Hasta La Ideas

Not content with helping get Gordon Brown and other world leaders to the UN Climate Change Conference with its Rise Up Twitterstorm in September, Bristol-based BeThatChange (BTC), the ‘open source’ pressure group, has now set its sights even higher. With its new Get Hope to Cope campaign, it aims to get Twitter’s highest profile user, @BarackObama, no stranger to the power of social media himself, to also attend.

BTC is an organisation made up of a small team of creative freelancers and volunteers, mainly from the design and advertising industry. Its Identity and distinctive illustrations have been created by Mike Cannings, who also worked on the website with fellow designer Paul Mills (Good Morning Please) and developer Derek Ahmedzai (NC10, Monkey Mountain).

The BTC website, designed by Mike Cannings and Paul Mills with development by Derek Ahmedzai and copy by project founder Kieran Battles

Some of Mike Cannings’ illustrations for BTC and its Twitterstorm campaigns

Ray Morrow, who volunteers with BTC, says, “When you’ve only a couple of seconds to catch eyes and imaginations, design really matters. That’s why we’ve applied everything we’ve learned in advertising to the campaigning arena – we hope that by creating a visually appealing model that lets people campaign in a click, even the most disengaged will get involved and make change happen.”

The campaign has the support of many eminent Tweeters, including @StephenFry, and also charities and NGOs such as Greenpeace, Oxfam, TckTckTck and PlaneStupid.

The hashtags being used for the campaign are #Hope2Cope and #Cop15 and you can add your weight by registering at bethatchange.com