Welcome to the creative business of the future
Head of Creo Sustain Paul Hewlett says the creativity of businesses will be measured differently in future – by how well they adapt to consumer focus on the environment.
By our estimates, the environment-related print media coverage in New Zealand, excluding reporting on severe weather events, increased almost 30 percent in 2007 over 2006.
This year, the record will be broken again. What’s more people are continuing to absorb it, with reactions ranging from mild to extreme concern. Witness the imminent launch of sustainable lifestyle magazine “Good”, and the flood of sustainability features in daily and monthly print media.
While people don’t necessarily like what they see, they understand this is no fad - it’s about us and the way we all live.
While this isn’t yet translating to wholesale behavioural change – even the lifestyle adjustments of the much feted “LOHAS” is relatively modest - the breakthrough has been made; we all know it’s happening.
And so it is for business. Businesses are aware of the broad issues, but most are actually behaving little differently from four or five years ago. In many cases the dominance of "carbon neutrality" and the technicalities and governmental prevarication around emissions trading is either confusing or turning them off from creatively linking their brands to the environment.
For many, it just seems too hard.
With the surge in media and public interest in matters environmental, businesses and public sector organisations have an unprecedented opportunity to differentiate themselves.
The opportunity for them is not so much in “carbon neutrality” or corporate manoeuvres, but in actions that are easily understood at 'street level'.
Whereas once businesses attempted to differentiate by what they said about themselves and their products through advertising, reputation is now increasingly based on how they make their products and go about their business.
"The wave of environmental awareness has created a whole new outlet for creativity among New Zealand businesses," says head of Creo Sustain, Tim Rainger. "Not only does a product have to look good, perform well and be priced right, its environmental impact has to be considered if it’s going to push all the right buttons in a growing number of affluent and educated consumers."
This is changing the natural order in business and marketing.
While New Zealanders are sensitive to gimmicks, they appreciate the efforts of organisations that do things differently, particularly in relation to the environment.
They may be sceptical about the concept of carbon offsetting, but they really get it when organisations take creative steps to lower their environmental impact.
We work with businesses eager to reorient their business thinking by identifying their "sustainability totem pole" - the single thing that will most effectively highlight their creativity and commitment to the environment. And suggestions about these matters are coming from all levels of an organisation.
Smart management teams are engaging the rank-and-file people within their organisations in the process of identifying and implementing positive changes.
We're beginning to see mini revolutions take place, as business leaders take seriously the attitudes and aspirations of their staff to the world around them. The catalyst for organisational change is now as likely to be a rag bag group who set up their own environmental movement within the business, as the executive team or board.
A good example of this is Dulux’s sustainability team who act as grassroots advocates for sustainability in the business as well as helping to ensure good ideas are seen through to their fruition.
Their first initiative, an 100 day programme, saw a host of staff suggested changes being implemented. These ranged from providing each member of staff with porcelain cups to reduce use of polystyrene to downsizing fleet vehicles to more fuel efficient models.
In addition to their passion, rank-and-file team members tend to be more creative than their bosses. They’re less encumbered by concerns of "cost" and "business disruption" and are face-to-face with an organisation’s processes - and its waste - daily.
They can also be galvanised around events or initiatives that connect their organisations with customers and the environment because they often have a more direct affinity with their customer.
It is this “inside out” revolution within the new generation of creative businesses that makes audiences so instinctively connect with them. We’re increasingly seeing the genuine DNA of organisations on display.
Great advertising can be powerful. Ultimately, though, people know it’s the result of a creative agency at work, translating a vision of how an organisation or brand would like to be. They may enjoy the advertising product, but they can also see through it.
What we’re seeing now are organisations and brands that people respect because it’s the organisation itself – its people – that are displaying their humanity and ingenuity. That’s a big difference. They’re able to do this without committing “greenwash” because it’s a process that’s based on real action.
From a brand perspective, environment-related activity is unparalleled for demonstrating the organisation or brand's creativity and connectedness with contemporary thinking. Because the environment is so high on the media and public’s agenda, it provides organisations with an opportunity to engage in a unique and passionate new dialogue with their stakeholders.
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