With the world’s biggest brands fighting for attention at COP26, we decided to do something simple, surprising and human. Something that tackled climate fatigue by focusing on the bigger picture instead of our own agenda. The Lightbulb List took insight from our conversations with many leaders and climate experts as part of our wider campaign to help engage, inform and inspire people around climate change. We discovered that many of them got their climate lightbulb moment from a good book. We used the power of our network to ask some of the most influential people in the climate arena for their recommended reads. Through a diverse collection of books, ranging from autobiographies to comic books, we set out to inspire and educate people to take action for our planet. And by adopting a multi-channel strategy we aimed to start a chain of inspiration from the boardroom to the classroom.

The Lightbulb List harnessed the power of recommendations. We channelled this intrinsically human behaviour and came up with an idea that focused on the bigger picture instead of our own agenda – differentiating Deloitte from other B2B organisations during a crowded COP26. With many people looking to further their climate understanding, and against a backdrop of depressing headlines, we decided to come from a place of inspiration by sharing a list of recommended reads from climate experts and leaders the firm is connected to. We focused on giving value to our by audience, creating content they’d want to share to provide similar value for their networks – with Deloitte benefiting from the association with climate leaders and being differentiated by being human and relevant. We scaled our idea across a variety of channels from a mobile-first website, to partnering with the Book Fairies to trigger lightbulb moments around the UK.

We set out to create a resource that people with an interest in climate change would share and engage with. This led us to a digital-first strategy to easily enable commenting and sharing. A reading list isn’t a new idea, but we differentiated the web experience with a mobile-first site that was interactive and simple to use. Adding an element of gamification and a ‘lucky dip’ feature created intrigue and made people want to explore the site further. Our social strategy saw us create visual-led assets that celebrated the book and/or the recommender, helping it to standout on social feeds. We also created moments to manifest the idea physically, from working with the Book Fairies to leave hundreds of copies of the books around the UK, to giving books to senior clients, and sending personalised bookshelves to schools, always using 100% sustainable materials including bookmarks made from bee-friendly seed paper.

The Lightbulb List launched 29/10/21. An organic and paid social media campaign ran during COP26 using the hashtag #LightbulbList. A big part of the campaign was social advocacy. Social assets were provided to the recommenders, who used their personal and/or corporate accounts to share the List and amplify Deloitte’s climate credentials. The List was shared by CEOs, climate scientists and activists, and Deloitte employees on social and via company newsletters and marketing emails. We gave copies to our clients and partners, encouraging them to read the book and pass it on, starting a chain of inspiration. We partnered with the Book Fairies to leave copies of the books around the UK to trigger lightbulb moments everywhere. And on World Book day we sent a personalised bookshelf to the teachers at our partner schools to help inspire the people whose job it is to inspire the next generation.

The Lightbulb List exceeded our expectations across web and social. We generated more than 1m organic impressions through 46 social posts. We had 6,283 engagements on our organic posts on our LinkedIn and Twitter channels, with our content shared 267 times. We reached a further 622k accounts through a paid social campaign. And with a 0.72% CTR and 1.18% ER, the Lightbulb List performed well-above the LinkedIn industry averages of 0.34% CTR and 0.82% ER. Our website had more than 12,900 unique visits, with an 80% engagement rate and 60% of users visiting on a mobile. Most impressive of all was the social advocacy (which is harder to measure). During COP26 some of the most influential climate voices and CEOs featured in the list shared Deloitte content. Deloitte colleagues also shared the list on their personal accounts, which allowed us to reach new audiences from conservationists to climate scientists.