Public Campaign as a Design Process

As part of my work at Greenpeace Russia, I led an experimental campaign aimed at exploring new, user-relevant topics for public engagement. We approached the campaign development as a design process—starting with user research, building hypotheses, testing content, and iterating based on real-world feedback. Here’s how the process unfolded through the lens of human-centered design.

Protect the Ocean

As part of Greenpeace Russia’s contribution to the global “30x30” goal—to protect 30% of the world’s oceans by 2030—we launched a digital campaign to support the creation of marine protected areas (MPAs) on the high seas. This required a new UN treaty to regulate ocean sanctuaries beyond national borders.

We treated this campaign as a design-driven process, utilizing five stages of the design process, real-time data, content iteration, and extensive testing to guide our decisions. 

1. Empathize

We began by revisiting previous research and campaign results related to ocean topics. Our tests and surveys consistently showed that users were emotionally engaged with marine life and concerned about ocean health.

To deepen our understanding, we:

  • Reviewed social media engagement data from prior ocean campaigns

  • Monitored public sentiment around Antarctica and marine biodiversity

  • Made a few posts on social media to check the interest and the questions people have.

Key insights:

  • Ocean protection is a “safe” and accessible entry point for environmental engagement of the new audience.

  • Content featuring animals (especially penguins) consistently triggered high engagement.

  • Users were more likely to engage if the message was visual, emotionally resonant, and actionable.

2. Define

Problem Statement:
 Supporters need a clear, emotionally engaging way to contribute to global ocean protection - because they care about marine life and want to feel part of a meaningful global movement.

Additional insights:

  • Users wanted to know their actions were part of something real and international.

  • Redirecting petition efforts directly to the UN helped to add value to the petition.

3. Ideate

With our challenge defined, we brainstormed campaign components and user engagement tactics:

  • Replacing our existing Antarctica petition with the new global ocean treaty petition (to preserve incoming traffic)

  • Using Antarctic expedition updates as core storytelling and visual content

  • Emphasizing short-form video—especially Reels—as people engage with Reels more and more, and this is one of the best ways to reach a new audience.

  • Creating a “thank you” email that asks users to share the petition with friends, with a clear explanation of its importance.

  • Planning an influencer contest to bring in new audiences via personal campaign links.

  • Launching an interactive quiz ("Which Penguin Are You?") for broader reach.

  • Segmenting social ad audiences to test outside typical environmental bubbles (e.g., animal lovers, nature documentary fans)

4. Prototype

We rolled out a live campaign across platforms and tested messaging, formats, and outreach strategies in real time.

Campaign features:

  • A global petition delivered directly to the UN

  • Expedition-based visuals and storytelling as the primary content

  • Reels and Instagram videos, plus a test run of TikTok content

  • A short-term influencer contest, with results showing early traction from local environmental groups

  • The test “Which penguin are you?” As a paid promotion.

5. Test

Testing methods:

  • A/B testing on the thank you page

  • Tracking performance by traffic source (organic, influencer, paid)

  • Segmenting ad audiences by interest clusters (e.g., wildlife, Netflix, science)

  • Monitoring donation and conversion rates from each channel

We also tested the content; for example, the “Which penguin are you” video was first horizontal, and we put it in a promo via post feed. It gave us a lot of likes and views, but not many leads. After we checked the statistics, we made an assumption that it’s too many steps from the post with a video to the petition, so we reframed our video as a vertical and put it into a promo via stories, where we could put a link directly to the screen, and it started to bring us a lot of new leads.

Results of the  campaign

This campaign existed only for a month and was closed due to an external situation

Signatures collected: 15,385

  • Total donations: 313

  • New donors: 181

  • ROI of promo: 44%

Key Learnings

  • Cute, emotionally relatable animals are still powerful hooks—especially when combined with a clear, hopeful call to action.

  • Ocean protection serves as a low-barrier entry point for people unfamiliar with environmental issues.

  • Complex user flows reduce conversion. The “Which Penguin Are You?” quiz was popular, but the signature conversion rate dropped due to the multiple steps involved. In the future, we’ll rework such content into simpler, vertical formats.

Saving Moscow’s Parks

1. Empathize

Our goal was to identify environmental issues that felt personal to city residents—something they would care about deeply and take action on.

To do this, we:

  • Monitored public sentiment

  • Conducted interviews with activists who had been protecting city parks

  • Launched test content on our digital channels to observe engagement

  • Analyzed user comments and reactions on social media to identify emotional drivers and objections

Key insight:
 People were more emotionally responsive to environmental issues that directly affected their neighborhoods. Forest parks in Moscow were at risk of being transformed into commercial-style urban parks. This was not just an ecological concern but a lifestyle issue for residents.

2. Define

From our research, we identified a specific and urgent problem:

Problem Statement: Moscow residents need a way to protect their local forest parks from urban redevelopment because they see these parks as essential to their mental health, well-being, and access to nature.

3. Ideate

With the problem clearly defined, we brainstormed possible campaign formats and engagement strategies. Our ideas included:

  • Launching a petition as the primary user action

  • Partnering with local activist groups to boost credibility and reach

  • Creating targeted content for residents of affected districts

  • Using emotionally driven messaging to highlight the loss of nature and childhood memories

  • Finding old general plans of Moscow, to see the overall distraction of the parks in a timeline.

We reviewed the ideas with internal stakeholders (campaigners, fundraisers, digital team) and prioritized those with the highest potential 

4. Prototype 

We designed a lightweight petition page for the campaign:

  • A petition addressed to Mayor of Moscow

  • Clear call-to-action to stop the current redevelopment plans

  • We shared the petition with environmental groups and grass root organizations first to collect their feedback.

5. Test

Testing methods:

  • A/B testing of petition headlines and support options

  • Email campaigns segmented by user location

  • Social media engagement tracking

  • Monitoring donor conversion rates by entry point (e.g., petition, news article, Instagram bio)

  • We collected data about the effect on amounts of signatures from the external events.

Results of the campaign

  • Signatures collected: 12,679 (goal: 10,000)

  • New subscribers: 4,169

  • Donations: 221 total / 139 new donors

  • Average donation: ₽570 (org average: ₽300)

Key Learnings

  • User action is highest when urgency is visible. People are unlikely to engage when the issue is abstract or distant in time.

  • Local relevance drives higher engagement and generosity.

  • Petitions can serve as a conversion funnel for deeper supporter involvement—especially when timed to coincide with real-world triggers.