While GetUp! and its mates couldn't get a billboard placed at Brisbane airport, they did manage to pull off a full-page ad in The Australian.
The grassroots advocacy group, along with nine other groups, has placed a full page ad in the broadsheet calling on four major banks to halt funding to Indian company Andani's coal project, which will see coal exported through Abbott Point in Queensland.
The group funded the ad from member donations, in conjunction with nine other organisations in an effort to grab the attention of the main four Australian banks funding the project.
GetUp! put out a call for member donations, gathering about 2500 in a 24-hour period.
Senior campaigner Sam Regester told AdNews this morning that while this was the first ad it had placed in The Australian, that it wasn't the only broadsheet ad it had placed in the hopes of halting Adani's project.
"We had great success when we placed an ad with the Financial Times of Europe, so we're really hoping lightning strikes twice," he said.
Earlier this year the organisation, together with a German advocacy group, placed a full-page ad in the financial broadsheet in an effort to stop German bank Deutsche Bank from lending funds to the project.
The bank subsequently refused to fund the project, and while Regester said it couldn't solely be put down to the ad, the placement of the message in a financial publication called the bank out.
"This is what the bank and people connected to the bank were reading, this is what they saw when they picked up the paper. That's a really powerful tool to reach people in that organisation and to call them out," he said.
While Regester said the ultimate aim of the The Australian ad would be for the four banks mentioned in the ad to stop its funding of the project, raising awareness was the first aim.
"It's really about making sure they know the Australian people, who are major shareholders in those banks, won't stand for the banks' funding of the project," he said.
While social media has traditionally been the playground of grassroots activism, this isn't the first time GetUp! Has placed an ad in a mainstream financial paper in Australia.
Earlier this year it placed a full page ad in The Australian Financial Review, taking aim at Santos and its Narrabri coal seam gas project.
While Santos is still proceeding with the project, Regester said he was hopeful the Andani campaign would have an impact for the group.
"Social media is really our bread and butter, but we wouldn't rule out doing more placements in mainstream media," he said. "The newspaper ads...they don't have a wider readership than our social media campaigns but they reach people who wouldn't normally connect with us that way."
He also added having a full-page ad in The Australian would be the best way to call out the banks.
"Having that full-page ad is a really bold statement of intent," he added.
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Stylerunner switches to omnichannel tech
David Scribner appears on Marketing Dividends
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