Thomas Kolster
Thomas Kolster is a frontrunner and one of the most recognised thinkers globally where marketing, business and sustainability meet.
He’s an international keynote speaker who has featured in over 70 countries for companies like Facebook, P&G, and IKEA, to conferences like TEDx.
As author of Goodvertising (2012) and The Hero Trap (2020), he writes for the likes of The Guardian, Ad Age, and Adweek. Thomas continues to drive industry change through his active participation in leading forums, such as The International Advertising Association’s Sustainability Council and D&AD’s Impact Council.
Thomas Kolster is tagged in 28 stories.
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Marketing and Comms /
Accurately measuring, tracking, comparing and reporting impacts for the process of producing, filming, displaying and running ads will be crucial for the industry to play its part in solving one of the big challenges of our time. - 3 months ago
Marketing and Comms /
Product, product, product drove Super Bowl commercials this year; purpose and ESG communication were largely left on the bench. - 3 months ago
Marketing and Comms /
The heat is on — from Greenpeace protesting Cannes to concerned citizens and legislative pressure — for advertisers to make their work count for more than selling more products to the Western world. Here are six key takeaways from this year’s Cannes Lions, and how your campaigns can be and do better. - 11 months ago
Marketing and Comms /
Joint research by GfK and the Goodvertising Agency reveals value of 'transformational campaigns that empower consumers, rather than those that tout
product attributes. - 11 months ago
Behavior Change /
To kick off the final day of Brand-Led Culture
Change, attendees were treated to a broad series of examples, from a wide swath of experts, of clever strategies that lead to behavior change. - 11 months ago
Marketing and Comms /
The happiness of buying new shoes is a short-lived dopamine kick, whereas finding better ways of living in balance with yourself adds lifelong value. It’s time to create a new offering: Who can you help people become? - 1 year ago
Marketing and Comms /
Super Bowl LV wasn’t a year in which brands showed leadership with their sustainability messaging; but after the divisiveness, the climate emergency and the rampaging health crisis of 2020, it was a relief to have a laugh. - 2 years ago
Marketing and Comms /
2020’s winners cover topics ranging from calculating product carbon footprints, regenerative farming, healthier food and reusable packaging to DEI, supporting businesses during COVID and more. - 2 years ago
Marketing and Comms /
In his new book, The Hero Trap, Thomas Kolster says rather than promoting what’s good about their company or products, brands need to shift their focus to their customers — specifically, their brand’s role in helping its customers transform their lives. - 2 years ago
Walking the Talk /
Internationally recognised speaker and author Thomas Kolster, also known as Mr. Goodvertising, takes a hatchet to his earlier beliefs around purpose-driven brands in a new book, “The Hero Trap.” He says the one question brands need to be asking and acting on to change behaviors at scale and unlock sustainable growth that benefits all is ‘Who can you help people become?’ - 2 years ago
Marketing and Comms /
When it comes to Coronavirus, the climate emergency or any other disaster, we shouldn’t antagonize; rather, we should empathise. If we learn to see beyond the
tips of our noses and adopt a global empathy, we'll be able to tackle this virus — and the even bigger crisis of the climate emergency. - 3 years ago
Marketing and Comms /
At least the game was fun to watch, because this year’s commercials make the United Nations’ sixth edition of the Global Environment Outlook report seem like interesting reading. This year, corporate America chose to laugh rather than voice an opinion. - 3 years ago
Marketing and Comms /
We shouldn’t lure people into buying more than they need; but rather, help people make it all add up to a more meaningful life. Brands might be able to keep afloat on a short-term strategy and hide behind a cloak of innocence, but every dinosaur step is one closer to extinction. - 3 years ago
The Next Economy /
In the first gathering of the SB community in Uruguay, change agents from a wide swath of perspectives shared their visions of what’s necessary to course-correct our way to a healthy, flourishing future — and where the power really lies in driving change. - 3 years ago
Marketing and Comms /
A behind-the-scenes look from a Sustainable Development Goals jury member at last week's Cannes Lions. - 3 years ago
Marketing and Comms /
Quick laughs, bad jokes, celebrities — but very few with a message - 4 years ago
Walking the Talk /
So, what do a slave-free chocolate brand, an activist bank and a blindfolded panel of diversity experts have in common? - 4 years ago
Marketing and Comms /
It was a sad Super Bowl. Sad, as only Trump can say it. Saaad. One minute I had a cunning, fast-talking clown trying to sell me stuff in true ad-land fashion. The next, I felt emotionally mistreated by a sobbing stranger playing curling with my heart. Corporate America appeared not to care at all — and if it did, it cared too much — which is exactly the problem. Of four quarters of fast-paced commercials only around 10 aimed for something bigger than product plugging. - 5 years ago
Marketing and Comms /
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). - 5 years ago
Marketing and Comms /
The political unrest seems to be good for advertising with a conscience, as this year’s Super Bowl saw the highest number of Goodvertising campaigns ever. - 6 years ago
