Breathing Places

 Project description 

BBC Breathing Places was set up in 2005 to encourage people to do one thing to help nature on their doorstep. Since then 478,300 people, 15 city councils and 27,140 school children have been involved in 1381 events, planting 71,279 trees and flowers, creating 6780 wildlife homes and transforming 1,409,235 square metres of land. They have got together with 183 partners, including most of the UK's leading nature organisations.

Purpose

A key objective of the BBC Breathing Places campaign is to motivate people inspired by what they watch on television to go on and make a difference in their own garden or in the community through active engagement in creating areas for wildlife.

The Breathing Places campaign used research to better understand what triggers were working in getting people more involved, particularly those less likely to actively engage with wildlife and the environment.

The research looked at the range of broadcast and beyond the broadcast calls to action and activities that the public could get involved with. Through a variety of techniques, Hugh and his team talked to the public, internal and external partners to find out what was working, how they found out about activities, what inspired them, what turned them off, and what keeps them going.

Results/Outcomes

What worked well

Discussion after the presentation centred on how to measure success and depth of engagement, how to judge which activity has the most value, and the BBC's numerical targets for website links. It also included:

• The importance of TV as the key driver to activity and the influence of the style and content of calls to action

• How parents expect to be driven by their children and school activity

• The importance of doing things in simple steps that make action easy

• How keeping things local ensure both buy in and participation.

• The key role of local information sources such as newspapers, networks and schools

• How the website can be better utilised to drive further engagement 

'We're all trying to do the same thing but through Breathing Places we're all at the same table.' (Derry)

'I think it's important because some of these children have brought their parents rather than the other way round, which is how it should be.' (Plymstock) 

What didn't work well

Driving activity through schools meant resources became lost in a morass of other environment related activities, that meant the Breathing Places activity simply became one of many.