Sustainability communication has a default setting. The scale of the problem is stated, the trend line is shown, and the audience is left to work out what any of it has to do with them.
The Marine Stewardship Council's campaign took the opposite route. It used key awareness moments, including World Ocean Day, World Tuna Day, International Women's Day and World Fisheries Day, to tell year-round stories about sustainable fishing and ocean conservation, aimed at consumers, seafood lovers, ocean advocates and anyone interested in making more sustainable choices.
What made it distinctive was the focus on the people behind the issue. Instead of leading with facts and figures, the team highlighted fishers, fisheries, scientists and coastal communities, combining human-centred storytelling, video-first content and audience insights to make complex sustainability topics easier to understand and more engaging. The result was stronger engagement and a more positive, solutions-focused conversation about the future of the oceans.
A deliberate change of approach
The honest starting position was that MSC's social media was not reaching its full potential. Posting was inconsistent, and opportunities to connect people with the work happening behind sustainable fishing were being missed.
Social media was changing at the same time, with audiences wanting more video, more authentic stories and content that felt relevant to them. Over the past twelve months the team rethought how it uses the channels entirely, moving away from sporadic, campaign-led posting towards a consistent, audience-first approach built on human stories and ocean voices.
Performance data shaped what that looked like. People engaged most with content about overfishing, climate change, biodiversity and fish as food, and those four subjects became the content pillars. The team supported the shift with a video-first approach, social SEO, a stronger tone of voice and consistent posting, and chose to highlight the people creating solutions rather than focusing only on the challenges.
A small team with global reach
The team compares itself to the oceans it works to protect, each member with their own strengths but all connected and moving towards the same goal.
Chris, Head of Content, is the Atlantic Ocean, the connector who brings people, projects and ideas together, keeps content moving, spots opportunities, removes roadblocks and makes sure that when several priorities are flowing at once they all reach their destination. Leonor, Communications Officer, is the Pacific Ocean, vast and energetic, with an ability to get things done, a finger on the pulse of what is happening online and creativity and momentum in everything she touches. Nandi, Senior Global Social Media Manager, is the Indian Ocean, warm and vibrant, calm on the surface while powering huge ecosystems beneath, leading MSC's social strategy and turning complex sustainability topics into stories that connect with audiences.
People connect with people
The campaign Nandi singles out is A Day in the Life of a Fisher, made for World Fisheries Day. The idea came from wanting to put fishers at the centre of the conversation and give audiences genuine insight into their daily lives. Fishers have historically been a difficult audience for the organisation to engage, so seeing the campaign embraced by the fishing community and perform strongly across the channels was particularly rewarding.
The clearest lesson was that people connect with people rather than organisations. The best-performing content was not necessarily the most polished or the most technical, but the content that put real human experience at the centre of the story.
The team also learned the value of bringing stakeholders into the creative process, because campaigns were strongest when fishers, partners and colleagues felt ownership of the content and actively helped amplify it. The third lesson was to keep experimenting, since some ideas exceeded expectations and others did not, but every test produced insight that made the next piece of content better.
Being shortlisted, in the team's view, recognises the journey as much as the results. The change of direction required challenging existing ways of working, bringing colleagues and stakeholders along and taking risks on new ideas and formats, and the recognition extends to everyone who contributed, from colleagues across MSC to the fishers, fisheries, partners and ocean advocates who trusted the team to tell their stories.
What follows is scaling what has been learned while continuing to innovate, with more stories from fishers, fisheries, scientists and coastal communities and further investment in video and social-first storytelling. The team is also expanding its work with influencers and trusted creators to bring sustainable fishing and seafood conversations into new spaces, and preparing to launch MSC's TikTok channel to reach younger audiences. The ambition is for MSC to become one of the most trusted, engaging and recognisable voices on ocean sustainability, helping more people understand the role they can play through the seafood choices they make.
The winner of In-House Team at the Social Media Marketing Awards will be announced at the awards ceremony on 8 October in London.