If marketing fails to grasp the urgency of sustainability, it will fall behind
A report published by my colleagues in B2B agency Gyro recently made me think more about sustainability in marketing, and why, despite great progress, we still have some way to go to bring sustainability closer to our purpose as an industry.
The report, Mind the Gap: How Marketers Feel about Sustainability, surveyed over 200 brands and agencies. One of the main insights is that “a clear majority of marketers feel a moral imperative to incorporate sustainability practices into business, yet the companies they work for do not have a defined sustainability strategy” as The Drum writes.
From the perspective of my role as Global CSR Director I am heartened by the mention of a “moral imperative”, but sustainability is more than matters of the heart, it makes business sense too. And our industry is at risk of missing out on the opportunities that sustainability affords. Let’s look at some of the key findings from the report, and why I believe marketing is at risk of falling behind if it fails to grasp the urgency of the sustainability agenda.
1. Good for the world, good for the brand
Gyro found that 54% of marketers feel that investing in sustainability will positively influence the perception of their brand. A good example is Unilever’s #brightfuture campaign. At the time of the campaign, Unilever chief marketing and communications officer, Keith Weed said: “Brands with a purpose are at the heart of Unilever and we believe that the small choices we all make every day can make a big difference to the world we live in.” This campaign is a rare example of where the corporate brand Unilever takes a driving seat rather than its category and product brands. And of course it’s backed up by Unilever’s ambitious Sustainable Living Plan, so it’s real action too.
We still have too few of these campaigns, where the sustainability strategy of a FMCG brand is tied together with its commercial and marketing objectives in a positive campaign. This (admittedly quite old) report from 2012 clearly illustrates the gap between perception and action: the Sustainability Leadership Report plots both real and perceived performance for 100 prominent global brands, revealing the opportunities — and risks — tied to sustainability communications. There are some brands that are perceived to be “better” than what their performance justifies, and vice-versa. There is a huge opportunity here that marketing is not taking advantage of.
2. Lack of strategic leadership
The report finds that 52% of the marketers surveyed do not believe (or are not sure) that their organization has a sustainability strategy. This is not a surprising finding but it is a shame. Many leading consumer-facing brands and companies have large and well-known sustainability approaches such as IKEA, Marks & Spencer (“Plan A”) and Patagonia. Large holding companies like Dentsu Aegis Network or WPP actually also have detailed and successful sustainability strategies, and have won plaudits and awards for their investment in this area.
But clearly we are unable to bring that story to life sufficiently for our industry audience. On the one hand, a lot of sustainability work is firmly behind the scenes (think about switching to green electricity or improving supply chain sustainability) and that hampers awareness. But the bigger issue is the lack of connection of the purpose of our industry with anything related to sustainability. So in a planner’s, or creative’s, or copywriter’s everyday life sustainability does not yet feature. If we think back to the findings of Gyro’s report, we are not taking the opportunity to tap into that “moral imperative”; the more emotional appeal of sustainability work.
3. More collaboration among competitors
In Gyro’s report, over half (55%) of marketers say they are happy to collaborate with competitors around common sustainability issues. But is that kind of collaboration really happening? Well actually, this is one case where marketing is leading from the front. We are seeing collaboration in action in our industry through Common Ground, a partnership of all 6 big holding companies to support the United Nations around the Global Goals and Agenda 2030. As the United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon said: “By putting aside their differences, these companies are also setting a powerful example for others to follow.”
In Common Ground, each holding group is responsible for tackling a specific Global Goal in partnership with the United Nations, as well as promoting Agenda 2030 overall. A similar initiative can be found in the mobile industry. But how does that filter down into day-to-day work on our accounts and clients? Are we collaborating across agencies to help our clients make a positive impact on the world? Those kind of partnerships are still scarce.
4. Competitive advantage for now and the future
Likewise, 41% of respondents agree that sustainability initiatives will be a key source of competitive advantage over the next five years. We can see this in the growth of sustainability-focused brands that are being launched, with our own Indeed in India being the most recent example. We see success for agencies that bring together clients and causes, and clients and public spaces such as Urban Partnerships and psCITY, part of our MTKG and Posterscope agencies.
So what now?
It is clear that there is a real risk that marketing will not make the most of the opportunities that sustainability offers. So what should we do?
First of all, I think it is important that agencies look at their own corporate positioning and narrative and find ways to link in its sustainability activities so it becomes part ‘who we are’. At the moment, too often sustainability is disconnected from the purpose and mission of the agency. Bringing the two closer together will provide a better sense of purpose for the people that work with us. This will help sustainability come alive like it does for leaders such as Unilever and Patagonia.
In addition, more work is needed on truly placing sustainability practices at the heart of the advertising business. In order to take advantage of the opportunities out there, it is important that we look into making advertising different and better. Better, because we are at risk of alienating and losing our audience through delivering advertising that is annoying people and leads to ad blocking. How can we show what value advertising adds? And different, because the content and messages that we create now are sometimes not reflective of a modern 21st century society.
