Ulster Wildlife Learn More Outdoors

We created a campaign to help Ulster Wildlife (in association with Our Bright Future and The National Lottery) showcase the benefits of outdoor learning. The focus of the campaign came from a direct ask of the Ulster Wildlife Youth Advocates (YA’s), who expressed their passion for increased access to outdoor learning. The campaign featured video and audio content, social media engagement, political engagement, media relations and media partnerships.

Video content hub

The ‘Learn More Outdoors’ campaign activity centred around a hub hosted on the Ulster Wildlife website and social media channels for teachers to support them in outdoor learning engagement. It included one-minute videos on the benefits of outdoor learning, commonly faced barriers and lesson suggestions for core subjects and accompanying graphics for teachers to download and keep.

We worked directly with the YA’s on the campaign, which aimed to reach stakeholders, politicians, teachers, parents, children and young people. The YA’s were the face of the campaign to enhance authenticity, and all video content was recorded by the YA’s after Zoom masterclasses from the JComms production team. It was then edited by the JComms team to ensure Covid restrictions compliance.

This week, our @OBrightFuture Youth Advocates will share their top picks for curriculum integration 🎓

Maths can be found everywhere in nature. Watch the video below for some outdoor maths lesson ideas and share yours below!

➡️ #LearnMoreOutdoors https://t.co/sjHBpo6v0l pic.twitter.com/SiUdpHLp2A
— Ulster Wildlife (@UlsterWildlife) March 9, 2021

Media coverage

The campaign launched on Wednesday 3^rd March 2021, World Wildlife Day, and throughout its three-week duration, the YA’s were featured across online, print and broadcast media in NI including a 5-minute segment on Good Morning Ulster. The campaign was also covered in a leading industry publication, Education Today.

Social media content

The social media content on Ulster Wildlife owned channels had almost 70,000 impressions and a partnership brokered with Belfast Live achieved a total combined reach and impressions of over 90,000.

Political engagement

In advance of the launch, a letter was drafted on behalf of the Youth Advocates to then-Education Minister Peter Weir MLA, asking him to meet virtually with the group to discuss provision of support for teachers engaging with outdoor learning. Five days later, in the Executive’s Roadmap to Recovery, increased outdoor learning was included as a way to phase a return to education. Minster Weir’s Special Advisor then reached out to the Ulster Wildlife team to arrange a meeting with the YA’s, representatives from Ulster Wildlife and the Minister.

The campaign won Best Education Campaign at the CIPR PRide Awards 2021 and has been shortlisted for the CIPR UK Excellence Awards.

Fantastic to meet with Education Minister @peterweirmla today, along with @OBrightFuture Young Advocates, to discuss how we can promote more outdoor learning in schools in Northern Ireland #learnmoreoutdoors pic.twitter.com/B6LFeJkU7Z
— Ulster Wildlife (@UlsterWildlife) March 30, 2021

The PRide Awards judges said:

At a time when the great outdoors have played such a key role in keeping people’s spirits high, it was great to read about the important work that Ulster Wildlife are doing to connect young people with nature. The judges were impressed by the clarity of what this campaign set out to do, namely influence key political decision-makers, and by the robust plan to get there. The use of authentic visual storytelling, coupled with solid media relations and public affairs, makes this a worthy recipient of the Gold award in this category.