CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
A cloud seems to be looming over the recycling industry today. No matter where you turn, the reigning attitude seems about the same — the future of recycling is in trouble.
THE NEXT ECONOMY -
Hey Coca-Cola, how about redirecting your advertising budget for a year to help save the planet?That is the ask of the group Buy the World a Hope, an “independent group of people who believe that there must be new ways to substantially help the world, to work with the system and benefit the planet.”Buy the World a Hope aims to revolutionize marketing. Its website, available in 15 languages, asks visitors to sign an open letter to the CEO of Coca-Cola, urging the company to quit its $3 billion advertising spending budget for one year and direct that money toward protecting rainforests.
MARKETING AND COMMS -
B2B companies often see themselves as the dry toast to B2Cs’ Belgian waffles dripping with whipped cream and berries. And when we talk about making sustainability sexy, they may think it doesn’t apply to them. But it does.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
NYC/London-based production company Casual Films believes we have entered “a new era in branded communications.” As Managing Director Barnaby Cook asserts in a video on the company’s website: “In the future, all successful businesses will have to be sustainable.” Not only does the award-winning company help organizations tell their sustainability stories, Casual’s got one of its own, and Cook recently told us more about how his company aims to use the power of video to help responsible companies influence society and change the world.
MARKETING AND COMMS -
The television remains one of the most vital tools available to “green” marketers. From product placement to paid commercial spots, getting your product, service or mission featured on TV is an invaluable way to bring your company’s messaging directly into people’s living rooms. Unfortunately that precious ad space isn’t cheap, and for smaller, purpose-driven companies such as TerraCycle, the costs are simply too high. Even so, that hasn’t stopped us from trying to secure our own fair share of the TV spotlight.
MARKETING AND COMMS -
LAG:A period of time: a noticeable delay between action and reaction – Failing to keep up with another or others in movement or developmentJAG: A short period of overindulgence in an activity: a shopping jag: a crying jag. A stab; an intense and concentrated movement or actionI increasingly find myself at a very particular and exciting intersection.I find myself there not by accident but by design: having helped build a methodology that reaps its greatest rewards at the point where applied science and commercial creativity collide.
MARKETING AND COMMS -
A new video on humor website Funny or Die satirizes the unhealthy lunches served in American schools. Produced by the American Heart Association (AHA), the piece features comedian Nick Offerman as a “food expert” leading a farm tour full of greasy fare, including pizza vines and taquito trees.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE -
While major restaurant chains including McDonald’s, Subway, Panera and Taco Bell have recently begun to move away from unpronouncable, unfamiliar ingredients such as propionic acid and Yellow No.
MARKETING AND COMMS -
WWF and Unilever have announced a one-year, international partnership to engage consumers in the fight against deforestation — one of the key drivers of climate change — with the goal of protecting a million trees.The partnership between the world’s leading conservation organization and the consumer goods giant aims to raise awareness of the importance of forests to life on earth as well as the threats our forests face.
MARKETING AND COMMS -
This year, the hearts ran wild in Cannes. And I’m not hinting at the mysterious couple having an amicable rendezvous in the early hours of the morning on the red carpet in front of the Palais, but at the fact that the gathered Mad Men seem to have grown soft and developed a real love for making a difference. Who would have ever expected that from the same people who’ve given us ads like, “More doctors smoke Camels than any other cigarette!” or “For a better start in life, start cola earlier!”Advertising is the single largest psychological experiment
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
TerraCycle has always approached marketing in an unconventional way. We have to, really, considering the success of our business model is dependent on how engaged and motivated our consumers are. In a world with so many conflicts and globally relevant issues, getting people to realize the scope and scale of some of our most serious environmental issues is always an uphill battle.
LEADERSHIP -
Novo Nordisk, in partnership with the Kenyan Ministry of Health and the Kenya Diabetes Management and Information Center, has launched a six-month diabetes awareness campaign in Nairobi to promote early diagnosis through screening, especially among low-income populations.The campaign’s message — ‘It takes only five seconds to get your blood sugar tested’ — is backed up with diabetes screening and education at public health care facilities and faith-based organizations in selected counties including Nairobi.
MARKETING AND COMMS -
Can humor save us? Today, the Guardian launched a new multimedia series on climate change that aims to drive the public conversation, debate and action on climate change by making its readers laugh. “Too Hot to Handle,” which encourages readers to take “a lighter look at the dark problem of climate change,” was created in partnership with Ben and Jerry’s and will run through December 2015.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
We marketers can be obsessed with generational trends. How many meetings have you had lately on what Millennials think of your brand? Or what Generation Z means for your digital strategy?And yet, while important, we may be asking the wrong questions — or at least seeking insights and revelations in the wrong place.
THE NEXT ECONOMY -
“Use your city as a platform,” opened moderator and CSO for the City of Palo Alto Gil Friend.While local governments have gotten the bad reputation of being slow, bureaucratic animals, the panelists, representing four major cities across the United States — including Los Angeles and New York City- presented the business case for corporations to integrate their sustainability efforts with their cities for the success of shared goals.
STAKEHOLDER TRENDS AND INSIGHTS -
Following an energy-filled morning at SB ‘15 San Diego, David Hawksworth of Given London kicked off an afternoon workshop by asking, “How do we combine the skills of marketing and sustainability professionals?”
MARKETING AND COMMS -
Reputation, in a world where social media is the mainstream, can no longer be seen as just a “hygiene” issue where corporate comms and PR agencies handle a few annoying but easily identifiable stakeholders. Instead, when the whole online world can see and comment on your dirty laundry, reputation actually becomes a fundamental part of sustainability. Not least because, all too often, a corporate transgression has a direct effect on the wellbeing of customers, greater society or the planet.
MARKETING AND COMMS -
Last week, just as TOMS Shoes began enabling socially conscious shoppers to make an impact — for free — through its One Day Without Shoes campaign, WWF launched its first ever emoji-based crowdfunding campaign to help support the organization’s work to protect endangered species and their habitats.
MARKETING AND COMMS -
Bulging biceps, spray-tans, beer bongs, and a plea to save a sub-culture enshrined on the Jersey Shore: This is not your typical dairy ad. And yet that is what made Organic Valley’s "Save the Bros" campaign so breakthrough when it launched last month.
MARKETING AND COMMS -
The Canadian Fair Trade Network (CFTN), a non-profit organization that works with civil society and industry stakeholders to advance awareness and support for fair trade in Canada, has teamed up with Rethink Canada on a series of clothing labels highlighting the devastating conditions that persist for many workers in garment factories around the world.The powerful ad campaign, “The Label Doesn’t Tell the Whole Story,” depicts clothing tags on a suit jacket, sweater and hoodie that reveal much more than the size and fabric mix of the garments (click to enlarge images).