Attention Lab

We play a unique role, experimenting with injecting conservation messaging into online conversations about the ocean. We do this through “attention campaigns.”

In order for our campaigns to be effective, they must be grounded in community truths. - Ray Dearborn

Through our attention campaigns, we are:

• Increasing and expanding attention to the oceans by joining existing conversations and utilizing existing content. 
• Measuring how much attention we raised by using a simple metric - social mentions. Unlike impressions, these represent true engagement.
• Collaborating with a distributed network of ocean communicators and curating a diverse set of existing ocean content, rather than focusing on building our own brand.

We are not:

• Defining campaign objectives around Upwell program priorities or Upwell policy goals. We campaign on what is primed to move best through social media. 
• Merely raising awareness. You can't measure awareness, you can only measure attention. We encourage action. 
• Running several-month campaigns. Our campaigns are quick - they move at the speed of the internet. 

Our primary tool for running distributed network campaigns is our Tide Report, which is emailed several times a week to a community of ocean communicators and other online influencers. Every once in a while, we'll also pitch a reporter or make our own video. 

You can check out our ocean calendars here, and keep tabs on upcoming ocean holidays, ocean events, ocean birthdays, marine biology conferences, oceanography meetings and more.