – in the same period, our top three competitors achieved a combined 66 articles on their climate/environment research.

Oxford researchers were quoted on COP26 live blogs by the Guardian, the BBC and across the world from India to Canada, Hawaii to Newzealand – as well as on the front page of the Evening Standard on the official last day of the conference.

Social media highlights included Greta Thunberg sharing Oxford's research, and Coldplay announcing that they were using the Oxford Offsetting principles for their new world tour. Our 'myth-busting' Instagram Reels generated 400,000 views. The campaign achieved a social media reach of 47.8m with over 1m engagements. Our campaign website had over 100,000 unique visits. 

Oxford also rose 20 places in the ‘People and Planet University Sustainability League’ to 25th – ranking 1st in the ‘education’ category – and Oxford Professor Myles Allen was appointed a CBE for his services related to climate research. 

Leading researchers promoted throughout the campaign were awarded funding worth £30m – including £10m for a new research centre that aims to replicate the speed with which Oxford's vaccines team responded to COVID-19 in solving critical environmental problems.