Global warming is a huge, abstract concept. It’s been a topic of discussion among environmental specialists for a long time. Still, in its intangibility, global warming lacks a concrete symbol, that would get the people who are not usually active in environmental discussion involved in the debate.

President Donald Trump is the most well-known climate change denialist, who's threatened to pull USA out from the Paris climate agreement. The most significant climate conference since Paris, COP24 takes places in December 2018. Its most important task is to work out and adopt a package of decisions ensuring the full implementation of the Paris Agreement. As the world leaders gather to make the decisions that affect the future of our planet, we set out to urge all of them to commit to the Paris Agreement.

To get the attention of the media and the people, we knew we had to approach environmental work from a new angle. People are tired of seeing starving polar bears and comparison pictures of the Arctic glacier over the decades. As our aim was to get as much media space as possible, we decided to hijack the largest media spotlight of them all. That's why we made President Donald Trump our campaign face.

Mr. Trump had previously stated that his face should be put on Mount Rushmore among the other presidents. He also happens to be a climate change denialist, who's threatened to pull USA out from the Paris climate agreement. We decided to start a campaign to give him the monument he deserves – one made of the melting ice of the Arctic.

The campaign was launched in mid-April with a viral video and comprehensive PR work. On the day of the launch, we built a 1:26 scale model of the monument in the busiest square of Helsinki, and invited the domestic media to watch the ice sculpture melt.

With the success of the campaign launch, we are currently negotiating the funding of the project with interested parties. The alternative option is to launch a crowdfunding campaign during the summer.

Once the funding is secured, we will begin the construction phase. The monument will be carved into the melting ice of the Arctic, where the effect of global warming is said to be its most concrete. The execution of the project will be documented and live-streamed. The monument is set to be made in the fall, well before the COP24 climate conference.

The campaign succeeded in making the dangers of climate change headlining news all around the world, and therefore directly contributed to Sustainable Development Goal 13: Climate Action.

Getting the masses to rally behind the cause of fighting climate change before the COP24 Climate Conference in December 2018 is a major step to influencing the decision-makers fully implement the Paris Agreement.

In three weeks we reached the attention 898 million people with the equivalent advertising value of 7.61 million euros. (source: Meltwater.) According to our research, the tone of media hits was positive and over 95 % supported the project.

The largest media outputs, where Project Trumpmore was noted, are some of the largest and most reliable sources in the world, including CNN, El Mundo, Novosti MailThe Washington Post, Business Insider, The Independent, Daily Mail, and New York Post.

The success of our campaign relies on publicity for practical and strategic reasons. Firstly, we have to get the masses behind the cause in order to affect the decision-makers. Secondly, we need the worldwide attention to acquire the partners and the funding needed for building the actual monument in the Arctic to carry the campaign even further.

As our aim was to get as much media space as possible, our strategy was to approach environmental work from a new angle. We made the controversial and debated President Donald Trump our campaign face, as we also wanted the people who are not usually active in environmental discussion to get involved in the debate.

The data was gathered with the global and market-leading Meltwater media monitoring tool.

Melting Ice Association's mission is to battle climate change by influencing decision-makers through public discussion. The most significant climate conference since Paris, COP24 takes places in December 2018. Its most important task is to work out and adopt a package of decisions ensuring the full implementation of the Paris Agreement.

Politicians tend to follow people, as their votes are crucial for their careers to continue. To urge all the world leaders to commit to the Paris Agreement, we had to make climate change the most talked about topic in the news and social media – also among the people who are not usually active in environmental discussion.

The short-term objective of the campaign is to increase the amount of discussion on climate change among the masses, which in long-term will increase its value in political decision-making. By gaining publicity, we are looking to open a dialogue with possible partners with which to start the crowdfunding, as the Finnish laws on fundraising prevent us from crowdfunding without an established partner.