Training Meteorological Departments in Digital Marketing and Interactive Content Creation for Climate and Weather Information
In the era of digital marketing, training national public institutions to make use of existing tools to provide public services is key to build resilience in East Africa
In June 2021, ICPAC organized a training in Digital Marketing and Interactive content creation for 10 National Meteorological Departments. The goal of the training was for National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs) in East Africa to improve their knowledge on how best to disseminate climate information services.
By giving them the necessary knowledge and tools for effective dissemination of climate information, the NMHSs will be able to generate better digital content and thus improve climate communications, advocacy, social marketing, and the delivery of public services. Digital marketing is key to increase the uptake of climate services in Africa. One of the main goals of the training was to give the NHHSs in East Africa an opportunity to adopt efficient national dissemination strategies.
The Training Objectives covered the following:
- Strengthen the NMHSs capacity to use Digital Marketing, multimedia production and data visualization tools to disseminate Weather and Climate Information
- Improve climate information uptake
- Improve the use of technology to promote adaptation and mitigation behaviors to climate change
Topics that were covered in the training included:
- Video production
- Email marketing
- Presentation of the weather forecast
- Mainstreaming climate information (Eg. radio)
- Public information (Eg. Digital press conferences, press releases, engaging with journalists etc.)
- Online activities and events
- Integrating Science and traditional forecasting to climate information
- Weather apps and data visualization
- Social media management
- Graphic design and video production
Learning outcomes covered:
After finishing the course, the participants are better equipped to use and understand new software, platforms, and best practices for the efficient dissemination of climate information. Participants were trained on topics such as improving user data management, digital marketing, how to produce interactive content, and how to operate commonly used software in the production and dissemination of climate information.
Support
As a part of the implementation of CONFER´s Plan for Exploitation and Dissemination, ICPAC arranged a five-day training which took place on the 7th - 11th June 2021, funded by the EU.
Training resources and key action points.