From fat bottomed bears, to bird polls and novel prizes… a great week in communication.

Few things bring people together like friendly competition – whether it’s voting for the fattest-bottomed bear in the US’s Fat Bear Week, choosing your favourite bird for the Guardian bird poll in Australia or Scotland’s yearly contest to name the anti-snow ‘gritters’ (“I Want to Break Freeze” is a personal favourite). And, of course, the Nobel Prizes!

A bit of friendly, low-stakes rivalry, ideally infused with a healthy dose of silliness, has an incredible ability to grab international headlines, attract global attention, and generate positive engagement.

Too often, the Internet can feel like a relentless Bad News Machine, full of trolls, negativity and cynicism. The news is full of high-stakes stories about the death of democracy, the doom of our planet, and the ongoing destruction of pretty much anything you can name. These competitions, polls and stories are the opposite: optimistic, fun, a little frivolous. They’re refreshing.

And they’re incredibly successful as communication strategies, driving enormous engagement and sending brands viral.

Through videos, livestreams, interactive maps, and storytelling, they get to build a personal relationship with the subject. That personal connection, whether it’s voting for Otis the GOAT or a honeyeater you may see in your backyard in Melbourne, is what makes a story successful. It’s where we get to know a brand in a totally different way. Alaska’s Katmai National Park is now a global brand; and who now doesn’t want to go there now?

It’s not just animals: When the Suez Canal was blocked in 2021 by the megaship Ever Given and became an international sensation, the tracking website istheshipstillstuck.com was briefly the most-visited website in the world. The situation wasn’t exactly great for their brand – but we all probably learned more about the global supply chain through that website and Ever Given memes than any number of campaigns or articles. Memes are one of the most powerful ways to get cut-through today.

Events like Fat Bear Week and the Guardian Bird Poll (or even the Suez Canal mishap) show us parts of the world we don’t often think about. We learn more about animals’ habitats, their eating habits and the impact of the seasons. They foster a new kind of understanding, and they give us a hero to root for. They’re cross-generational – ironically, competitions unite people, not divide them.

Of course, we’re in the midst of a climate crisis, and that will always impact how we talk about the natural world. Like many of you I was saddened to read that the honeyeater has lost its songbecause there are so few remaining. But we need a space to breathe and a way to engage with the natural world that isn’t completely focused on guilt, fear, and doomerism. Your audience will tune out otherwise – wouldn’t you?

The stories that come from these polls ignite a totally different discussion. They are far more powerful and effective. They build an authentic connection with your audience, no matter who or where they are.

Have you looked inside your organisation and thought – what crazy, quirky thing can I do? Why not draw inspiration from some of these?

• Mister Splashy Pants the whale, who was named in a Greenpeace poll – and became the subject of a TEDTalk by Reddit founder Alexis Ohanian, “How to make a splash in social media”
• We can’t not mention Boaty McBoatface – the OG of internet poll hilarity
• NORAD’s Santa tracker – not strictly a poll, but an international phenomenon
• The Discovery Channel’s Shark Week
• “Which animal could you beat in a fight?”

Inspiring me this week… photographer and director Nick Brandt

I love these haunting photographs taken by Nick Brandt as part of his most recent series, SINK / RISE. Since 2001, Brandt has been documenting the natural world and the impact of climate change and human activity. Both beautiful and deeply sad, his photos are a kind of memorial to the life we’re losing as a result of environmental destruction, whether it’s animals displaced from their habitat, degrading ecosystems or human livelihood.

In his own words: “In April of this year, I travelled to Fiji to photograph SINK / RISE, the third chapter of The Day May Break. The series was photographed underwater off the coast of the Fijian islands. The local people in these photos are representatives of the many South Pacific Islanders whose homes, land and livelihoods will be lost in the coming decades as the water rises from climate change.”

We’re obsessed with… National Park Service

The United States’ National Park Service has a fabulously sassy social presence, starting with their Instagram bio: Don’t pet the fluffy cows.🦬

In 2022, 312 million people visited national parks in the United States recreationally. To put it mildly, it’s a big job keeping visitors safe, let alone protecting the local flora and fauna. I’m a big fan of their social-media style, which combines spicy memes and relatable language to keep the posts relevant, interesting and entertaining. It’s a particularly effective strategy to avoid seeming stuffy and staid when sharing safety reminders – and to stay engaged with their audience.

Other news

• During climate week in New York City, 75,000 people took to the streets to protest climate change. As the kids say… you absolutely love to see it.
• With a title like, “Golf course living leads to a diet shift for American alligators,” how could I scroll past? Researchers found that golf-adjacent ‘gators had a notably different diet from their wilder counterparts, including cheeseburgers and fries, canned corn, and, er, a cat.
• Exploring new links between witchcraft, work and women, a decade-long study at the University of Cambridge catalogued and digitised more than 80,000 case notes made in the 17th century. “Women’s work saw them become the first line of defence against corruption, and this put them at risk of being labelled as witches when their efforts failed.” So… same old, same old?
• An interview with Dr. Frances Brodsky, a cell biologist at University College London, co-founder of journal Traffic, and the author of three mystery novels. You know, just a standard, run-of-the-mill career!