Title	THE SOUND OF CLIMATE ANXIETY
Brand	UMEÅ KOMMUN
Product/Service	THE SOUND OF CLIMATE ANXIETY
Category	B01. Websites / Microsites
Entrant	GULLERS GRUPP Stockholm, SWEDEN
Idea Creation	GULLERS GRUPP Stockholm, SWEDEN
Media Placement	GULLERS GRUPP Stockholm, SWEDEN
PR	GULLERS GRUPP Stockholm, SWEDEN
Production	GULLERS GRUPP Stockholm, SWEDEN
Production 2	BAUTAFILM Umeå, SWEDEN

Name	Company	Position
Jonas Pekkari	Gullers Grupp	Copywriter
Johan Yilmaz	Gullers Grupp	Creative Director
Marie Torneus	Gullers Grupp	Project Manager
Anton Modin	Gullers Grupp	Ideation
Victor Lindgren	Bautafilm	Film production
Patricia Fjellgren	Freelance	Voice over
Sophie Pettersson Dahl	Gullers Grupp	Graphic Designer
Malin Björklund	Gullers Grupp	Webb strategist
Johannes Arevärn	Gullers Grupp	Developer
Jonas Stefanutti	Gullers Grupp	Developer

Background

We need to cut our CO2 emissions by half every decade to prevent a 1.5 degree rise in the global temperature. Many think of climate change as something distant and difficult, which causes climate anxiety. The City Government of Umeå wanted to raise awareness of climate change among its residents. We wanted to adress this anxiety by creating a unique song made entirely from sounds of frustration.

Describe the strategy

Many people feel that the climate issue is too big and hard to wrap their head around; Just thinking about how much we must lower our CO2 emissions can fill anyone with climate anxiety. We wanted to channel that anxiety, give it a voice and use it to change behaviors. By showing and comparing consumption patterns across Umeå we made the issue more accessible and highlighted what can be done together. The campaign targeted local residents, primarily young people as they have been found by researchers to be more receptive and open to change. By equipping them with arguments we gave them a stronger voice that they could use to teach “the old dogs new tricks”.

Describe the execution

We began with a unique consumption survey where 4,000 residents were asked about their consumption habits. This data was then broken down to the neighborhood level to get as close as possible to the target groups. Nothing similar had ever been done before in Sweden. The data was brought to life on Klimatorientering.se, a data visualization tool that gave the locals an overview of the consumption in their own neighborhood. Car use, air travel, eating vegetarian, shopping etc. We also looked at how the consumption differed between the neighborhoods and gave advice on how to reach the target of cutting emissions by half by 2030. In order to make the tool more relevant, we asked ourselves what Umeå’s climate anxiety sounds like. We then asked local producer Alex ”Academics” Juneblad to collect roars, screams and sighs of locals with climate anxiety and create a song called ”The Uåååh song”.

List the results

Troubled sighs were refined into unique beats. A video about the creation of the song was circulated on social media and Youtube, while hyper local videos about each neighborhood were promoted on Facebook and Instagram. On Spotify, Tidal and Apple Music, locals listened to the song that was created by and for climate anxiety. The hyper targeted neighborhood videos reached more than 60 percent of the city’s residents. The two main local newspapers wrote about the survey, and sustainability media brought national attention to the campaign. The campaign video ”What does Umeå’s climate anxiety sound like?” gained more than 53,000 engagements, and more than 50 percent of those exposed to the ad watched the entire two-minute video. The campaign website received nearly 8,000 visitors during the campaign period. Together, Umeå went from cries of pain to battle cries for the climate.