Taking an Online Audience Beyond Wild Isles

Working with the Missing Salmon Alliance (MSA), we were delighted to organise an online event, ‘Beyond Wild Isles’ on 18th May 2023 to educate the wider public about the serious decline of our wild Atlantic salmon and introduce our audience to the vital work of the MSA which aims to reverse it.

It was the first event of its kind for the Missing Salmon Alliance, and a fantastic opportunity to leverage these messages.

We were joined in conversation with Silverback Films Producer, Chris Howard, and renowned photographer and film-maker, Richard Davies, to discover the story behind the filming of our wild Atlantic salmon for Wild Isles, the recent BBC One wildlife series created by Sir David Attenborough.

David Attenborough himself states in the programme that “returning [wild Atlantic] salmon numbers have fallen by 70% in just 25 years…[and] at the current rate of decline, they may disappear from all our rivers in as little as 20 years’ time. The grandchildren of these fish may be the last to make this astonishing journey.”

From egg, to parr, to smolt and returning adult, the team shared a selection of stunning footage, talked through the processes involved in capturing each of these life stages, described the threats facing salmon at each of these points in their life, and shared news on how the Missing Salmon Alliance is working towards a brighter future for this iconic species.

We set up and managed the online event behind the scenes, ensuring that the team were confident in interview, presenting, and sharing video footage, and that the audience would be comfortable.

The Results

Safe to say it was a success. We had an average of 130 attendees watching online, and testament to the level of interest and engagement raised by Jonathon Muir (Atlantic Salmon Trust), Chris, and Richard, most of these people remained on the link throughout.

Further to this, we had almost 100 new subscriptions to the MSA newsletter, and raised a total donation amount of £485.00 which will go directly towards the work of the Missing Salmon Alliance. 1,242 people viewed the event page itself, helping us spread the word about the Missing Salmon Alliance.

We are passionate about creating innovative events for our clients and harnessing an audience who also care deeply about our environment and biodiversity.

We work hard to widen the reach of important environmental messages through successful, creative communication and we look forward to hosting many more events of this kind.