Sunday might not be known for its birdwatching skills, but our valued client, WWT, is a leader in its field. As the charity’s content agency, our job is to raise awareness of the vital work it does in nature restoration and engage, inspire and ultimately grow its membership.
Waterlife, its membership magazine, is the centrepiece in this customer journey. The magazine drives visitations, educates members on the superpowers of wetland ecosystems and updates them on project developments, all while reinforcing membership benefits.
Our first task was to make the magazine feel more contemporary, impactful and engaging. We evolved and improved its design, introducing an updated masthead, a new editorial structure and a cleaner, more modern visual design using high-impact photography. We also developed a more playful and confident tone of voice to better convey the warmth and personality of the brand, making the magazine unique among its competitor set.
Then we set about ensuring the content was fully aligned to the diverse needs of its readership. Here’s how:
- We developed a new editorial plan to reflect the six motivational segments we had recently recommended and ensure the magazine resonates with the membership base on a far more personal level. The weighting of the publication favours the predominant segments (Nature, Inspiration, Conservation), but we are careful not to make secondary audiences (Entertainment, Wellbeing, Influence) feel less important.
- From our analysis, we know photography is a key passion point for nature lovers, so continuing WWT’s annual wildlife photography competition was an obvious way to get them engaged and actively involved with the magazine. We ran the competition in partnership with respected binocular manufacturers to extend the reach of the promotion on their customer channels, too.
- We developed a suite of articles designed to appeal to the Conservation motivation, which are peppered throughout the magazine. This included tips on how to be a ‘water warrior’ at home, updates on the important conservation work the charity is doing locally and globally, and enlightening articles on how wetlands help to keep the natural world in balance.
- For the Entertainment segment we took a different approach. These members are more motivated by what’s going to keep their kids busy and entertained over the school holidays, so distilling a range of fun, family activities and days out into a convenient list is always going to go down well with those members.
- Our new Wellbeing segment included WWT’s programme of work with the Mental Health Foundation, aiming to improve participants’ mental wellbeing, develop social connections and learn to self-manage mental health through access to blue (water) spaces. This was also shared freely across the Mental Health Foundation’s digital ecosystem and generated significant PR coverage in local and national press.
The result is a rounded, beautifully designed, inspired read for the charity’s members and supporters.