EVENTS & ACTIONS ORGANISING WEBINAR

Agenda

1. Welcome and Introduction
2. Planning and Strategy
1. Action consensus
2. Targets
3. Goals
3. In-person actions
• Action types and examples
• Importance of pictures
4. Digital actions (led by Ekō)
5. Breakout groups
6. Q&A

Introduction

• The first ever global week of action (GWA) targeting the insurance industry for insuring fossil fuels.
• Monday, 26th February to Sunday, 3rd March - all over the world!
• This training is to help you plan actions in the GWA: digital and in-person.
• We’ll talk through some slides, then have breakout groups for discussion/brainstorming.

Planning and Strategy

Action consensus & participants safety

ACTION CONSENSUS

We ask that all groups and individuals taking part in the Global Week of Action communicate under your own name. At the same time, we encourage you to frame your action as part of the Insure Our Future Global Week of Action, #InsureOurFutureNOW.

When participating in the Global Week of Action, you must use the GWA demands and ensure your actions are non-violent.

​

PARTICIPANTS SAFETY

​

Before organising or taking part in an action, whether digital or in-person, make sure you understand the political and legal situation in your country. For example, in some countries standing on a pavement with a banner can lead to an arrest, while in others you can get away with blockading a building.

Please ensure your actions will not put participants’ safety at risk.

USA

ASIA

EUROPE

Targets and frontline fights

What is the goal of your action?

• Get your message heard
• Pressure the target
• Reach the public opinion with protest
• Movement building
• Get media coverage
• Raise public awareness about the issue

Action ideas

Pre Action Checklist

• Identify the location(s) & scout them

• Develop messages & talking points

• Media plan - media list, press release, contact journalists

• Recruitment - social media, peer to peer

• Legal research and support (ensure safety of participants)

• Create visuals - banners, placards, creative props

• Identify & assign roles

• Chants/songs

• Secure permit?

Roles to consider having at an action:

• Action Coordination
• Media Contact
• Police Liaison
• Stage designer making sure the action looks great in photos
• Social Media
• Video / Photographer
• De-escalator
• Stewards / Marshals
• Wellbeing
• Action specific roles: Banner holder, flyering, transport, tech team, logistics etc.
• Music, slogans, chants and ambiance

CREATIVE ACTION

• visually striking or a performance
• examples: coal dump, oil spill, theatre performance, flash mob, human banner
• get creative people together to brainstorm
• takes time to produce but doesn’t need a lot of people
• might be costly depending on what you are creating
• good photographer

FLYERING/ LETTER HAND IN

• a way to engage with the workers
• have questions and answers prepared for talking with the workers
• try to get workers contact details
• have banners and flyers addressing the employees
• go to your target in rush hour like lunchtime
• prepare a letter to the CEO
• hand in the letter and demand they stop insuring fossil fuels

PHOTO ACTION

• needs just a few people
• sign/banner with a clear message
• visually interesting - costumes, flares, performance, props
• good photographer
• target should be easily identifiable in the photo

DIE IN

• takes up a lot of space
• can be outside or inside your target office location
• white sheets
• placards and visual assets (so people passing by understand what you are doing)
• sombre music
• engages public
• make sure you are comfortable

BLOCKADE

• targets a building
• not allowing people to get in or out
• needs to block doors and all entrances
• crucial to spend time observing the building and mapping out all access routes
• visual materials to make it stunning
• the more people the better

OCCUPATION

• check out the location - check security, access, lobby look
• plan how to get in
• blend in - wear office clothes
• have visual assets - banners and placards
• engage with workers - flyers, conversation prompts
• be prepared to sit for hours - have something to entertain yourselves

DEMO / PROTEST

• lots of people
• being loud and visible
• megaphones and sound system
• visual assets: placards, banners, props
• speeches by people directly affected or community leaders
• chants to lead the crowd

​

MARCH

• plan the route - anticipate twice or three times longer than the normal walking speed
• route should end at your target or a symbolic location
• speeches at the end
• lots of visual assets like flags and banners
• plan in coalition with other groups
• multiple sound systems for the music or live music groups playing

BANNER DROP

• choose an iconic location
• building must be possible to climb
• banner must be big enough to be seen from afar - weights at the bottom
• banner fabric must be light - mesh is best to let wind through
• very experienced climbers
• needs just a few people
• good photographer

CRITICAL MASS

• mass bike ride
• needs good weather
• fun to wear costumes
• make sure there is music and megaphones to communicate the message
• can easily block roads and infrastructure
• easy for families to get involved with

The importance of a good photo

Pictures best advice

• Best done by professional photographers
• Make it look like there are lots of people by using creative angles
• Capture the energy of the action in your photos
• Capture every stage of the action - Marching? Speeches? Singing? Dancing?
• Make sure to include the background, such as any headquarters (insurance logo) or frontline locations that you are in
• Take more photos than you think you need and check them as you go along
• Share your best photos with us so we can share them widely
• Take lots of B roll, especially in video form, as this will allow us to make powerful videos following the event�

Pictures

​

​

​

• Body and facial language
• Hold the banner tight
• Be concentrated
• Shows your surroundings (office & logo)

​

​

​

• Chill and chat
• Smoke
• Look bored
• Things lying around
• Joke around

Post Action Checklist

• Post stories/videos/ etc.

• Contact media (share your best photos & send again your PR if they weren’t on site at your action)

• Debrief

• Integrate learnings into the next actions/events you organise

• Absorption: Follow up with any contacts you’ve recruited

• Campaign next steps

• Legal and court support (if needed)

• Fundraise

​

IMPORTANT REMINDERS

Use visuals that link your event to the Global Week of Action:

​

Ensure to have a banner or placards that says “Insure Our Future, Not Fossil Fuels”

​

Please use some of the visual assets in your action so we have uniformity across different actions happening all over the world

​

Fill in the action form so we can add your action on the map.

​

Let’s keep in touch:

​

Let us know if you need support.

​

Live communication during the Week of action and social media posts to like & share

During the week of action, we invite you to share the social media posts of your action and events in the “Insure Our Future GWA chat group” and invite others to like and share. This way we can collectively make our actions more visible. You can join the Signal group on this link.

The power of digital actions

Daphne Cronin (she/her)

Climate Finance Campaigner at Ekō

Ekō is a global movement of over 22 million workers, consumers, investors making sure corporations and governments put people over profit.

Purpose:

To learn about the types of digital actions you can use to run impactful insurance campaigns.

​

Outcome:

You are excited to integrate them into your campaigns for the Global Week of Action!�

Process:

Presentation + questions

POP

What are some examples of digital actions?

• Send a tweet
• Send an email
• LinkedIn comments
• Phone call
• Google doc tagging
• Twitterstorm
• Faxing
• Comments on social media
• Zooms invitations
• Subvertising / ad spoofs
• News paper ads
• Digital ads
• Social media challenges / picture sharing

Digital actions:

• Cheaper
• Accessible
• Time efficient
• Mass global participation
• Adaptable
• Help complement + amplify offline actions
• Create different type of pressure/ engagement
• Can escalate

Digital actions:

1. Send a tweet
2. Send an email
3. LinkedIn comments
4. Phone call (Zoom call!)

Digital actions GWA: AIG, Zurich, Tokio Marine

​

​

1. Email

Why is email an effective campaigning tool?

Write in chat.

• Widely used/ accessible
• Mass participation
• High disruption of work
• Direct targeting and communication with key decision makers
• Good for longer messages and list of demands
• Easy to personalise

1. Why email?

• Identify key decision makers: C-suite, ESG team
• Suggest bullet points for email
• Encourage to personalise
• Can space out emails or do all on one day

• How to: Email action

2. Send a tweet

Why is Twitter an effective campaigning tool?

Write in chat.

• Target companies’ public brand with official accounts
• Easy, quick
• Spread photos of an action

​

2. Why Twitter (X)?

• Write at least 50 tweets- use Chat GPT!
• Variety in tweets
• Use the hashtag #InsureOurFutureNOW
• Add pictures!

2. How to: Send a tweet

3. Phone banking

Why is calling an effective campaigning tool?

Write in chat.

​

• Inform employees on what their company is insuring
• Direct targeting and communication with key decision makers
• Disturb: even if no one picks up, ringing the phone or leaving voice messages disturbs their work day
• Intel gathering = can lead to campaign wins!

3. Why call?

• Find numbers on website
• Pick a day, multiple days?
• Pick times where people are working: not lunch breaks
• Prepare scripts as guidance
• Keep track of conversations
• Organise training

3. How to: Phone banking

4. LinkedIn

Why would we want to use LinkedIn to put pressure on insurers?

Write in chat.

• Insurance staff is on LinkedIn.
• Public image matters – key to their professional development.
• Public support matters to grow their network.
• Unexpected place to receive messages – rarely challenged on LinkedIn.
• It’s both public and personal.

= high impact !

4. Why LinkedIn?

• Over 500 comments left on AIG’s CEO, Head of ESG, and Chief Sustainability Officer’s posts.
• Comments were unique, highly personalised, and high quality.
• All three responded by either manually deleting comments or restricting comments on the post (after a few days).

4. Case study: AIG

Some powerful comments…

Some powerful comments…

• Select posts about climate commitments or sustainability→ show the irony.
• You can select older posts & resurface them
• Give a few bullet points of suggestions for the comments tailored to your target and your demands.
• The more personal the better !

4. How to: LinkedIn commenting

• Send an email page
• LinkedIn comment page
• Send a tweet page
• Phoning action call : Zoom registration here.

Recap

Breakout group discussion

Breakout groups

• Group 1: You have an action planned already
• Share ideas and approaches, get advice
• Group 2: You’re aiming to plan an action
• Brainstorm ideas - what could this be?
• Group 3: Digital actions
• How to share Eko’s digital actions, or adapt them/create your own.

​

Take 10 minutes in your group to discuss. Then we’ll feed back for 10 minutes.

Resources

ACTION PACK

COMMS PACK

ACTION FORM

WEBSITE

VISUAL ASSETS (including banners and placards)

QUESTIONS &

ANSWERS