award of merit
jg@sukle.com
Four hundred thousand dollars. That was the paid media budget for a campaign that needed to get an entire city to change its behavior on the most politically charged issue in America. In just 3 months, it delivered $263,000 in earned media value, 58% campaign awareness, and a 24.7% increase in Denverites planning to take new climate-friendly actions. The budget would not have bought a single prime-time national TV spot.
The context made the challenge sharper. In 2025, states and municipalities across the country were going quiet on climate—pulling back language, softening commitments, so as to not to draw federal attention.
Denver did the opposite. Our city’s Office of Climate Action, Sustainability and Resiliency came to Sukle and said: we want every resident in this city to feel like they are part of the climate solution. All 716,000 of them.
Sukle’s Listening Tour—the same community-level research process the agency has refined over 30 years—surfaced a common refrain: people wanted to help, but they did not know what to do. The resulting campaign, “Do More. Do Less. Do Something,” answered that frustration with radical simplicity. Do more of what helps the planet and our communities. Do less of what hurts them. No matter what, just do something.
The simplicity of the rallying cry was intentional, because the specificity lived everywhere else. More than 70 individual climate actions were placed across 200+ locations around Denver—on billboards, transit posters, LED-lit landmarks, and sidewalks. The goal was to make climate action feel omnipresent and normal, replacing the isolation of individual guilt with the energy of collective momentum.
The executions that got people talking were the ones where the medium became the message:
• Pollution-free pedicab rides demonstrated low-carbon transportation in real time
• Permanently installed “Do More”– shaped bike racks turned public infrastructure into functional climate art
• Campaign billboard vinyls upcycled into branded Denver Climate Project tote bags
• Our partners at Goodwill Colorado produced an upcycled fashion collection—wearable proof that sustainability does not require sacrifice
Denverite covered the campaign as “An ad campaign with a controversial idea: You can do something about climate change.” Colorado Public Radio and Denver7 followed.
The numbers landed above plan across the board:
• $263,000 in earned media value — nearly 2/3 of the paid budget
• 58% campaign awareness generated in just 3 months
• 68% of respondents said the campaign makes them want to take new climate action
• 24.7% increase in residents planning new climate-friendly actions in the next 90 days
• 2 min 30 sec average time on campaign website — extraordinary for a government initiative
• Yale’s Program on Climate Change said The Denver Climate Project was among the most strategic and comprehensive municipal climate communication efforts worldwide.
One city. One small agency. Four hundred thousand dollars. 716,000 people motivated to make their personal dent in the climate crisis.
