Published by Sue Johns-Chapman
Published Date 20.08.2024 
No More Fishy Facts: #FishFarmsOut
Curious PR was founded by a former broadcast journalist as an agency that would go the extra mile for clients – based on in-depth questioning of the issues or concepts at play in order to tell the client’s story ‘better’. Since 2018, we’ve achieved a global media audience of over 14bn* for our clients. All of them – except one – have been with us for years, demonstrating our all-round ‘value’: expert counsel, adaptability, consistent results – as well as value for money. With a background in environmental science, Hannah continues to ensure ‘sustainability’ is baked into all company values and behaviours, ensuring people are put first.
*Based on monthly figures
The Curious PR team was elated to discover that we’d been selected as a finalist for Best Not-for-Profit PR Campaign (small) by the UK Agency Awards. As a small agency, we pack a punch in terms of results, as shown via our recent campaign – #FishFarmsOut – which drew a media audience of 688m (based on MUU figures) and led to 175 signatures on an important letter to the United Nations Food & Agriculture Organisation (UNFAO). These results went above and beyond what we, and our client, had hoped for, and we overcame many challenges to achieve them. Afterall, most people don’t associate fish farming (or eating farmed fish) with the devastation it wreaks on people and planet: it takes 1.2kg of WILD fish to produce 1kg of industrially farmed fish, which means nutrients and livelihoods are effectively being ‘stolen’ from food-insecure communities in the Global South, especially West Africa.
Our tenacious, multi-talented team prides itself on delivering highly tailored communications strategies by collaborating with a wide range of partners and experts: collaboration is key to any environmental or health-focused campaign, especially if the issues at play are complex.
Our can-do, fast-moving approach is imbued in our team by our founder, Hannah Kapff, an environmental science graduate and former news producer, who founded Curious to reflect her own natural curiosity, provide outstanding client service, and get people thinking, talking and behaving differently: “Having communicated for 15+ years about healthcare as well as sustainability, I see a false dichotomy between the health of our planet and that of our bodies. Without one, we cannot have the other. Not only is communication ‘all’, but we are all connected. What we choose to eat is rarely simple, yet our decisions as consumers impact everyone. #FishFarmsOut is a case in point.”
Maddy Lowe, account executive adds, “It was a thrill to work on #FishFarmsOut – the collaboration, enthusiasm and grit witnessed was truly inspiring. Seeing this global issue gain global recognition is exciting, as it’s an issue that affects us all, regardless of what we eat.”
From ‘Small Island’…
Our campaign started in 2023 with a brief from US-based Rauch Foundation to develop a programme of communications to educate multiple stakeholders about industrial fish farming’s dangers. Working with our policy partner in Brussels, we started with the aim of saving the small, idyllic island of Poros in the Bay Of Athens from 25% takeover of its landmass and coastline by industrial fish farms. Just one of the many threats the farms bring is marine dead zones caused by the vast volumes of waste food and faeces they generate – a ‘tourism-repellent’ 16,000 tons/day in Poros, IF plans go ahead.
Besides headline-fuelling press releases, campaign assets included infographics and a 30-minute film, Saving Poros, made by award-winning investigative journalist, Francesco deAugustinis. The result? On World Ocean Day, our spokesperson from Poros non-profit, Katheti, Fay Orfanidou, spoke live on BBC World News’ World Business Report (audience: 100m+/week). Plus, coverage appeared in key top tier outlets including Euronews, Le Monde and France24.
… To A Global Campaign
Having placed the many issues of fish farming on the map, 2024’s strategy took us beyond Greece and onto the global stage. At Curious, we know first-hand the power of film to change hearts and minds, given its nuanced messaging potential. We promoted 2 documentaries about fish farming: ’‘Until the End of the World’ (also by deAugustinis) and ‘Poros Stands’ by Tasmania’s Mike Sampey, organising UK premières for both, including Q&As with deAugustinis from Rome and Orfanidou from Poros.
Then, we helped organise and publicise the first Seas of Change Summit, jointly hosted by Rauch Foundation, Katheti, and Argentina’s GSFR (Global Salmon Farming Resistance, which helped ban open net fish farming in that country in 2022). The summit saw 80 experts and leaders from 50+ organisations, 14 countries and 4 continents share data and gain insights about the growing environmental, economic and social losses caused by industrial fish farming around the world. Such was the heated sentiment on Day 2, that Greek TV News crews arrived in the wake of 3 mayors and government ministerial staff. Importantly, day 3 saw delegates agree on shared action for World Ocean Day 2024.
After further collaborative strategising, the chosen campaign was to be #FishFarmsOut. This involved sending a fully-evidenced letter to the head of the UNFAO on World Ocean Day, asking it to ‘Stop classifying industrial fish farming as ‘sustainable’’ because in so many ways, it is anything BUT.
Our efforts, alongside those of our policy partner, Joanna Sullivan, helped garner signatures from 175 global organisations and experts across 6 continents. Our highly creative team worked with other Rauch partners to produce a wide array of assets for the campaign: web copy for www.FishFarmsOut.org, infographics, social media assets and a campaign video using voices from around the world to issue a clear call-to-action: “Fish farms out!”
We then secured further top-tier coverage on / around World Ocean Day. This included a live interview for Eva Douzinas, Rauch Foundation president, on BBC World News, where she said: “We are witnessing destruction of sea meadows, ecosystems, local fisheries, and livelihoods from the world’s fastest growing food industry.” We also secured an article on page 6 of the Financial Times and online, plus a detailed article in Mail Online reporting the fears of Poros residents living under the ‘sword of Damocles’. (Between 2023 and 2024, the audience reach of our media coverage totalled 1.2 billion monthly unique users, which broke our internal campaign record.)
Shortly afterwards, a detailed reply arrived from the UNFAO, indicating a willingness to engage on this complex, multi-stakeholder issue. The Rauch Foundation has since met him at a key conference. Now, our team is making plans to help move this critical issue even higher on the agenda of multiple stakeholders, and on the global map of food issues which must be tackled urgently.
Our original brief was to highlight one Greek island’s issues, but our ambition, expertise and creativity gave Rauch the confidence to collaborate globally, for global effect. In the process we’ve helped build Rauch Foundation’s network, capacity and reputation as a globally-facing non-profit with impact that is helping eradicate the illogical, wasteful and unethical practice that is industrial fish farming.
Being nominated by the UK Agency Awards gives us even more energy to keep up the momentum by making waves and amplifying the voices of organisations with the planet’s best interests at heart. This has, and always will be, the Curious PR way.
Instagram | LinkedIn | Facebook X
