Fixing the relationship between ourselves and our planet needs a world of storytellers, innovators, advocates and changemakers. But right now, they don’t have the tools they need to unleash change on a global scale.
We want to change that and by doing so energise and scale up communications around the causes of and solutions to the planetary emergency.
Over the next 10 years the world’s top documentary filmmakers and data scientists will record our world as it changes and responds to the climate and nature crisis. We will film the wonder, the impacts and the solutions. We will pair these images with data visualizations and scientific references on an open-source platform where anyone can easily find what they need to create trusted, high quality visual content to change their world.
We have created a new registered Community Interest Company and are looking for a highly experienced and passionate Communications and Content Manager to help Open Planet to scale up quickly.
Open Planet has been established by documentary producers Silverback (www.silverbackfilms.tv) and the data scientists behind EarthTime (http://earthtime.org). It has founding partnerships with University of Exeter and WWF to help guide our focus to deliver the maximum impact and accuracy.
Role Purpose and Skillset
Open Planet wants to provide storytellers and communicators around the world with the best possible visual materials to tell the story of our changing planet.
Our end users could be working for large organisations, small charities or simply be individuals trying to make an impact. Their audiences could be online, at events or in classrooms and in any country on Earth communicating in any language.
We are looking for an exceptional communications expert looking to deliver big change whilst working in a small organisation.
We are looking for someone who has hands on experience of content creation and content management and can really think about what our end users need and their user experience of navigating and using Open Planet. That could include social media or digital content, news, longer form or even events and education. The important thing is you can draw on your experience to understand and anticipate what our users might need.
Partnerships are vital to Open Planet’s success. These partnerships could be non-commercial with NGO’s, UN bodies and education departments or commercial partners who are using our content for events, broadcast, or exhibits. This role will work closely with our Partnerships Director to deliver on the communications aspects and potential of these partnerships. As such the ideal candidate will be experienced at working on the content and communications delivery of partnerships and good at building relationships with a variety of different stakeholders.
Key Responsibilities include:
- Embedding an ‘audience-first’ approach to our work– bringing audience insights into everything we do and making sure everything about Open Planet makes it as easy and efficient as possible for our end users around the world to achieve impact.
- Constantly monitoring and evaluating how our content is used and anticipating what our users will need in the near future.
- Working with experts across Open Planet’s founding organizations (Silverback, Earthtime and All3Media) to project manage the delivery of content needed for Open Planet’s partnerships and projects.
- Managing all communications channels to our end users and developing Open Planet marketing activities to reach key partner audiences.
Whilst we don’t see Open Planet as a big public brand, it is vital that those we want to use our content hear about Open Planet and see its’ potential to help them.
As such we will work with high profile creators to showcase Open Planet content, have focused campaigns in priority markets, be present at major events and create partnerships that showcase Open Planet content in an impactful way. We are looking for someone to come in and help prioritize and build the communications channels that are most important to reaching our end users.
- Managing the content structure and user journey on openplanet.org
This is our window to our end users. Their user experience needs to work for a variety of different audiences, to educate and illustrate the potential uses of Open Planet content, showcase the best of what’s been created and surface relevant content at the right time.
There is technical and back end support available so we are not looking for a web designer, but rather someone who understands how to build content packages and the needs of the different users who will visit openplanet.org
- Working closely with the Director of Partnerships to identify, develop and deliver the partnerships that will both reach our end users and bring in the funding relationships to help build Open Planet
- Working in tandem with the Director of Operations to ensure we are effectively using our time and resources to reach key markets with Open Planet content, support our users and ultimately achieve the most impact.
Key Characteristics
Open Planet is a small organisation operating at a very high level. This means we are looking for a particular type of person for this role.
You will be regularly dealing with some of the most senior people at media companies, UN bodies, NGO’s, broadcasters, foundations, and corporate sponsors. This means we are looking for someone very confident and credible in those relationships. However Open Planet will always remain a relatively small organisation so we won’t have big departments with lots of people in them. This means bureaucracy is low but it also means we need self-starters who are willing to roll up their sleeves when something needs to be done or make very good and efficient use of consultants or short term project workers.
Main Relationships
The Communications and Content Manager will work extremely closely with:
- Open Planet’s Director of Partnerships
- Open Planet’s Director of Operations
- The Executive Producer and Production Managers at Silverback
- The Director of EarthTime
- Senior members of All3Media
- Open Planet’s shareholders
- Open Planet’s Board
They will report to the Chair of Open Planet’s Board
Working Environment
This role reports to the Director of Partnerships with direct support and mentoring from the Head of Communications at Silverback. You will have access as needed to the teams at Silverback and EarthTime as well as Board members. A core principle of Open Planet is to trust our team and not create unnecessary process or bureaucracy. As such you will have the freedom to work at pace but support where needed.
We are very consious that faced with the scale of the climate and nature crisis it is all too easy to try do everything and the Board will support the successful candidate in effectively prioritising the best use of Open Planet’s resources and the long term wellbeing of the team.
We are happy to discuss flexible working arrangements and we want Open Planet to be an inclusive employer particularly welcoming applicants from diverse backgrounds and under-represented groups.
To make sure that we’re inclusive and accessible to all, please let us know if you require any reasonable adjustments or assistance if you’re coming to see us.
Please note most of the core functions of Open Planet (at least in our first couple of years) will take place on a GMT timezone and require regular in-person meetings in Bristol and London. As such our expectation is the successful applicant will be UK based.
Closing date for applications is 31st March.