As times change and generations pass, the way that we communicate changes with us. Internet, technology, social media have driven us into the fastest ‘evolutionary communicational process’, if that’s a thing! Information is moving at such a fast pace that technology is a big determining factor on how people develop and interact with the world around them. Marking a difference amongst generations, such as the Baby Boomers, X, Y, and the new Z!
Sometimes it feels like we are running a never ending race, most of the factors that make up an efficient message need to constantly catch up and evolve. Anything that we put out there is a small drop in the ocean of messages that one person receives each day, with the average US person being exposed to between 4,000 to 10,000 ads on a daily basis. Not to mention that many of these ads and articles have likely been created by big corporations that have all the means to capture attention. In this context, amongst these giants, where do conservation messages stand?
One thing we can do is to learn from them, use their tools and methods and adapt them to our needs. Maybe we won’t be reaching as many people, but we are going to reach those people who are interested, and it is through them that we can instigate a behavioural change. From where we, Reef-World, stand at the moment, it is not quantity, but quality!
As mentioned before many aspects of the communication process are constantly changing, marketing, branding, design, graphics; all of them have to work together in order to reach the audience. In recent years, the infographic has proved to be an excellent medium to communicate complex messages:
I bet you read this information first with the nice icons on the side! Source: https://offers.hubspot.com/generate-leads-with-infographics
For that reason, and for the urgency that we have to protect coral reefs, we decided to create brand new infographics gathering many interesting facts for the #GreenFinsIYOR2018 Campaign. These infographics will cover the main Action Points of the campaign, some of the biggest environmental threats posed by the diving industry.
When creating the #RedefineTheDive infographic, our new star, it was a big challenge to filter the information and choose the messages that we wanted our audience to know and to share. Direct diver damage has big impacts on coral reef ecosystems, but most of the time they are unknown or undermined.
I fully enjoyed… and at times suffered through(!), the whole process of gathering the information and then pulling it together into a visually appealing form. I hope you enjoy it, share it, post it, and print it if you can!
We'd really like to thank all of the researches quoted here who have worked on this area of expertise, without their studies the impact of this infographic wouldn't be as strong!