ESA recently launched the “Embracing the Power of Nature” communication campaign which was set up without any ESA branding. All campaign materials were shared with the ESA members so that the members could adapt the material to their needs. ESA has regular exchanges with its members on the development of the campaign and is expecting a continuous growth of engagement for 2018. European Seed asked several of the national seed associations throughout Europe how they have implemented the campaign. The feedback indicates that the ESA members are all engaging on different levels, with some sharing the ESA messages directly on their social media channels, some are using the materials independent of any ESA activities, and some are even translating the materials for their own national outreach. It was also clear that not all ESA members are equally active on social media, but those who are active are really committed to engage in the campaign.
Embracing the Power of Nature in Spain
“Following the communication plan designed by ESA, ANOVE is conducting a campaign on its social networks. Mainly on Twitter and Facebook, through the daily launching of contents in Spanish, supported by the infographic materials of the campaign. In addition, the video of the campaign has also been prepared in Spanish (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdFLNJCnJtQ ) to help its spreading in our country. And we had a day with plant breeding innovation experts with a great participation of the press and stakeholders (http://fundacion-antama.org/petra-jorasch-esa-si-las-crispr-se-regulan-como-transgenicos-afectara-a-la-investigacion-europea/ ) Until now we have launched about 30 tweets with an average of 10 likes and 10 retweets.
Antonio Villaroel, General Secretary of the Spanish Plant Breeders Association ANOVE
Embracing the Power of Nature in Turkey
“At TSUAB we firstly believe that a strong seed industry is the insurance for nature, the environment and of course humankind. Because of this, in every platform we declare that good quality seeds are the warranty for the global agriculture and rural development. If we wish to reduce hunger, excessive water consumption, pollution etc. we must firstly start from plant breeding, then producing the best varieties and then we must provide free movement of seeds of these varieties all over the world. TSUAB, which is a member of the Turkish Seed Union (TURKTOB), is supporting a project implemented by TURKTOB and 7 sub-unions. TSUAB is the one of the biggest supporters of this “social responsibility project” called as “In Search of Seed”. The brochure is accessible at: http://www.turktob.org.tr/uploads/plugo/Tohumun_Izinde-21x21cm_New_V01_print.pdf
Müfit Engiz, Secretary-General of TSUAB
Embracing the Power of Nature in Germany
“BDP highly appreciates and fully supports the campaign at multiple levels for example by informing and involving our members and integration of campaign material in our daily social media activities. BDP has been quite active on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube since 2012. During that time, we have engaged a relevant community that regularly picks up our messages and forwards them. Until now we post and tweet mainly about current and future global challenges and the contribution plant breeders may provide to address them. With our experience from practice and the results of the ESA social listening exercise, we are now able to better adjust our own activities and tailor them to the reality of the internet as well as German characteristics. With its high quality of both the visual appearance and the content, the campaign material ESA offers is a valuable resource for our national online activities. We now need to ensure that the platform ESA has established for the exchange of material and experience is being used by as many players as possible to gain the highest attention and raise awareness for our issues.”
Dr. Carl-Stephan Schäfer, Secretary General of the German Plant Breeders’ Association (BDP)
Embracing the Power of Nature in The Netherlands
“The campaign that Plantum will launch early 2018 focusing on six well defined target groups will certainly link with “Embracing the Power of Nature”. We already use materials developed by ESA (and ISF) and make available the materials that we develop ourselves. The messages are of course totally aligned. Plantum is an active participant in the Working Group Communication of the European Seed Association (ESA). And considering the developments within ESA with regards to the campaign Embracing the power of nature and the campaign PlantKracht (PlantPower) of Plantum, we think such alignment is very important. Through good cooperation we can align the messaging of both campaigns, in order to create an ever-larger audience for our communications about this beautiful sector.
From the side of Plantum, we look closely which of the resources and developed materials of the ESA campaign can be used in The Netherlands. For example, we have translated an ESA video into Dutch language. And we will use this video in the PlantKracht-campaign. During the last meeting of the Plantum working group, we gave a presentation on the ‘Embracing Nature’ campaign. In this way we keep each other informed about what we’re doing, and we can advise each other on the methods that work well. In this way we can reach as many people as possible, with our fascinating stories about the seed sector.”
Niels Louwaars, Director of Plantum
Embracing the Power of Nature in Denmark
“In Denmark, we have joined forces between organisations in the grass-, clover-, beet-, grain-, oilseeds and potatoes sectors to run the ESA twitter campaign #embracingnature. We have engaged a student to help us five hours per week. This will enable us to like, retweet and soon post our own messages on twitter. We are off course totally in line with the ESA campaign messages, but will try reach politicians, journalists, public servants and other opinion/deciding persons to bring the important messages from the campaign to the knowledge and understanding of these people. Also, it is hoped that the public will embrace the campaign.
The ESA campaign is laid out on a silver plate for national associations to easily grab. Also, the ESA staff is very professional and helpful in assisting the associations in their work.
All the seed sectors in Denmark hope this campaign will improve the knowledge and understanding the importance of plant breeding – and not least understand that plant breeding is one of the most important tools in developing our food and feed supply as well as taking care of the natural resources.
Nils Elmegaard, Secretary-General of the Danish Seed Association
