In 2014 eleven concerned civilians decided to take action against the ailing Belgian climate policy. They founded a non-profit association and filed a lawsuit against the competent authorities. In 2018 Klimaatzaak joined forces with Cypres to give the lawsuit wider exposure. Our goal as communication partner: use the non-profit’s limited resources to professionalise and further develop the existing communication.

The more co-plaintiffs join the lawsuit, the stronger the message to the competent authorities. We drew public attention to the lawsuit through advertisements on social media, and email and SEA campaigns inciting people to join the lawsuit. On the website we made it instantly clear how and why we needed them to become co-plaintiffs.

As the legal and other costs are covered entirely by donations, Klimaatzaak wanted to attract more donors. Our approach was based on two pillars: recruiting new donors and convincing co-plaintiffs to become donors. For this purpose we launched a (semi-automated) email campaign targeting existing and prospective co-plaintiffs through ads on social media and through a system of referral.

The overall communication approach of Klimaatzaak was fine-tuned as well. Examples include a content and graphics update of the website and newsletter, improvements to the email system and better management of social media channels. In addition, we continue to support Klimaatzaak on a creative level. For instance, we frequently develop campaigns geared to current (climate) affairs and the progress of the lawsuit.

Within the scope of the Standaard Solidariteitsprijs [only in Dutch] several Klimaatzaak advertisements have been published in newspaper De Standaard.