Each fall and early winter, hundreds of cold-stunned sea turtles wash up on the beaches of Cape Cod. Because of the rapidly changing water temperature and wind pattern, many turtles cannot escape the hook-like area of Cape Cod Bay and become hypothermic. Staff and volunteers from Massachusetts Audubon Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary walk the beaches along Cape Cod Bay in search of cold-stunned turtles, which are then transported to the New England Aquarium’s Sea Turtle Hospital in Quincy, MA. The sea turtles are often critically ill and require a variety of medical treatments to ensure they have the best chance for survival, sometimes needing weeks or even months of care before they can be released back into the ocean.
When a sea turtle arrives at the Aquarium’s Sea Turtle Hospital, staff perform a thorough evaluation, including a physical exam, bloodwork, and X-rays. So far in the 2024 season, Aquarium staffers have treated over 500 live sea turtles—over 80 percent of which are Kemp’s ridleys, a critically endangered species that faces threats such as climate change, ocean pollution, and habitat degradation.
Each year, the Teak Media team works closely with the New England Aquarium to raise awareness about this work through a coordinated media effort. This year, the story was even more critical: the Aquarium’s 2024 Giving Tuesday campaign focused on raising funds to support this vital sea turtle conservation work. We knew the campaign could be more successful and fruitful if we could make a media splash leading up to the holiday.
To achieve this, we coordinated with the Aquarium’s rescue and rehabilitation team to set up a media day so that reporters could see the work at the Sea Turtle Hospital in action. Understanding that the number of turtles in the hospital couldn’t be predetermined (rescues depend on weather and other factors), our teams did extensive preparation to activate at a moment’s notice.
We drafted both a media advisory inviting reporters to the media day and a post event press release with photos and video to share the story more broadly. Throughout Teak Media’s 16-year partnership with the Aquarium, we’ve built strong relationships with local media outlets and reporters that formed the foundation of our media list. We also compiled a secondary list of local and national reporters to whom we’d send the post-event press release. When we got the call at the end of November that hospital was treating over 150 turtles, and expecting over 50 more to arrive soon, we were ready and quickly sprang into action.
Example image that we shared with the media. Photo credit: Vanessa Kahn, New England Aquarium
Through a combination of personalized email pitching and phone calls, these efforts led to the most attended media day that the Aquarium has had for the cold-stunned sea turtles. Reporters and photographers from the Cape Cod Times, Boston Globe, Boston Herald, NBC Boston, WBZ Newsradio, WBZ, WCVB, WHDH, and local NPR stations all attended the media day.
Once those stories began publishing, we pitched the press release to our broader list, which generated unprecedented media interest. Not only was the local interest strong, but it was quickly clear that the story had national legs too. In tandem with the Aquarium team, we facilitated interviews with national media outlets like the Associated Press, ABC World News Tonight with David Muir, The Weather Channel, NPR: All Things Considered, and NPR: Morning Edition. These articles led to many syndications, with pick up on The Today Show, in local news stations across the country, and more.
In just two days, our efforts drove 844 mentions, a reach of 2.6 billion, and a publicity value of $1.9 million. Within one week, this increased to over a thousand mentions, 3.6 billion in reach, and a publicity value of $2.3 million. Media attention also helped to double the average weekly traffic to the
New England Aquarium’s sea turtle rescue and rehabilitation webpage. Average engagement time per active user also significantly went up the week of Giving Tuesday—increasing by 473% from the typical average engagement time on that page. These numbers show just how many people this story reached.
This campaign wasn’t just a success in terms of raising awareness—it also contributed to the Aquarium’s most successful Giving Tuesday ever, doubling the number of fundraising contributions compared to the previous year. Thanks to both web analytics and donor emails and phone calls, we could tell that many of these donors had read an article on cold stunning and it motivated them to donate. Someone who had read an article even asked if they could list the Aquarium as a beneficiary on their will! These funds will allow the Aquarium rescue and rehabilitation team to continue its great work in providing critical care to these turtles and broader ocean conservation work.
Media isn’t just a tool to raise awareness; it can also be a powerful tool that nonprofits can utilize to meet fundraising goals. We’re excited to continue our work telling this important story and building upon the momentum we generated this winter.
