How To Reach Different Sides Of The Climate Change Divide

In advance of the UN Climate Change Conference on Oct. 31, Tunnl has analyzed the audiences who are pro-climate action and anti-climate action and on which media they can be found. 

Among the pro-climate action group are 34.6 million Americans, or 9% of consumers nationwide. The anti-climate action group represents 9.5 million Americans, or 4% of consumers nationwide. 

The best way to reach the anti-climate action group is via live broadcast TV, with video on demand coming in second. The best way to reach the pro-climate change group is also via live broadcast with video on demand coming in second.  

Social media marks the biggest difference between media habits. Omegle, a network whose slogan is “Talk to strangers!,” scores highest with the pro-climate action group, while WhatsApp does best with the anti-climate action group. 

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Twitch also does better with the latter group, while Tik Tok performs better with the pro-climate action group. Snapchat performs worse with the anti-climate action group than with the pro-climate action continent. 

Sara Fagen, CEO of Tunnl, said the findings make it seem “like social media is a little less useful, for the pro climate change group.” But she added,  “It's not to say it's not valuable, but the assumption always, in all forms of advertising digitally, is that the most bang for your buck is social media.” 

Fagen said people running campaigns in support of climate change action “would be well served by looking at digital radio and even some video on demand.” 

“The standard social media campaign may not be the most effective [approach],” she added. 

Fagen said there was an interesting geographic breakdown showing a strong climate-change-action contingent in the Midwest. “The farm community has been very focused on climate change,” she said. “Some of that concentration in Iowa and other places like that is a population that's getting conditioned around climate action, because they live in a community that's contributing to supporting climate action or reaction of greenhouse gas emissions.” 

Overall, Fagen said that broadcast TV is the most efficient way to reach the pro group while traditional radio and cable news is the best way to reach the anti group. 

The one wild card is streaming. The data show that about 40% of the population are consuming some content per day on a connected TV device. 

“But if you compare,” Fagen said, “cable and broadcast is still 63 [% of viewership]. And so it's still king, but it's rapidly changing.”

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