MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS -
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 & COMMUNICATIONS -
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
INNOVATION & TECHNOLOGY -
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.
ORGANIZATIONAL GOVERNANCE -
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 & COMMUNICATIONS -
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.
INNOVATION & TECHNOLOGY -
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.
CIRCULAR 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 & COMMUNICATIONS -
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 & COMMUNICATIONS -
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 & COMMUNICATIONS -
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 & COMMUNICATIONS -
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).
MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS -
Everyday conversations about food are shifting from questions about whether to eat gluten or saturated fat to a new era in consumer food choices: sustainable diets. Some of this focus stems from recent findings reported by the federal government linking dietary choices to environmental impact and is bolstered by consumers’ awareness that their choices affect both their health and the environment. Consumers have long been seeking healthy food options and now the majority of consumers state that they intend to make changes in their diet for environmental reasons.
CONSUMER BEHAVIOR CHANGE -
Parents have known from time immemorial that fruits and vegetables are good for their children and that everyone should eat more of them. Now, they’re getting more help in their quest than ever before from the federal government, celebrities and Madison Avenue.
MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS -
It’s now carnival in Brazil, a week when the population puts away its troubles and heads to the beaches and streets in a glorious celebration of dancing, music and life.So a few weeks ago some bright spark at Skol, one of the best-selling lagers here, drunk by millions — owned by Brazilian brewer Ambev — decided to throw away the rule book on advertising alcohol. They must have thought that all that stuff about ‘drink in moderation’ and ‘don’t drink and drive’ such a bore … They must have thought, ‘Stuff it, let’s have an outdoor advertising campaign that tells people to just go mental, abandon all moral codes and ethics, and go totally wild and say yes to everything.’
MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS -
As Super Bowl XLIX shapes up to kick off on Sunday, NBC is selling 30-second spots for $4.4-4.5 million, and 95 percent of in-game ad inventory is already sold on what has become digital advertising’s biggest day.By leveraging a massive event such as the Super Bowl, which last year set a record as the most-watched American television program in history with an average audience of 111.5 million viewers, more marketers are betting millions on shifting those viewers’ perception and understanding of sustainability with their carefully crafted ads.
MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS -
I had a fascinating conversation this morning with Guy Dauncey, a futurist and big brain in the sustainability field. Guy is writing his latest book, a novel that projects us into the Vancouver of 2040. His vision isn’t apocalyptic — it describes how we as a civilization finally came around to embrace ‘new,’ and turn it into post-fossil-fuel prosperity. Inspiring stuff, especially when the vision is supported by the science Dauncey painstakingly assembles.
MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS -
Sport England, previously known as the English Sports Council, has launched an ad campaign called “This Girl Can,” which uses real women to promote exercise among females.The campaign’s first 90-second film, aiming to inspire women of all shapes and sizes to get off the couch, has generated more than 2.9 million views on YouTube in its first week and trended at number two on Twitter. FCB Inferno, the London agency behind the film, described it as "a celebration of active women designed to make the attainable aspirational."
CONSUMER BEHAVIOR CHANGE -
On Tuesday, SumOfUs, an international consumer advocacy organization, released a new parody video — in conjunction with Doritos’ annual “Crash the Super Bowl” commercial competition — that calls out Doritos and its parent company, PepsiCo, for use of unsustainable palm oil in Doritos products and the subsequent destruction caused to Southeast Asian rainforests, species and communities.
The video, called “A Cheesy Love Story — The Ad Doritos Don't Want You to See,” has reached almost a million views across Facebook and YouTube since it went live on Tuesday.
STAKEHOLDER TRENDS AND INSIGHTS -
While Maurice Lévy called 2014 an "annus horribilus" for Publicis Groupe, life for most agency leaders was a bit merrier this holiday season – but not by much. As Steward Elliot wrote in one of his last columns for the New York Times: "’the situation is hopeless but not serious’ seems to sum up what several Madison Avenue thought leaders believe lies in store for the industry next year."There’s not much certainty for us these days. The ad agency business can be described in tectonic terms: Giant forces and trends scrape each other while triggered by small yet reverberating disruptions that place it on the cusp of a cataclysmic release.