Oil palm and biodiversity report

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1 Oil palm and biodiversity report Media report The report, Oil palm and biodiversity: a situation analysis by the IUCN Oil Palm Task Force, assessed the impacts of palm oil production on biodiversity. It warned against banning palm oil as this would most likely increase the production of other oil crops to meet demand for oil, displacing rather than halting the significant global biodiversity losses caused by palm oil. The report was written in response to a 2016 resolution adopted by IUCN Members calling for a constructive path to improving sustainability in the palm oil industry. Working with the Oil Palm Task Force, the Global Communications Unit (GCU) developed a communications package for the release, which included: a press release in English (EN), French (FR) and Spanish (ES) sent to global media contacts and published on the IUCN website an issues brief, published on the IUCN website and provided to journalists in print at the conference and as a link on the press release an infographic - in English, French and Spanish published on the IUCN website and shared with the media and on social media A video published on YouTube and shared directly via social media a web page on the IUCN website for all content related to IUCN s work on palm oil and biodiversity conservation Communications of the report were tremendously successful across all three major distribution channels media, social media and the website. The report generated the most media hits of any report in 2018 so far and it is among our top performers with our target media over the last 18 months. It has also performed exceptionally well with the French speaking media, in line with our strategic focus this year. Based on key social media metrics, the overall performance far outpaced the average for all IUCN content in 2018 and the average for all IUCN press releases in On the web, the palm oil release and related content attracted a significant number of new visitors with strong percentages of those visitors engaging with other palm oil-related content on the IUCN site. This success is attributed to many factors, including the timeliness of the report and its relevance to current global conversations about palm oil particularly in the EU and our target country France; the counter-intuitive angle chosen to communicate the report s findings; the fact that thanks to excellent cooperation with IUCN experts all communications materials were finalised well in advance of the release, which allowed us to pitch them under embargo to key media; the time and budget available to produce highquality digital assets; and the coordinated distribution of those assets before, during and after the official launch at the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) European Conference in Paris, France on Tuesday, 26 June Press The IUCN Oil Palm report was launched at a press conference during the RSPO European Conference in Paris on 26 June. A press invitation in English and French was sent to European media contacts prior to the event, followed by targeted pitching of the report ahead of the release date to key media contacts, including the BBC, The Guardian, El País, Le Temps and Libération. As a result, GCU set up multiple interviews with experts Erik Meijaard and Marc Ancrenaz for some of its target media outlets, in advance of the launch. Given our strategic objective this year to start building a solid reputation for IUCN in the French press ahead of the IUCN World 1

Conservation, special focus was placed on targeting French media outlets, and Paris was identified as a perfect, strategic location for the launch.

2 Conservation, special focus was placed on targeting French media outlets, and Paris was identified as a perfect, strategic location for the launch. Media overview Over the period analysed (26 June 02 July 2018), 274 articles were published online in international media 1 mentioning the IUCN report. This number includes online news articles monitored by a paid platform 2, and does not cover print, radio and TV coverage for instance Erik Meijaard s BBC Radio 5 interview. The total number of hits may therefore be much higher. The release received coverage in media around the world. It was picked up by international newswires Agence France-Presse AFP, EFE, Reuters and Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA). It was also covered by major news outlets, including BBC, The Guardian, Der Spiegel, El País, as well as French outlets such as Le Figaro, Libération, and France Inter. IUCN Director General Inger Andersen, and experts Erik Meijaard and Marc Ancrenaz were the principle IUCN spokespeople quoted in the press. See other media highlights here. Boost in French coverage Following the announcement of France as the host country for the IUCN Congress 2020 in May 2018, GCU has identified the French media as a key target for IUCN communications leading up to the Congress. These efforts proved highly successful, with 18.6% of the report s coverage appearing in French media the largest share of total coverage. In comparison, French coverage of the microplastics report was 0.9% of total coverage, the Red List update 2017 was 2.9%, and the World Heritage report was 7.7%. 1 Analysed coverage in English, French, Spanish, German, Portuguese, Italian, Japanese, Chinese, Russian and Arabic 2 Vuelio 2

3 Geographical analysis of coverage The release received coverage in media around the world, with coverage in 54 countries. This included articles in reputable news outlets in some of the top palm oil importing countries including India (e.g. The Hindu), China (e.g. China Global Television Network), and Pakistan (e.g. The Nation Pakistan), as well as top palm oil exporting countries including Indonesia (Kompas) and Malaysia (e.g. Malay Mail). The report also received coverage in Latin America e.g. Universo Online (UOL) in Brazil, the Caribbean e.g. Jamaica Observer, Africa e.g. Business Day in South Africa, and the Middle East e.g. Times of Oman. The highest number of hits appeared in France (18.6% of articles published), Germany (12%), Spain (8%), the United Kingdom (7.7%) and the United States of America (6.6%). Pie chart: Coverage of the oil palm release, by country Feature in target media 3 outlets The IUCN Oil Palm report was featured in 12 top quality media outlets prioritised by GCU (target media). These include AFP, BBC, Reuters and El País. This result is consistent with other major IUCN releases. The microplastics report, released in February 2017, was also featured in 12 target outlets, and the IUCN World Heritage outlook 2 in November 2017 featured in 10. The Red List update in December 2017 was featured in a slightly higher number of outlets, having 15 target media hits. 3 Target media refers to mainstream international media, including major international news agencies such as AP, AFP, Reuters, EFE, DPA and Xinhua, as well as high quality outlets viewed by the informed general public, decision makers, finance ministers and those with policy-influencing power, such as The Economist, CNN, BBC, El País, Le Monde, the Washington Post or the New York Times. 3

Social Media To support the report release, IUCN developed a social media pack which included suggested tweets and Facebook posts, six infographics, images and a short video.

4 Social Media To support the report release, IUCN developed a social media pack which included suggested tweets and Facebook posts, six infographics, images and a short video. Paid advertising was used on Twitter and Facebook to increase the reach of the report, and proved to be a big success, with detailed targeting driving an increase in engagement rates. The organic (non-paid) posts performed exceptionally well due to the relevance of the report, interesting messaging and strong visual assets (video, infographics, quote images). The paid posts performed even better, reaching targeted audiences beyond our normal sphere of influence. Twitter Organic (non-paid) Metric IUCN Tweets 14 Impressions 229,603 Impressions per Tweet 16,400 Likes 1,199 Retweets 1,131 Link Clicks 534 Video views 25,905 Total Engagements 5,612 Engagement Rate 2.4% *Impressions per Tweet (The average number of people who saw each tweet) *Engagement Rate (% of our audience that made any interaction with the post e.g. like, retweet) Key Metrics Comparison 4

Paid Advertising Advertising on Twitter consisted of three campaigns with a US$500 budget: 1) A/B test of the first video tweet targeted to two audiences o IUCN s core audience (Interests: Science

5 Paid Advertising Advertising on Twitter consisted of three campaigns with a US$500 budget: 1) A/B test of the first video tweet targeted to two audiences o IUCN s core audience (Interests: Science News, Biology, Green Solutions) o Palm Oil report key audience (Keywords: Palm Oil, Forests, Sustainability, Biodiversity, Biofuel, Deforestation, CSR; Interests: Government) 2) Sharing biodiversity infographic with the highest performing interests and keywords of the A/B test o Interests: Biology, Science News, Green Solutions; Keywords: Forests, Sustainability, Biodiversity o Rationale: play to IUCN s base to maximise overall reach 3) Sharing no quick fixes infographic with a relevant target audience o Interests: Government, Leadership; Keywords: Sustainability, Biodiversity o Rationale: target non-traditional audiences who need to take action on palm oil sustainability Results Paid advertising significantly increased the amount of people the report reached. A/B testing and detailed targeting allowed IUCN to deliver the press release, infographics and video to the report s key audiences, and the high engagement rate on these ads shows an extremely positive return on investment. Targeting non-traditional audiences does not return the same level of results as playing to those more familiar or passionate about this type of work, but the strong engagement rate for this effort compared to IUCN and industry averages for organic posts shows the potential for using paid promotion to reach new and relevant strategic audiences. The three campaigns reached a combined total of 173,721 people The engagement rate across campaigns was 6.02%, compared to 1.5% for all 2018 IUCN content and 1.2% for environmental not-for-profits (sector benchmark) The best performing interest groups by engagement rate were Green Solutions (10.96%), Biology (8.43%) and Science News (7.57%). Targeting Government and Leadership audiences with a policy-oriented message earned 3.15% engagement rate compared to 1.5% for all 2018 IUCN content and 1.2% for environmental not-for-profits (sector benchmark) Overall results Twitter 5

6 Comparison to IUCN content and industry benchmarks Facebook Metric IUCN (Organic) Posts 6 Reach 422,200 Reactions 2,293 Shares 805 Link Clicks 1,079 Total Engagements 11,746 Video Views 119,071 6

7 ***The above results contain data from one boosted post of which there was a 305,319 paid reach. Paid Advertising Advertising on Facebook consisted of two campaigns with a US$400 budget: 1) A/B test of ad content (one ad with video, one ad with infographic) to a target audience o Audience Interests: Biodiversity, Natural Environment, Palm Oil 2) Boosted post of the video to the same target audience Results As with Twitter, paid advertising allowed us to test content and promote the highest performing assets to reach a much bigger audience than would be available organically. The palm oil video did exceptionally well in the A/B test, and was then promoted to more people based on this. o The two campaigns reached a combined total of 489,218 people o The video was watched over 119,000 times o There were 5,615 link clicks to the press release on the IUCN website *Palm Oil 80/20 ad did not run as part of this campaign. Facebook did not approve the ad, but it is still shown as part of IUCN s advertising history. Website 7

The news and related content (palm oil web page, issues brief and infographic) earned 7,400 sessions 4 during the first week, totalling 15.62% of all website sessions.

8 The news and related content (palm oil web page, issues brief and infographic) earned 7,400 sessions 4 during the first week, totalling 15.62% of all website sessions. The 7,634 unique page views is almost 12 times the average monthly page views for content on the Science and Knowledge and Economics sections of the website. Compared to other reports and international releases, this is a very successful result 5. Metric 1 week 26 June 02 July 2018 Sessions 7,400 Page views 11,124 Unique page views 7,634 Avg. time on page 01:51 News release Saying no Saying no to palm oil would likely displace, not halt biodiversity loss IUCN report Dire «non» à l huile de palme ne ferait que déplacer la perte des espèces, sans y mettre un terme - le rapport de l UICN Según informe de la UICN, decir no al aceite de palma podría desplazar, en vez de detener, la pérdida de biodiversidad. Page views Unique page views 9,105 6, Audience analysis Geographical location The highest number of sessions appeared in France and the US (each 9%), the UK (8%), followed by Nepal, India, Malaysia, Germany, Pakistan, Iraq and Poland (each between 2.8 and 4.7% and totalling 25% of all sessions). Mobile share The palm oil pages were accessed by an exceptionally high number of mobile devices: 63% of sessions were done on a mobile device 6 and 31% on a desktop. During the same period, other parts of the website were accessed primarily on a desktop (60%), with 36% from a mobile device. Source of traffic 26% of sessions came via social media, 9.9% via campaigns, 5.6% via organic search (e.g. Google search), and 4% via referrals from other websites. The rest (54.5%) is classified under direct access 7. 4 A session is the period time a user is actively engaged with a website, app, etc. All usage data (page views, actions, etc.) is associated with a session. 5 The Freshwater biodiversity in the Lake Victoria Basin report totalled 1.5% of all website sessions with 1,148 sessions and the December 2017 Red list release totalled 2.97% with 1,388 sessions sessions coming from Mobile Facebook 7 Direct access includes sources not identified by Google Analytics 8

9 Engagement Some visitors engaged with the content by taking further actions on the news page. Their actions highlight that some were interested in the report itself (791 sessions), others showed an interest about the issue in general (834 sessions), and a smaller portion showed an interest in the context of the report (107 sessions). Action # actions Showing an interest in the report itself 791 Accessed the EN report Accessed the FR report 156 Showing an interest in the issue 834 Viewed the Palm oil and biodiversity conservation web 395 page 9 Viewed the Palm oil and biodiversity issues brief page Viewed the Palm oil infographic page Downloaded the issues brief pdf Shared on social media 82 Shared the EN press release 69 Shared other palm oil content 13 Showing an interest in the context 107 Viewed the resolution page Accessed the website of the Oil Palm Task Force Library record Over the week-long period, the report received 1,814 and 214 downloads of the English and French versions respectively. Based on its first week of downloads, the English version of the Oil Palm report stands among the top-downloaded publications recently released. The English version of the microplastics report, released in February 2017, had 1,856 downloads in its first week, and English version of IUCN World Heritage outlook 2 in November 2017 had 1,339 downloads. Oil palm and biodiversity English downloads through the week: 8 Either via the DOI link (520) or the dropbox link (30) on the press release in EN, FR or SP, or the library record link (85) on the Palm oil and biodiversity conservation page. This statistic takes into account multiple clicks, which total 635 (if duplicate clicks are ignored, the total goes down to 497). 9 Palm oil and biodiversity conservation 10 Palm oil and biodiversity issues brief page 11 Palm oil infographic page 12 Issues brief PDF 13 Resolution WCC 2016 Res

10 Oil palm and biodiversity French downloads through the week: 10

SOCIAL MEDIA OVERVIEW

SOCIAL MEDIA OVERVIEW 0 OVERVIEW 0 English French Spanish Russian Tunza ROWA English French Spanish Russian ROWA 9. -.. 8,0,0,,,9,00,90,0, 8, 0, KEY FACTS Total followers across all platforms,8,0 Compared to previous Highest