1 Million Women (1MW) is a campaign to engage women living in Australia to take positive action against climate change. It aims to engage women of all ages, stages and races to commit to cutting their carbon emissions by one tonne per annum, thereby reducing Australia's total carbon emissions by one million tonnes.

Keep Left began working with Climate Coolers – the not for profit organisation behind the campaign - on a pro-bono basis in February 2009. The brief was to launch the campaign nationally, generate word of mouth and ultimately recruit one in every eight women living in Australia to sign up to the campaign at www.1millionwomen.com.au

Keep Left's strategy included:

•  Targeting influential women in the media to be ambassadors for the campaign & equipping all campaign ambassadors to communicate key messages to their own networks.

•  Fostering online community involvement in the campaign, focusing on female and environmental blogs, social media networks and online news sites.

•  Bringing the campaign to life via stakeholder/media launch events in Sydney & Brisbane.

•  Positioning co-founder & CEO, Natalie Isaacs as an approachable face of the campaign via blog posts & profiling opportunities in traditional media.

•  Leveraging ambassadors from all walks of life in the media to communicate the relevance of the campaign to women from varied backgrounds.

•  Negotiating in-kind media partnerships with The Australian Women's Weekly, Dolly, Cleo, Fernwood and Real Living.

Results

Over 1,000 women joined the campaign in the 24 hours following the launch on 19th May 2009. Membership is set to exceed 5,000 women by the end of July 2009 – just nine weeks after launch.

By the end June 2009, 74 pieces of coverage had been secured for the campaign, reaching over 2.5 million pairs of eyes & ears (excluding online). 74 per cent of coverage included the 1 Million Women website link, and 96 per cent communicated the campaign goal to reduce Australia's carbon emissions by one million tonnes.

A clear social media strategy saw online become the most successful medium, achieving 32 pieces of coverage and driving a high conversion rate in terms of recruiting women to the campaign.

Offline coverage highlights included national coverage in News Limited titles, as well as pieces in the Sydney Morning Herald and G Magazine.

The campaign was featured on SBS World News Australia and Channel Ten's Good News Week. In addition Natalie Isaacs completed 23 radio interviews, including ABC National Radio.

Keep Left has also secured over 15 pieces of long lead coverage which is due to appear over the next three months including Vogue, Dolly, Cleo, Real Living, Australian Homes & Gardens and The Australian Women's Weekly.