Digital Crisis Communications

WHEN CONFRONTING A CRIME

MAKES YOU THE CRIMINAL

Photo (C) Greenpeace / Denis Sinyakov 18/9/2013

Digital Crisis Communications

Case #FreeTheArctic30By Veera Juvonen,

Digital Lead of Greenpeace’s Arctic Ship Tour “Confronting Arctic Oil” 2013

PHOTO CREDITS CREENPEACE

Content

A story with a happy endingDigital crisis response

ConsequencesLearnings

Me.

“We believe that oil drilling in the Arctic is an imminent threat to the environment there and to the climate globally. We have now entered the Russian Arctic preparing peaceful protest against the reckless oil

industry.” -August 11th, 2013

A story with a happy ending

30 people of 18 nationalities onboard, of which 2 photojournalists and 4 climbers,sailed to protest against Russian oil giant Gazprom’s Arctic oil drilling.

Sept 2013: The Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise was illegally boarded by armed RussianCoast Guard in international waters, and towed to shore.

The crew of 30 were arrested, accused of hooliganism and piracy, facing 15 years in jail. Bail hearings were held in Murmansk, Russia.

November 2013:263 cities protest as Arctic30 have been held two months in prison.

An 18 page petition, signed by Russian journalists was presented to the judge before the hearing, demanding the release of the photojournalist Denis Sinyakov.

The Russian parliament agreed to include the Arctic30 in an amnesty - for a crime they didn’t commit.

Crisis Response

100 HOUR RAPID RESPONSE PLAN

Extended into communicating over an unknown time

Detention period ended up lasting 3 months

How to keep up the interest?

Digital Comms

• Mobilising a global movement to protect the Arctic and the right to peaceful protest

• SoMe: #FreeTheArctic30

• Petition to pressure Russian Embassies to free the Arctic30

• Occupying the Comms meeting in Holland

• Core team assembled to a crisis management centre in Copenhagen

• Digital Lead strategist + 2 digital managers to handle daily output and material distribution in the EU timezone

• 24h voluntary-based digital shift schedule to cover digital distribution in all timezones

Digital resources

Motivate

Seizethe

moment

18.10.2013

CCTV of six masked men entering the grounds of Greenpeace's Murmansk office, on the night that a mock 'cage', which was going to be used to highlight the injustice of the Arctic 30's imprisonment during a solidarity protest in Murmansk, was stolen from the grounds.

Sometimes stories just fall in your lap

7.11.2013 Involve

Letthe

starsshine

Showcase 3rd party support

Commission ARTLikes!

Shares!

Question the accusations

Let SoMedo its share

Portray the people

Create heroes

It’s a long story…June 2014 Arctic Sunrise was to be released > fundraising to fix the shipAug 2014 Arctic Sunrise returns to Holland > Arctic30 meetingSept 2014 Arctic30 anniversary. Showing solidarity of others being persecuted for peaceful activism. Oct 2014 The media interest on the released activists keeps up

The following is based on a true story

Are you interested in volunteering for Greenpeace?

Consequences

Exponentially heightened media attention

Heightened interest to volunteer for Greenpeace

2 million petition signatures- More than ever

- Quicker than ever

Long-term consequences

92% growth in visits to Greenpeace websites worldwide within a year

Upcoming: Movie “Black Ice” and a book

Evaluation learnings • Gather 3rd party support and use all networks available. • Plan HR.

• Include adequate, committed, named human resources already in the campaign planning phase.

• In case of key people being unavailable, find adequate substitutes or scale down, or cancel the project.

• Appoint only people with crisis response experience in leadership roles.

• Briefings must set out the worst-case scenarios and consequences, no matter how unlikely they seem.

• Detailed contingency plans should cover the first 5 days.• Set up command and control structure with crystal-clear chain of

decision-makers.• Share and train user-friendly crisis management guidelines and

protocols to staff.

This presentation is made by…• Veera Juvonen

• Former Digital Marketing Manager of Greenpeace Nordic

• Global Digital Lead of Greenpeace’s Arctic Ship Tour in 2014, known as #FreeTheArctic30

• Entrepreneur and digital activist, designing digital strategies for a better world www.digiaktivisti.fi

• Mail [email protected]

• Twitter veerajuvonen