New UN Climate Summit Campaign Creates Immediate Global Impact With Nearly 10 Million in First Week

NEW YORK, Sept. 11, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- A joint awareness campaign from Upworthy and Unilever Project Sunlight, in cooperation with the upcoming United Nations Climate Summit, has already exceeded expectations. In its first seven days, the digital media initiative engaged more than 9.7 million people worldwide, with the average piece of content generating more than 400,000 views. More than 150,000 social actions (shares/likes/comments) and more than 7 million social impressions were realized in the first week, and one of the new campaign's posts was the top-performing item on all of Upworthy.com for the period.

The campaign aims to raise awareness and inspire action that prompts global leaders to adopt a more ambitious and urgent approach to addressing climate change. Launched September 2^nd, the campaign is also the first in a potential series of activities the organizations are considering over the next 16 months. The initiative is also the most intense and concentrated mounted on the Upworthy platform to date.

Set for September 23^rd, the UN Climate Summit will see world leaders from government, finance, business, and civil society gather in New York for a critical meeting that will lay the groundwork for countries to reach a meaningful global agreement on climate change in Paris in December 2015.

Content highlighting the imperatives around climate change will be curated by Upworthy and complemented by community-building activities like dedicated e-mails and a series of live #Upchat Twitter discussions, with special guests joining as they participate in the Summit. The campaign is supported by Unilever's Project Sunlight, the company's initiative to motivate millions of people to adopt more sustainable lifestyles.

#Climate2014

"With more than 100 heads of state and government joining leaders from business and civil society at the UN Climate Summit, we want to help them understand how much support there is for ambitious leadership and action on climate change," said Dan Thomas, head of communications for the UN Secretary-General's Climate Change Support Team. "Through partnerships with innovative and mission-driven companies like Upworthy, we are constantly seeking to engage new audiences in our mission."

"This is about taking climate change to new heights of awareness through the curating and sharing of highly engaging media content to a global digital audience," said Marc Mathieu, Unilever Senior Vice President Global Marketing. "If we truly want to drive action on the issues that matter, this coming together of three distinct global partners to create awareness and drive momentum is an exciting new development for all."

Unilever CEO Paul Polman will participate in the UN Climate Summit, and the company has issued a call for all companies affected by the growing costs of climate change to step up their commitment to tackling the issue. Unilever has been at the forefront of industry efforts to tackle climate change since the mid-1990s. It was the first to address carbon emissions from agriculture and deforestation (the Unilever Sustainable Agriculture Programme) and the first to launch a comprehensive plan with time-bound targets reported annually to drive progress towards sustainable sourcing (the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan).

"The fight to address climate change receives a fraction of the public attention and discussion it deserves," said Peter Koechley, Upworthy co-founder and co-CEO. "The United Nations' communications strategy, and Unilever's decision to support it, will help reach those not currently focused on the issue in a new and powerful way; intensify the affiliation of those who are already aligned with the cause; and inspire a new generation of leaders and activists from all walks of civil life who are ready to take action."

Upworthy will also launch other initiatives spotlighting the imperatives of climate change in September, as part of a broad effort to engage the Upworthy community on this topic.

In a 2014 survey, Upworthy's audience identified climate change and clean energy as the #1 issue they'd like to engage with more on Upworthy. Ninety-seven per cent of Upworthy's core community say they'd like stricter laws and regulations to protect the environment, and 92% consider environmental criteria when purchasing products and services. And 77% of Upworthy's core community identify themselves as active and influential in discussions on social issues (versus 45% of the entire Web) and that the #1 reason these super-sharers distribute content is to "bring attention to issues that don't get enough of it." 

The Upworthy community is one of the most engaged on the Web. The average Upworthy post generates 35,000 social actions (shares, likes, comments), which is 39 times more than an average post from the Web's top 25 publishers. One third of Upworthy's audience is now outside the U.S., in countries including Australia, Brazil, Canada, and South Africa.

The Climate Summit is an initiative by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to create the necessary political will and ambition for a meaningful universal climate change agreement in 2015, and to catalyze action on the ground that will reduce emissions and increase resilience to the impacts of climate change. The leaders of all 193 UN Member States, along with leaders from business, finance, and civil society, have been invited to the Summit to announce bold actions and initiatives. http://www.un.org/climatechange/summit/ #Climate2014

Unilever seeks to double the size of its business whilst reducing overall environmental footprint (including sourcing, consumer use and disposal) and increasing positive social impact. It is committed to helping more than a billion people take action to improve their health and well-being, sourcing all agricultural raw materials sustainably by 2020, and decoupling its growth from our environmental impact. In support of its three big goals, the company has defined nine commitments, underpinned by targets encompassing social, environmental and economic areas. For more on the Unilever Project Sunlight visit www.projectsunlight.com.

Upworthy brings massive amounts of attention to things that matter in the world. Every day, the mission-driven media company's curators find and spotlight important, high-quality content using a proprietary approach that combines deep social science, strong voice, and a passionate community. Upworthy has one of the most-engaged audiences in digital media and each month, about 50 million people experience Upworthy content. The company's purpose-driven advertising program, Upworthy Collaborations, has been immediately successful. Investors include Spark Capital, the Knight Foundation, and leading individual investors such as Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, and BuzzFeed co-founder John Johnson. Learn more at www.upworthy.com.

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SOURCE Upworthy; Unilever; UN Climate Summit