How brands are evolving in the area of sustainability marketing and communications — and how their stakeholders are asserting their own needs and preferences.
Leaving Cannes last week, I felt even more schizophrenic than I did during my hard-working years in ad land. On the one hand, it’s been the best year ever in the Festival’s history for advertising that does more than sell snake oil - call it ‘Goodvertising,’ if you will. On the other, it seems like most agencies and marketers are treating the biggest issues of our time as a new trend, as if doing good is simply the ‘new black’ or perhaps pink (judging from the number of women’s equality campaigns on show).
Mayors of 52 of the world’s largest cities, representing more than 275 million citizens, have called upon G20 leaders to address climate change at the upcoming G20 Summit.
How do we stop climate change? This is the question of our generation: If we can answer it, we can stop the worst from happening — megadroughts, famine, cities sunk beneath the sea, and more.
Eight million tons of plastic trash find their way into the world’s oceans every year. If this trend continues, there could be more plastic than fish in the sea by 2050 according to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. Considerable action is required to avoid this fate, but more and more organizations are beginning to step up to the plate. Creative campaigns that seek to engage consumers through multi-media and innovative products are proving to be an effective way to reach and educate wide audiences quickly, accelerating the uptake of behaviors and actions that could spur meaningful change.
Google and Common Ground — an alliance of six major advertising holding companies — believe Generation Z could be the key to unlocking an SDG-aligned future. To drive widespread awareness and mobilize action among mission-driven youth around the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda, the two organizations have launched The Common Future Project action campaign.
The Climate Leadership Council (CLC), an international policy institute whose mission is to mobilize global leaders around effective and equitable climate solutions, has launched a new ad campaign promoting its proposed carbon tax.
A majority of business leaders believe in the value of a strong corporate purpose and only a minority say their company’s main purpose is to maximize shareholder value says a new report by EY. Based on a survey of 1,470 global leaders representing companies across various industries in developed and emerging markets around the world, the report reveals that purpose, not profit, is the key to success amid a turbulent global economy.
In recent years, Unilever has distinguished itself both as a champion for sustainability and overcoming gender bias with campaigns, initiatives and internal actions that work to align the company’s products and purpose. Further building on this reputation, the consumer goods giant has launched a new global alliance aimed at eliminating stereotypical portrayals of gender in advertising and all brand-led content.
Putting its Sustainability 2022 strategy into action, Kimberly-Clark has ramped up its relationship with environmental NGO World Wildlife Fund (WWF) with the launch of its new "♥ YOUR PLANET" ("HEART YOUR PLANET") campaign. Designed to encourage consumers to choose products made with fiber from responsibly managed forests, the campaign will display WWF’s logo on Kimberly-Clark paper towel, facial tissue and toilet paper products sold in North America.
The people have spoken. The results of enso’s 2017 World Value Index are in and brands such as Amazon, Goodwill, Google, World Wildlife Fund and Dove came out on top.
Each year on a global scale 30-50 percent of food produced goes to waste, $750 billion worth of food is thrown away and, in the United States alone, 35 million tons of food are discarded. The statistics surrounding food waste are staggering, but governments, NGOs and businesses alike are increasingly taking action to raise awareness for the problem, drive innovation and reduce waste along the value chain.
New research out of the London School of Economics should wake up many in the food industry. In a first-of-its-kind experiment, Linda Bacon – a graduate student in behavioral science and former Global Strategy Director at Mars, Incorporated – tested whether placing plant-based dishes in a separate vegetarian section on restaurant menus influenced ordering. The study’s findings have important implications for how the food industry might move more people to eat healthier and more sustainably, and may just change how we talk about plant-based foods.
Gridlock - being stuck in a seemingly intractable situation - can come in many forms. It can be a colleague who refuses to believe in climate change, or an executive who, for reasons hard to understand, is holding back progress on a key sustainability initiative at your company. But it is undoubtedly something anyone working in sustainability has encountered more than once.
After London air pollution levels surpassed allowed limits for 2017 just five days into the new year, new initiatives to improve air quality and draw attention to the city’s growing pollution problem have been popping up on the regular.
For several years now, Bob Willard, former IBM exec and current sustainability “guru,” has been working to create a resource to help sustainability champions break through to senior leadership and accelerate change within the business world. Last week, on day one of SB’17 Detroit, it officially launched.
Recent research clearly indicates that today’s stakeholders expect more from companies — they want to purchase from and work for companies that champion sustainability. This shift in attitude is dramatically altering the way that companies conduct (and even think about) their businesses.
Cross-Posted from Walking the Talk. Day two of SB'17 Detroit picked up the momentum from day one and ran with it. ... Transforming Consumption Norms Around Food By Hope Freedman
“Culture moves faster than brands and companies,” 2 Dope Boys co-founders Michael Brooks and Phil McKenzie said in their Monday morning workshop at SB’17 Detroit. As the antenna and point of translation that operates between culture and business, 2 Dope Boys imparts the importance of bringing cultural and historical context to uncover the true problem within organizations.
The two biggest disrupting forces transforming the market today are technology and sustainability, yet many marketers still don’t see sustainability as a priority. Sustainability has a business problem that needs to be addressed. Research by Ricardo Caceres, former Global Marketing Director of Sustainability at The Coca-Cola Company; and Omar Rodriguez-Vila, Professor at Georgia Tech Scheller College of Business, identified three core reasons:
SB’17 Detroit is bringing thousands of sustainability professionals together this week to ask one question - what is the role of business in fostering and creating the Good Life? On Day 1 of the conference, BBMG and Lululemon explored this question with a group of curious, passionate sustainability professionals. Using BBMG’s methodology, we all became designers for a few short hours to develop programs and promotions that would authentically connect with the brand’s consumers and enable both to live their purpose.