green expo ogilvy 210510 final.pptm

FROM GREENWASH TO GREAT

21st May 2010

Unlocking the Stalemate:

A Fresh Approach

3 Phases, 9 Principles

(1) Planning Your Approach Focus on fundamentals Get out ahead Partner for content and credibility

(2) Developing Communication Make honesty a priority Find strength in humility Embrace the detail Show, don’t tell

(3) Launch and Beyond Become a first responder Commit for the long term

Phase 1: Planning Your Approach

Planning Your Approach

Focus on fundamentals

Start on the inside

“Get hard facts. Get them verified. You can’t tell a credible sustainability story without real data behind it.”

Be clear about your brand’s biggest impacts and be willing to redress them through big change

Planning Your Approach

Get out ahead

Cutting-edge sustainability initiatives are the product of leadership.

Do it with a game-changing new product, service or point of view.

Planning Your Approach

Partner for content and credibility

Partner with a credible, sympathetic third party at the beginning of your sustainability journey.

Learn from external expertise and objective critique.

Phase 2: Developing Communication

. Changing Communication Paradigm

The Fall Out From This New Landscape Has Created two scarce inter-related commodities.

Attention

Communication that cannot rise above the clutter will fail.

Engagement

Passive mass communication techniques must give way to placing more emphasis on downstream experiential/interactive activities

“A revolution doesn’t happen when a society adopts new tools.

It happens when society adopts new behaviours.

Clay Shirky

The increasing importance of behavioural economics in the communication process

“ There is a big difference between asking someone to move their arm a little to the right in a supermarket and asking them to give up smoking”

Rory Sutherland, Deputy Chairman, Ogilvy UK

The future of marketing communication is not doing and saying things to people.

The future is about doing things with and for people.

Developing Communication

Make honesty a priority

People will accept progress over perfection as long as shortcomings are declared in full.

Transparent and honest efforts are more important than perfection.

Brands must be brave. Loyalty follows transparency.

Developing Communication

Find strength in humility

Frame your brand’s achievements in a way that acknowledges your limitations and includes a commitment to try harder.

Do it with sincerity of intent, a deep understanding of the relevant issues, and a permanent ban on chest beating.

Developing Communication

Embrace the detail

Provide pertinent detail at every turn, in all communication but avoiding generalisations like “helps save the earth”.

Truth telling reinforces authenticity in a world where half truths can poison a brand’s credibility.

Find the balance between precise and trivial.

Developing Communication

Show, don’t tell

Find a forum where your brand actions can speak for themselves.

Make sustainability tangible, practical and relevant without saying it in so many words.

Seeing is believing.

Phase 3: Launch and Beyond

Launch and Beyond

How you go out into the world, your attitude, your openness and ability to listen and respond – your brand’s behaviour – all impact perceptions of your authenticity.

A brand’s sustainability credentials cannot be viewed as just a box ticking exercise, long term commitment is a must.

Launch and Beyond

Become a first responder

Act fast in the face of criticism and collaborate with decriers on solutions before deep reputational damage is done.

View critics, influencers and consumers as allies who can help in the constant improvement of your brand’s story.

Ban being defensive.

Launch and BeyondCommit for the long term

Take a “for better or worse” vow to sustainability.

A “one and done” approach screams “opportunist tactic”

Act responsibly and feed the pipeline with steady stream new news.

Adopt a “Divine Discontent” creed.

Conclusion

Successful

sustainability marketing

is a labour of love.