This month’s meeting of world leaders in Copenhagen to discuss climate change and the future of the Kyoto protocol is expected to be a somewhat technical exchange between politicians,industry leaders and non-governmental organisations. On the face of it, a long way from the day to day concerns of the advertising industry in Asia.
But with several agencies running high profile global campaigns that aim to increase public awareness of the Copenhagen conference, the link between the two becomes less tenuous. Added to this is the broader angle, namely advertising’s ability - and to some extent the industry’s responsibility - to help drive and influence environmentally responsible behaviour in Asia, both with consumers and its clients.
“Our industry is great at changing people’s behaviour, both in terms of purchasing and also behaviour on wider issue,” says David Jones, global CEO, Havas Worldwide and Euro RSCG Worldwide. “Look at the amount of advertising and communications around road safety, obesity, stopping smoking - we have the creativity and communications to really change people’s behaviour for the better.”
Jones has been the driving force behind the ‘Tck, tck, tck’ climate change campaign, launched globally by Havas at the 2009 Cannes Advertising Festival, with local roll-outs introduced in Asia later in the year. The campaign aims to create the world’s largest petition for the climate justice category with the objective of putting pressure on the world’s political leaders to deliver in Copenhagen, something Jones sees as more of a movement than a campaign.
At the same time, Ogilvy has been making its own contribution to Copenhagen through the ‘Hopehagen’ initiative, a campaign that was created in direct response to an appeal to the advertising industry by UN Sec retary-General Ban Ki-moon for assistance in achieving a positive outcome at the climate change conference. The campaign has run across online,TV, print and OOH, including outdoor ads that ran during the recent APEC summit in Singapore and a Chinese-language version of the Hopenhagen website.
“Hopenhagen allows citizens of the world to become vocal and active participants in the climate change dialogue,” says Danny Phan, regional director, global sustainability practice at Ogilvy Asia-Pacific.“The campaign strengthens and grows each day with every new signature signing onto the Secpetition and with every hope shared and vocalised.”
Also present at Copenhagen will be WWF’s Earth Hour project.The campaign to encourage homes and businesses to turn off their lights to conserve energy, which originated in Australia but has since exploded into a global movement, is now focusing on Copenhagen and will run a special Earth Hour in the city, alongside related events.
But while these campaigns are focused specifically on building awareness around the climate change conference, more telling will be how the sentiment of what gets discussed in Copenhagen eventually trickles down to the space where brands and agencies operate their businesses.“Copenhagen is a political effort rather than anything brand based, but out of Copenhagen,the communications industry needs to understand what is going on and needs to be able to help its clients do the right thing,” says Patrick Stahle, president and CEO at Aegis Asia-Pacific.
For one thing, the conference could revitalise a commitment to green marketing in the region. At the start of 2008, as in other parts of the world there was much optimism in Asia concerning the viability of green communications.
In response to growing consumer awareness of sustainability, bringing green into the marketing mix was seen as a genuine starter,with several agencies talking about opening specialist practices.But then came the inancial downturn and environmental issues were put on hold.
“Pre-recession, socially responsible business and CSR were the fastest growing trends,”says Jones. “Unfortunately, when people are losing jobs and houses, the focus moves away from the environment and climate change.”
As an industry, advertising prioritises short-term actions, adds Stahle, which has meant green marketing has been forced by economic realities to take a back seat.That said,the climate and sustainability issue could soon be back on the table.“I believe it will recover in 2010 as business picks up, but we need to make sure that we put it back on the agenda,”he says.
It could be argued that environmental concerns never really went away. For consumers, at least, the basic principles were never in danger. “Clients always kept sustainability relatively high on their agendas and close to their hearts,”explains Phan.“They realise that the world has changed and environmental responsibility is no longer an option.”
Indeed, the longer-term impact of the recession could actually have furthered the core values of socially responsible consumption, with the financial downturn further alienating those companies that operate for the pursuit of profit alone.“We ran a global survey in which 86 per cent of consumers said businesses should be about more than just profit,” says Jones. “That was pre-recession. Now that figure would be closer to 96 per cent.”
But as environmental concerns once again become more relevant to the marketing industry in Asia, what role should agencies be playing in helping promote these issues?
“Agencies need to be aware of what consumers are asking for and make sure they are communicating that with their clients,” says Jones, adding that agencies need to help find the balance between what is a credible role for the brand and the real issues that consumers care about.
Stahle takes it one step further,arguing that the agency’s responsibility is two-fold: helping clients communicating a green message and stopping them from green washing. “Agencies per se cannot change the carbon footprint, stop greenhouse gases or solve the water shortages,” he says. “But what we can do is identify when our clients are greenwashing and stop them. None of us knows everything, but there are a certain number of common principles we can all work with.”
However, Todd Sampson, chief executive at Leo Burnett Sydney and part of the team behind Earth Hour, thinks agencies should not be in the role of educator.“The industry has an obligation to give back,”he says.“But I don’t think we should be pushing clients. Most of our clients come to us with ideas and we are helping with that. In fact, in most cases, a lot of the change is being made by clients.”
This is certainly being reflected in the global context, with Jones noting that some of the world’s most successful companies - GE, Walmart and Toyota, to name a few - have pioneered and led in this space.On a more local level, however, there is perhaps still work to be done.
“The industry has a responsibility to ensure the highest degrees of integrity and transparency in the work that it does on behalf of clients in regards to sustainability,”says Phan.“There is no room for greenwashing, for creating more confusion in what is an already complex space.Communications professionals can use their influence to work with clients to harness their communications programmes and invest in a sustainable future for sound social and environmental impact.”
Sampson argues that agencies should stick to what they are best at. “Agencies are motivated by two things, running in parallel - they want to use their creativity to make a difference difference and they want the opportunity to do something original and pick up awards. Environmental issues provide the platform for that.”
But it is not just about helping to control the message. Equally important, of course, is being aware of the environmental impact of how that message is delivered. “If you do not take into account every aspect of your business spend,you cannot claim to be truly green.And that,I am sorry to say, includes advertising,” says Christopher Sewell,business director at TrinityP3, which specialises in helping companies understand the environmental impact of their marketing spend.
“Advertisers and their agencies have to understand that the very process of promoting goods and services leaves a footprint,” he adds.“The choice should be appropriate - no skywriting the logo - and there must be a focus on targeting and waste reduction.”
This is something that a number of agencies have been taking seriously, in-house at least. Aegis, for example, runs its Green Bean project, which aims to make the network carbon neutral in Asia-Pacific by 2011,and which has already reduced the carbon footprint for all Aegis network agencies by 20 per cent. Stahle says the programme was maintained throughout 2009, despite the recession. Similarly, Ogilvy has established recycling policies and mobilised local office green teams, with the goal of shrinking its own environmental footprint.
Meanwhile, at Havas,which was the first holding company to be declared carbon neutral, Jones says the industry has made a strong start. “Could we be doing more? Of course we could. We could all do more. But it is not about judging any industry in absolute terms. It is about identifying the starting point and seeing what progress has been made.”
Sampson says that it remains important to maintain a grassroots-level engagement, such as was the case with Earth Hour, which originally targeted individuals and families to make a personal contribution. This is especially true in Australia, where “green fatigue” is becoming a genuine concern, as consumers grow tired of the commoditisation of environmental issues.
“What I have learned from being involved over the last three years is that the big picture collective worry is being used as an excuse to ignore individual responsibility,” he says. “We all as individuals need to do our part. Turn off our lights more often, turn down the air conditioner. Not stare at the big picture and be paralysed. The big picture is in the hands of the politicians.It is much better to do your own bit - at work and at home with your family.”
