You’ve watched all of Netflix, exhausted every podcast, and just can’t face baking…well…anything at all, actually. But don’t despair! If you’re searching for a family-friendly lockdown activity this week, all you have to do is look to the stars.
From now until the 14th February, CPRE (the countryside charity) is holding their annual Star Count and inviting people from all over England to take part from home. You don’t need any special equipment to get involved – just choose an evening this week to stargaze, and help CPRE to gather the data they need to map light pollution in England.
What’s the problem with light pollution?
Light pollution is a lesser-known environmental problem that can disrupt both humans and wildlife. The light emitted from artificial sources like buildings and streetlights damages our view of the stars, as well as disrupting sleep patterns, and affecting wildlife who use the stars to navigate.
Light pollution has become such a problem that there are only a few areas in England where you can see a truly dark sky. If we don’t take action by implementing light dimming schemes or downward facing streetlights, we could lose sight of our starry skies.
Socially distant stargazing
To support the campaign, 11 London adapted the family Star Count activity pack from last year’s pre-pandemic world, complete with socially distanced illustrations. We then ran a lead generation campaign on social media to promote the free activity pack and encourage people to sign up to the Star Count.
Illustrations by Rosie Chomet
Sparkling results for lead generation
Sign-ups from this year’s campaign are up by over a third from 2020’s pre-pandemic world. Our social media campaign for CPRE gained almost 10,000 new leads at the cost of just 20p each. Excitingly, 86% of these leads have opted in to receive ongoing emails from the charity, paving the way for them to become new supporters.
The changing relationship between charity and supporters
Over the last year, we’ve seen many charities developing activities and products to help supporters get through COVID-19, from Macmillan’s games nights, to our client Earthwatch’s Naturehood programme that we helped to launch.
As with the Star Count, Naturehood (a social platform for nature lovers) connects potential supporters with the charity’s cause by providing them with a tangible way to help – from home. As well as being timely, these campaigns foster a digital sense of community and shared experience – something we’ve all been missing desperately throughout the pandemic.
If you’d like to take part in Star Count, there’s still time to get stargazing! Just follow the instructions here.
About 11 London
11 London is an advertising and communications agency, based in West London. We work in the areas of health and humanity - with organisations, brands or products that improve or prolong life. To learn more about 11 London, please contact:
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