MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS -
The number of Americans with limited access to fruits and vegetables has climbed to nearly 30 million. In other words, the ‘food desert’ crisis affects roughly one in every ten people in the United States.
MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS -
Canadian health charities are teaming up to battle the problem of childhood obesity in a way that the food and beverage industry is not going to like. More than ten organizations have joined the Stop Marketing to Kids Coalition, including some of Canada’s largest and most influential health charities, to campaign against advertising junk food to children. And to avoid the risk of unhealthy products pretending to be healthy – they’re pushing for a complete ban on all food and beverage advertising aimed at people age 16 and younger.
COLLABORATION & CO-CREATION -
When (Red) was founded by Bono and Bobby Shriver back in 2006, it was born out of necessity. The Global Fund — an organization dedicated to fighting diseases such as AIDS, TB, and malaria in the developing world — had launched in 2002, with a commitment to garner private sector engagement and raise funds from governments in an effort to accelerate the end of AIDS. But the private sector was not biting, contributing only $5 million in the Global Fund’s first four years. This low level of funding threatened to jeopardize ongoing commitment levels from the public sector.
MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS -
This month, Canadians may have noticed that The Body Shop has been monkeying around on the dating app Tinder. The brand has created a profile for Reggie, a Red Shanked Douc monkey from Vietnam, as part of a new ‘gorilla’ marketing initiative to promote its new Bio-Bridges program.
Since it was announced in May, the program has been promoted through the ‘Help Reggie Find Love’ campaign, online and in-stores. The playful campaign is intended to raise awareness around the challenges that monkeys and other endangered species face in living safely and finding a mate.
INNOVATION & TECHNOLOGY -
Heineken released its 2015 sustainability report back in April, along with a ‘Frank’ distillation video featuring Dutch rapper and vocal artist Kevin “Blaxtar” de Rendamie. This week, Heineken USA launched another unique engagement experiment to share its sustainability highlights: a first-of-its-kind interactive online experience.
MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS -
Will the power of love help Chipotle recover from its food safety woes, defecting customers and still-struggling stock price? The fast casual restaurant chain has once again produced an original animated short film in an attempt to advocate for fresh, unprocessed ingredients and ‘cultivating a better world.’
CONSUMER BEHAVIOR CHANGE -
Alcohol giant Diageo — whose brands include Johnnie Walker, Crown Royal, Bulleit and Buchanan’s whiskies; and Smirnoff, Cîroc and Ketel One vodkas; along with Captain Morgan, Baileys, Don Julio, Tanqueray and Guinness — recently announced plans to roll out a first-of-its-kind immersive virtual reality (VR) technology that will allow consumers of legal drinking age to experience the many pitfalls associated with irresponsible drinking.
CONSUMER BEHAVIOR CHANGE -
Behavior change charity Hubbub has launched a new global website designed to aid councils and businesses who are looking for solutions in their fight to tackle litter. Complete with statistics on impact and costs per campaign, the charity hopes the website will help reduce wasteful spending by providing guidance on best practices and inspiration.
MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS -
It’s no secret that the audience at any Sustainable Brands conference lives and breathes social impact. From CSR strategists to climate change experts to sustainability technicians, our careers are devoted to integrating business and social purpose to make the world a better place.
Ricardo Caceres, Global Marketing Director of Sustainability at The Coca-Cola Company, knows he is preaching to the choir. When he says, “We must shift sustainability from a technical to a humanizing conversation to unlock marketing value,” heads around the room nod in agreement. He’s speaking our language – the challenge of connecting the dots between sustainability imperatives, and marketing and business goals.
CONSUMER BEHAVIOR CHANGE -
With hundreds of millions of individuals logging into social media accounts every day, using the medium as a platform for social change and activism is just common sense. Today, about 61 percent of consumers use social platforms to learn about sustainability issues. In this open forum-style digital environment, consumers are able to have open conversations about corporate social responsibility and other salient subjects in sustainability.
CIRCULAR ECONOMY -
One of North America’s largest outdoor advertising companies is partnering with a non-profit on the world’s first-ever live-stream billboard campaign. Lamar Advertising Company is donating the use of hundreds of digital billboards across the United States at no cost to Recycle Across America (RAA) to promote its “Let’s recycle right!” campaign during a live-streamed photo shoot event on April 21, 2016 and throughout Earth Week.
CONSUMER BEHAVIOR CHANGE -
A new collaboration between Disney and Recyclebank, a Marketing-as-a-Service (MaaS) company that promotes sustainable behavior change, “hopes to inspire teachable moments with kids and families” across the U.S. and encourage recycling through the magic of Disney storytelling and characters.
INNOVATION & TECHNOLOGY -
Move over Prince Ea, there's a new spoken word artist promoting sustainability. To help reach a wider audience for its newly-released 2015 sustainability report, Heineken recruited Dutch rapper and vocal artist Kevin "Blaxtar" de Randamie to transform the report into his own artistic expression.
INNOVATION & TECHNOLOGY -
When you’re shopping for your next hoodie, this startup is hoping you’ll choose to plant as many as 93 trees: ch8se (choose) is a new experimental fashion brand from Amsterdam that has decided to donate its would-be advertising budget towards planting trees or providing food or water to those in need.
“This is an attempt to democratise consumer activism. We believe that conscious consumerism is our most effective tool for making a change and it's currently extremely under-utilized,” ch8se co-founder David Eros told Sustainable Brands in an e-mail.
STAKEHOLDER TRENDS AND INSIGHTS -
In a dystopian portrayal of the future, the landscape is rife with fires, rising seas, and thick clouds billowing from power plant smokestacks; humans must wear gas masks for their own survival. This apocalyptic vision is captured in a series of photos featuring 8 popular Vietnamese singers, actors and dancers as part of a new anti-coal campaign.
MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS -
Artist network Brandalism believes that the talent, energy and creativity of ad agency employees is “sinking into an ever-expanding black hole.” The network recently launched a campaign to appeal to those who feel the same, by placing several posters in front of ad agency offices in Manchester and London.
INNOVATION & TECHNOLOGY -
The trade organization representing investor-owned electric companies, the Edison Electric Institute (EEI), has hired a communications consultant who will help utilities rebrand themselves into something more appealing to the public. The changes will include shifts in messaging, such as from “utility-scale solar” to “community solar.” A new communication plan is expected to be presented to the organization’s members within a month.
INNOVATION & TECHNOLOGY -
Kraft Heinz followed through on its promise to remove artificial flavors, preservatives and dyes from its iconic macaroni and cheese – three months ago. In what the company is calling “the world’s largest ‘blind taste test,’” Kraft Mac & Cheese quietly changed its recipe and the ingredients listed on the box in December, and sold over 50 million boxes before making a formal announcement about it.
MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS -
How do you communicate your company's sense of purpose — what you stand for in simple terms — in a way that is authentic, transparent and honest?
Increasingly, the answer for many of the world's biggest companies is to highlight their sustainability work.
Why sustainability? Well, sustainability, after all, is rooted in doing business in a transparent and authentic way. And, in today’s always-on, smarter-than-before society, pledging to be a better company just won’t cut it. You have to demonstrate how your company’s purpose is creating a tangibly better experience.
MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS -
Air pollution in China is unavoidable, and a huge health problem. Last year, a Berkeley Earth study found that deaths related to the main air pollutant, PM2.5 particles, total 1.6 million a year or 17 percent of China’s mortality rate.