By Tina Ly.
On 20th November, Unilever has launched its first consumer-facing sustainability campaign on 5 markets: the UK, US, India, Brazil and Indonesia! The campaign aims to engage people to create a better future for the next generations. But the effects may go even beyond…
On 20th November, Unilever has launched its first consumer-facing sustainability campaign on 5 markets: the UK, US, India, Brazil and Indonesia! The campaign aims to engage people to create a better future for the next generations. But the effects may go even beyond…
Initiatives
like Project Sunlight or Pepsi Refresh Project show how much brands have
leading roles in shaping people’s behavior towards the environment. Not only
direct consumers are being influenced by the campaigns’ messages, Marketing and
Creative staff to reconsider the importance of communicating about
sustainability to their consumers.
Pepsi Refresh Project
In 2010, after
23 years of tradition, Pepsi decided to not advertise during the mythic Super Bowl
night in the US. But instead, award 20 million dollars in grants to people who
wanted to make the world a better place. How? The concept of the project was to
foster actions for the social good or ideas that had a positive impact on the
community. In a way, people were invited to become social entrepreneurs and
submit their ideas or their causes to key stakeholders: their peers, that is to
say consumers. Consumers were voting for the ideas and grants were attributed
accordingly. The results were not only amazing in terms of Marketing - a
billion media impression within the 3 first months of 2010 – but also and
especially how awareness towards social causes was raised.
Project Sunlight
With Project
Sunlight, Unilever wants to go beyond its product brands. As Unilever’s senior
vice president of marketing, Marc Mathieu, said “This is about having a broader
ambition and purpose for the company. We want to establish an umbrella platform
that shows all Unilever brands that have contributed to making the world
better.” The campaign relies on the How
Children Inspire Sustainable Living research published last August,
which has been commissioned by Unilever. The research highlights are as follows:
·
Children
can be not only the motivation but also the trigger to inspiring more adults to
change their lifestyles and turn good intentions into positive action.
·
Children
have a natural optimism about the future.
·
Children
care more about global issues than we think they do.
Among the nations surveyed, perceptions were found to be
different: India and Indonesia appeared to be more positive about the future
than their American and British peers, and also more concerned about global
issues.
Besides, based on the research children should not be
underestimated, they are concerned about main global major problems:
·
World hunger (78%),
·
Children dying from preventable diseases (77%)
·
Man’s impact on the planet (76%).
Children’s
concern for global issues (source: How Children Inspire Sustainable Living
research)
Sustainability
campaigns: the key differentiation
In its campaign, Pepsi Refresh Project pointed out
something very crucial: consumers are not making their decision based on the
product itself anymore, but based on the perception a brand inspire them. For
the last years, the two most famous soft drinks brands are launching more and
more campaigns with high social attributes that also strongly engage their
consumers. Hopefully such campaigns will not only inspire competitors but also
all other brands!
