Dolphin Defenders / The Moray Firth Partnership
The Moray Firth is home to the world’s most northerly resident population of bottlenose dolphins. But their existence is fragile and their numbers are dwindling, partly as a result of the impact of human behaviour.
The Brief
The Moray Firth Partnership wanted to run a campaign to help safeguard the Firth’s famous yet fragile dolphin population. They wanted behaviour change that it could measure, not feel-good flim flam, and they didn’t have a huge budget.
What We Did
- Our focus from the outset was local. We needed support from local people and coverage in the local media.
- We devised a science-based toolkit for schools which included a series of hands-on experiments and games and developed a workshop using the same material. We delivered 42 workshops in 33 schools and more than sixty four schools asked for the toolkit – more than half the schools on the Moray Firth coastline.
- We encouraged the schools to form Dolphin Defender Teams to campaign in their own areas, attracting support from local MSPs and a visit from the then Education Minister. We ran a competition to devise the best radio ad for the campaign, in partnership with Moray Firth Radio.
What We Achieved
- We launched a pledge campaign using dolphin shaped cards, posters and a website. More than 2,500 people signed a pledge to change their behaviour – against a target of 1,500. Six months later 83% of people contacted said they had kept their pledge.
- We generated more than four stories a month for the duration of the campaign creating 1,265,944 opportunities to see material about the campaign in the local media.
- The client was delighted at the results and so were we. The campaign subsequently won a CIPR PRide Award for Best Not-for-profit Campaign in 2005.
