Kevin Roberts is famous for his attempts to make himself famous. So, at this month’s Global Brand Forum in Singapore, when he announced that Saatchi & Saatchi was to be the world’s first agency to open a special unit for ‘green’ clients (perfectly timed while Al Gore was in town) cynical mutterings could be heard beneath the fireworks exploding over Saatchis towers.
Roberts has promised that Saatchi & Saatchi Sustainability will have rolled out in Asia within 24 months. Characteristically ambitious, yes. But is the Saatchis CEO being commercially unrealistic?
The inconvenient truth is that beyond Japan, Korea and Australia, sustainability is little more than a clumsy word. According to Steve Garton at research firm Synovate, only four per cent of Asians have even heard of Al Gore or his Oscar-winning film about the world heating up.
Even Roberts’ client Vince Socco, who runs Asia-Pacific for Toyota, the world’s most powerful symbol of green motoring, is downbeat on the desire for environmental friendliness in Asia.
Interest in Toyota’s fuel efficient hybrid cars has been tepid so far outside of Japan. Priced in the same bracket as a luxury petrol car, the Prius doesn’t stand a chance in a market where status still wins out over eco-awareness, says Socco. Hybrids haven’t been screeching off the forecourts for Honda either. The Japanese carmaker sold just 10 of them when they launched in Malaysia in 2003, and hopes to sell 60 this year.
“Asia is in the infant stages of a shift to sustainability,” says Socco. To move things on, government policies are needed to promote awareness of and encourage preference for sustainable technologies, he says.
Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines have made early steps with ‘green rebates’. But none compare to the emissions taxes in the US or the carbon trading system in Europe (and neither, of course, do their emissions).
China, which is set to overtake the US as the world’s biggest polluter this year, has stricter regulations than Europe, observes Jamie Choi, a campaigner for Greenpeace China. The problem in such a vast country is implementation.
“Sustainability’s shifts to the mainstream will be gradual, not drastic,” says Socco. “When will Asia reach the same stage as the developed nations? Later, rather than sooner.”
Happily, not everyone agrees. Matthew Godfrey, the CEO of Publicis Asia-Pacific (and himself a hybrid driver) argues that Asia’s tendency to leapfrog means that a rapid switch to sustainable consumerism is not unlikely, even in success-hungry China and Vietnam. These countries have changed both their consumption patterns and lifestyles dramatically in the past decade, and can do so again.
“In the West, brands going green tend to be followers. But in Asia, they’re seen as leaders.” he says. “So there’s a bigger opportunity for brands in Asia to gain from leading on the sustainability front — and, in this sense, a bigger responsibility too.”
But sustainability is the opposite if it isn’t genuine. “A five-litre hybrid misses the point,” says Godfrey. “Companies have to make a step-change. They can’t tick a box for marketing’s sake.”
Which helps explain the pressure on China to clean up Beijing before the Olympics. Sponsors are nervous of being associated with an event - which has traditionally stood for greenness - held in one of the world’s most-polluted cities.
Choi points to the last Olympics in Sydney, where Greenpeace attacked Coca-Cola for using greenhouse gases in refrigerators, subverting Coke’s famous slogan to read: ‘Enjoy climate change’. She says: “Just because the Olympics are in China, don’t think we will shirk from using direct action to improve sponsor behaviour. We have a major campaign planned against an official sponsor for Beijing 2008.”
MNC brands are increasingly aware of stakeholders expectations, as shown by Mattel’s recall of millions of lead-coated China-made toys. Corporates are now looking down supply chains to ensure that agencies are taking sustainability seriously too.
In Europe, clients have started asking agencies questions about how they treat their staff, their carbon footprint or whether or not they recycle: sustainability is becoming pitch-critical.
Asia is some way from that reality, says Pratik Thakar, chief strategy officer of McCann Worldgroup Malaysia. “But soon, agencies will not be able to pitch for a big client without a sustainability strategy, just as now we can’t pitch without a digital solution.”
An excited Thakar says that McCann Malaysia is waiting to hear back from a global client over proposals to give a long-running campaign a green twist. “Sustainability is a geniune trend on which marketers can ride and will only grow in prominence. This is a great chance for our office to take a strategic lead on a global account.”
McCann has a 15-year tradition of working with clients and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to promote sustainability (although in a quieter fashion than Saatchis). UNEP wants to move the debate beyond the ‘sin’ industries, such as automotive and oil, to other sectors such as travel and finance.
“There’s an angle for every brand to explore this issue,” says Goh Shu Fen, principal of R3. “Agencies offering strategic advice on how going green can give a competitive edge should make money. But they’ll have to compete with specialist consultants that will spring up as the niche opens.”
Of course, when it does, maybe beyond the call of market forces. UNEP predicts that the climate crisis- the number one sustainability issue - could hit Asia hardest with floods and food shortages unless the region begins to consume sustainably.
In his talk at the Global Brand Forum this month, Al Gore gave his audience a 10-year emergency window in which to act. The former US VP said: “There is a growing chorus of people asking businesses one simple question: ‘are you part of the problem, or part of the solution?’”
Why green equals gain
Sustainability is a confusing term with countless definitions. But in simple marketing speak, it means to grow a brand without a net social or environmental cost. While it is may seem like the talk of worthy tree-huggers, it can build serious brand value. Here’s why:
1 Sustainable brands tend to be leaner, faster, more intelligent, thoughtful, futuristic, higher-quality, higher tech and cheaper in the long run (think the Lexus RX Hybrid).
2 Confidence in governments, especially in countries like India and Indonesia, where corruption is a big problem, is low — much lower than in brands, which have the opportunity to act as guardians of future generations.
3 Sustainability is not just about saving people and the planet, it is about creating a company where people feel good about what they do (which can’t often be said of marketing), boosting staff retention and attracting better talent.
What does sustainability mean in Asia?
The answer to this question, if an Indonesian delegate at the Global Brand Forum is right, is: not a lot. “Why should people from my country help solve a problem - global warming - that was caused by the West?” she asked Al Gore.
She has a point, of course - fuelled by the (misplaced) understanding that sustainability will burden societal progress. So what do Asian politicians in developing countries think?
Filipino politician Senator Francis Pangilinan tells Media: “Climate change is a problem that we have collectively incurred, regardless of our nationality, and must therefore by collectively resolved. This will require everyone to adjust their lifestyle, as well as the manner by which we conduct businesses.”
But to shun sustainability and blame the West is a dying notion, reckons Alan Van der Molen, president of Edelman Asia-Pacific. “This attitude has softened with globalisation, WTO accession and the opening of markets,” he says, adding:
“Our study shows that while product and service quality rank far higher as a measure of corporate reputation among Asians, social and environmental alignment are the fastest-growing considerations.”
But the willingness to act sustainably tends to be among older, richer generations, observes Chris Beaumont, the regional chief strategy officer of Grey and the brains behind the study, Eye on Asia. Those prepared to pay more for sustainable goods or give up convenient products to preserve the environment is highest among the over-40s.
Richard Leong, Singapore and Hong Kong CEO of Aegis Media, would agree. “It is no longer true that Asians are not preservative by nature or by culture. Younger generations of Asians have a tendency towards wastefulness,” he says.
But waste isn’t the biggest problem, says Synovate’s Steve Garton; it’s awareness. “After Live Earth, Bob Geldolf said: ‘Everybody knows about f*cking climate change.’ But the reality is, they don’t.”
