Brands are shaping the future of the planet

By Tina Ly.

On 20^th 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!