Protect Our Winters 

As a lifelong skier and supporter of sustainability/climate change awareness, the day I came across Protect Our Winters on social, it was an immediate follow. One thing I have noticed recently though, is that there isn’t much growth outside their very narrow target audience of winter sport athletes who are also hoping to save the planet. There was a bit more reach during the 2022 Winter Olympics due to most of the snow used being artificial, but when the games ended so did the growth.

According to socialblade.com, P.O.W. gained 1,469 followers between Feb. 8 and Feb. 14 of 2022 where most weeks leading up to the game showed a gain of around 300 to 600 followers, a trend that returned after the games to between 497 and 48 (not a typo) per week.

My strategy to change this trend of slow growth is to target climate change activists outside of the skiing and snowboarding community, specifically in warmer areas like Florida or southern California, as well as people who may travel from colder climates to warmer climates in the winter.

One way to accurately target a population is through their search history and interactions on social. Anyone who lives in a cold climate who has been looking at plane tickets, hotels, cruises, etc. in warm climates and/or follows warm-weather travel accounts on their social media pages would be served these images, link directing them to the “Theory of Change” page on the organization’s website.

A more general plan of attack is to advertise directly on travel websites such as Expedia or Travelocity. Accuracy could be increased slightly by targeting people specifically looking for tickets from cold climates to warm climates.

To target climate-change activists already in warm climates, signage around public transit pick-up and drop-off locations would be effective, along with inside cold-climate airports positioned to target departing travelers rather than arriving. Another good OOH signage location would be around e-mobility charging stations and public bicycle rental locations.

Using a strategy similar to the social media targeting, video is my favorite way to tell a story. :30 spots could be used on YouTube, Twitch, Hulu, and any other streaming service out there that supports ads.