THE NEXT ECONOMY -
In the first gathering of the Sustainable Brands community in Uruguay last week, 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.
MARKETING AND COMMS -
Extinction Rebellion and The Humblebrag call upon Dutch creative industries to take a collective stand for the climate. Amsterdam’s first Creatives for Climate summit will take place on 18 September at Patagonia HQ.
BUSINESS CASE -
Dear CEOs, CCOs, CMOs, CFOs, MDs and CDs: It’s time to wake up ... Commit your creativity to ‘the biggest brief’ this sector has ever known.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE -
WRI’s Better Buying Lab works with food companies to research and test science-based approaches that encourage consumers to choose more sustainable, plant-based foods.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE -
White's work highlights actionable ways practitioners can influence consumers to behave more sustainably.
MARKETING AND COMMS -
We reached out to communication leaders in the SB community for their take on P&G’s spotlight on toxic masculinity.
MARKETING AND COMMS -
Early marketing for products promising sustainability was all about what they “weren’t.” Tofurky wasn’t meat. Soy milk wasn’t dairy. Solar wasn’t coal.
Positioning against the negative helped companies attract consumers who were revolting against the polluting impacts of standard manufacturing practices and products. But doing so ignored what potential customers still wanted, whether a product was sustainable or not: delicious taste, high performance, reliable quality and comfort, and overall satisfaction.
Consider the ominous ads for the first Prius, which started running in 2001. The only virtue they extolled was fuel efficiency, and portrayed oil drills as monsters.
MARKETING AND COMMS -
The brand communications crisis is not an urban legend, albeit just as scary
Between 2001 and 2002, Brazil went through its largest energy crisis. The lack of infrastructure planning combined with economic growth forced the Government to ration the energy supply from its main urban centres, for intermittent periods of time. Back then, as a student living in São Paulo, I remember streets darkening as the sun went down. In one of those evenings, walking back home from university, two men driving a motorcycle stopped right in front of me. One of them jumped off the bike and before I knew it, he hit me on the head with the back of his gun and stole my backpack.
MARKETING AND COMMS -
Leading figures from the worlds of business, advertising, design and philanthropy gathered in New York City this week to honor the best in creative work creating a real social impact at the third annual D&AD Impact Awards.
D&AD Impact celebrates creative campaigns that contribute towards a better and more sustainable future. In total, 76 D&AD Impact Pencils were awarded to campaigns, projects and products addressing some of the most pressing issues in the world today.
PRESS RELEASE -
In the world of marketing, less than seven percent of directors are women.* Gillette Venus wants to help close that gap with the launch of the Her Shot campaign, a social experiment in storytelling and celebration of all the ways a female perspective can disrupt and improve the world.
Gillette Venus is partnering with 10 up-and-coming female directors to create video content spotlighting the importance of a woman’s point of view and sharing unique perspectives on the positive impact this can have on the world. The brand is also partnering with actress/director Regina King to serve as a voice of inspiration to the directors, providing tips and advice on success so they can elevate their voices in the industry.
MARKETING AND COMMS -
Nike’s 30th anniversary edition of its iconic “Just Do It” campaign, released this week, features embattled football star Colin Kaepernick, in a move practically designed to stir up controversy — but which ultimately aligns perfectly with Nike’s ethos of living courageously.
ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE -
Who are you and why should I care? Since the 1950s, companies have turned to externally focused branding methods to answer these questions that consumers have about their businesses. Today, companies face an increasingly hyperconnected, skeptical marketplace where customers are demanding more. They want to know the substance beyond the sizzle of advertising. For branding to remain the economic engine it has been over the past 70 years, we need to ask: What’s next?
BEHAVIOR CHANGE -
Coca-Cola Great Britain has launched a new design for the Coca-Cola range, featuring new-look packaging for original Coca-Cola and Coca-Cola zero sugar. The changes unify both varieties with the trademark Coca-Cola red and form part of the company’s commercial strategy to encourage more people to try Coca-Cola zero sugar.
Along with the redesign, a £5 million marketing campaign communicates the changes to consumers, featuring 10- and 30-second ads alongside out-of-home advertising. The ad, “One Way or Another,” reminds consumers they can enjoy Coca-Cola, with or without sugar.
MARKETING AND COMMS -
In the true spirit of coopetition, 17 of New York’s top marketing, advertising and communications agencies have partnered with leading climate scientists and non-profits to harness consumer insights and creativity to motivate urgent and collective action to address climate change, starting with Gen Z — an estimated 17 million soon-to-be-voters citing a deep passion for climate change and other societal issues.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE -
Coca-Cola Great Britain and Coca-Cola European Partners have partnered with Merlin Entertainments to offer 50 percent discounts at some of the UK’s best-known attractions in exchange for empty plastic drink bottles. Specially created reverse vending machines will be on-site at four of Merlin’s leading attractions and will instantly reward those who deposit their used bottles between July 25th and October 19th, 2018.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE -
Last week, over 2,000 representatives from our global community of sustainability practitioners, brand strategists, product and service innovators, thought leaders and other change-makers converged at SB’18 Vancouver to share their latest insights on a multitude of themes pertinent to all of those committed to improving business around the world. Here, we dig into brand and organizational efforts to get consumers to deliver their part of the equation, through responsible consumption.
P&G: The road to responsible consumption
By Marissa Rosen
WALKING THE TALK -
In recent conversation with Marc Pritchard, Chief Brand Officer at P&G, we spent our time talking about shifting out from old paradigms and models, to create new frameworks for building brands and advancing sustainability. Here are Pritchard’s top five paradigms to shift:
MARKETING AND COMMS -
CVS Health continues to put its money where its purpose is. Following up on the promise it made in January to stop altering imagery for beauty products, the company’s retail division, CVS Pharmacy, has launched an advertising campaign, “Beauty in Real Life.”
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
For the second year, Fast Company is celebrating businesses, policies, and nonprofits that are poised help shift society to a more sustainable and more equitable future with its World Changing Ideas Awards. From melted down guns to nitrogen-producing microbes, there’s quite a bit of variety among 2018’s twelve winners.