Greener Scotland campaign made in Leith but not by us

The Scottish Government launched a new "overarching national movement" today, to encourage people to behave in a more environmentally friendly way. It was put together with help from local firm, the Leith agency, who made the video above.

The new campaign also has a new website that might suggest to the unsuspecting passerby that it's run by a voluntary organisation due to the domain name they've chosen: www.greenerscotland.org

Leithers may be forgiven for thinking that Greener Leith (est. 1996) has suddenly developed ambitions to cover the whole of Scotland. Or that the we've joined forces with other independent community groups, like Greener Kirkaldy and Greener Hawick to play a part in this "overarching national movement."

That ain't the case - as we have enough on our hands in our own neighbourhood. That said we're pretty sure all these groups, including us, would support the new marketing campaigns key message and the more positive way they've gone about delivering it.

Anyway, according to the Drum, this is what Pauline Lamb, senior strategic marketing manager at the Scottish Government, said they aim to do at Greener Scotland:

“The Overarching Greener campaign encourages us all to work together to make a difference to create a cleaner, Greener Scotland.

“By delivering an integrated consumer campaign and working with key stakeholders, partners and agencies - we can encourage the nation to assess their own green credentials and ultimately get on board with making Scotland a greener, cleaner place to live”.

If you're a marketing professional who knows an integrated consumer campaign when you see one, then you may be interested in this earlier post where we had a look at some environmental campaign ads that people have made in the past.

Warning: in the old days government sponsored advertising agencies often made animals die, or inanimate objects talk, in a way designed to make you feel guilty and afraid. That earlier post features some of these disturbing film clips.

What's good about this new campaign: It's positive, focusses on the benefits of collective action, and seeks a longer term and better quality engagement with people than some previous campaigns.

What they could do better: The campaign is still ultimately reliant on other generic sources of government information. 

Even though the Scottish Government has funded loads of local groups to take action all over Scotland through the likes of the Climate Challenge Fund there is little mention of these local groups on the website.

Some of the work they have undertaken is amazing, and arguably far more relevent to people in their local area. Yet, there is no linkage from the government. Why not?

Why can't the website direct people from Fife to local information - to the Fife Diet for example? Or people from Edinburgh to our Zero Waste podcasts? Local groups all over Scotland have put together some amazing resources - usually with funding from the government. It's a shame that these are not promoted. 

What would make a huge difference: In some policy areas, the Scottish Government is pursing policies that do the opposite of promoting a Greener Scotland. Like, cutting the budget for active travel by 33%, whilst increasing spending on trunk roads. You can read more about this on the Transform Scotland website.

After all the Government's own research from as far back as 2010 shows that successful behaviour change campaigns must be backed up by consistent, credible action from those at the top.