Saatchi S’ Blue Ripple

Kevin Roberts is the worldwide CEO of Saatchi&Saatchi, and author of their Lovemarks books. He shoots out a daily-ish missive on what the marketing world looks like from his perch, and I think it’s darn good. Anyway, his latest trumpet-toot is about Saatchi S blasting some sustainable knowledge out into the marketing world. He says:

“This week Adam Werbach’s book Strategy for Sustainability: A Business Manifesto, was launched on the world. Adam is CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi S– Saatchi & Saatchi’s specialist sustainability agency, and a great guy, who shares my belief that sustainability is the most realistic strategy for long term business success and business growth. His book comes from the heavyweight Harvard Business Press, so it’s been worked over by the business management pros …”

Sounds like it’s worth reading, at least for other agencies who want to bring more to their campaigns than the cleverest headlines on earth.

Two things strike me. One, that such a huge thought-leading commitment is being championed by an ad agency (most agencies aren't so visionary). And two, that with this book, they are giving their knowledge away to other agencies. They must truly be more concerned with the planet than just making ads, and they know that this is how the can lead the movement. Smart.

Kevin Roberts, again: “At Saatchi & Saatchi our North Star Goal is to ‘help a billion people create their personal sustainability practice through the products and people that touch their lives.’”

Crazy.* Most agencies North Star Goal is to win awards.

Not coincidentally, one of their biggest clients is WalMart, who is changing their bad reputation into green leadership one (see below). Kudos to Adam and his superfriends.

(For more on Saatchi S, read a Marketing+Good exclusive interview with their VP of Strategy, HERE. Or watch their little video, HERE.)

* And when I say “crazy,” I mean crazy good.

WalMart’s Green Ripple

This just in. Today’s Wall Street Journal reports that WalMart’s green initiatives are becoming martial law. The retailing giant is telling its 100,000 suppliers that they MUST report their green stats to consumers on their packaging.

Holy crap. If they can pull it off (i.e. make it simple and meaningful), this move could wake up a whole lot of WalMart shoppers. They walk in for the price, and might make decisions for green reasons instead.

And, holy crap. This is going to be expensive for suppliers to update their packaging.

Good luck, WalMart. There’s nothing quite like throwing down the green gauntlet, especially if you’re the biggest retailer on the planet. This is going to wake people up, fo sho.

(Read the full WSJ article, HERE.)

Some lucky brands will be able to take full advantage of this, perhaps making their green credentials a major message in their ads.

(And stay tuned for the Saatchi S part of this equation. They are the Robin to WalMart’s Batman.)

Exclusive! The M+G Blog-erview w/Saatchi S’ Director of Brand Planning, pt. 2 of 2

(continued from yesterday’s post, the rest of the conversation with one of Saatchi’s sustainability gurus. Scroll down for the first half of my chat with Cari Jacobs.)

M+G: What Saatchi S project do you think has had the biggest impact so far?

Cari Jacobs: I’ll start with the practice that I love, because I love it. We call it “sit in bliss.” And it’s one day a week across all the Saatchi-S offices, we simultaneously sit for about an hour in sort of a “mindfulness” or meditation state, and it’s a practice we’ve done together since the beginning. When you’re sitting with your colleagues around the work you’re doing, it’s a really powerful tool. And you’re doing it with your colleagues. You hear about these corporate retreats and stuff, but it’s something we really believe in.

As for the work, probably our work with WalMart has had the biggest impact. For most suppliers, WalMart can represent 25-40% of a brand’s revenue (like Coke, Pepsi). Think about the power of that. If WalMart puts out communication to their supplier that if they don’t do these five things you won’t get shelf space – or, conversely, if they do – they have a huge about of influence at the billion- and trillion-dollar level. It’s something we did with the PSP (personal sustainability project) for WalMart’s employee base. It really gives them a way to connect.

One employee had the idea to un-light the soda machines to save energy, and it saved gazillions – like a couple million dollars – hang on - (goes off phone to ask a co-worker) – it saved one million dollars. Just from unscrewing the lights in soda machines. From one employee. They also started doing this thing called a “recycling sandwich” where they bail their recyclables into big bundles, so they could turn recycling into a money-making thing.

M+G: How do you think successful brands will be doing “good” say, 10 years from now?

CJ: There’s so many questions inside that question. My first answer was going to be Free, Clean, Clear, and Good. (As in, free of bad things chemicals, additives, etc.) But I think it’s about brands ultimately being transparent, authentic, local (even if they’re global), and I’m hoping soulful in the most traditional sense of the word – like having a real soul that matches the soul-identity of consumers. And I’d hope that’s the way they design their entire revenue stream. So they increase margins not by increasing price or adding skus, but by decreasing waste. They measure growth by how much waste and excess they don’t create. Like “reverse-excess” brands, ya know? I think there’s some magic in the cottage-industry feel too. A modernized version – getting goods to people in ways that support a local community. We don’t want to retreat into our safe little caves, of course. But I’d just be happy if everything in five years was just Free, Clean, Clear, and Good. From the food we eat to the stuff we put on our skin. If everyone just did that, the impact would be unfathomable.

M+G: I get Free, Clean, Clear … but what’s “Good?”

CJ: That’s hard to define, but just operating with integrity. Like with skin care, and phthalates. Commonly listed as “Fragrance.” But it’s not. It’s what makes stuff stick. – lipstick, makeup, lotion … the beauty care category is completely unregulated. Think of your morning routine. Soap, shampoo, lotion, after shave, etc – all of it has phthalates in it. All of it. And they don’t measure the total effect of using it all. And I wish some company had the courage to take a good hard look at that.
In the EU, they have better controls on those things. … When I think of good I think of the four strains of sustainability and operating with the highest level of integrity.

We also define it as a “Blue” company, which is what we call those that go beyond green. And that really kind of covers it, doesn’t it? Those four things. Hopefully the zeitgeist is moving that way, and even “bad seed” brands will come around.

CJ: Can I answer a question I saw on your blog?

M+G: Please do!

CJ: It was something like, “Can a brand actually stand for ‘good?’” When I was growing up, I had friends that were into very esoteric studies at Berkeley and stuff. But I always believed that what I was about was trying to communicate as authentically as possible. I believe that at the heart of the brands we connect with, it reflects back into our own hearts. If I could do one thing, it would be to make that connection more important in the heart of our brands. And we both have to show up – the brand and the customer. It’s about the mom wanting a sustainable product, and knowing that her little decision is one small vote toward her own shifting identity. That’s the cultural anthropologist in me. The extent to which I can affect that, that would be a great contribution in my tiny life.

Thanks, Cari. Fantastic stuff.

Exclusive! The M+G Blog-erview w/Saatchi S’ Director of Brand Planning, pt. 1 of 2

Here’s a cool thing. I got to talk with Cari Jacobs, Group Director of Brand Planning and Activation at Saatchi S and ask her a few questions. For those who don’t know, Saatchi S is their sustainability office, with huge clients like WalMart, Frito-Lay, P&G, Dell, General Mills, etc. You can read Cari’s bio HERE, under “Who’s In Charge.” She’s a very enlightened, insightful marketer, so if there’s anything here that doesn’t make sense, it’s probably because I couldn’t type fast enough. Enjoy.

M+G: Hey Cari. How are things at Saatchi S?

Cari Jacobs: Things are good. Like all companies we are trying to adjust to the new marketplace. Luckily we’re in sustainability, so we’re trying to do that with the least amount of human impact, but the most financial impact.

M+G: What are you working on today?

CJ: Well, we’re largely a consulting firm, so a lot of it’s confidential, but … the work we do helps clients understand their “north star” sustainability goals. North stars that have concrete sustainability numbers in them, but also emotional, aspirational aspects. We work down through 3 separate channels, and find the nexus – Operations (like water, energy, waste, life-cycle), Brand Activation (like brand planning, that’s my group) cultural/anthropological studies to find how consumers will be activated – there’s no real reason to call it that other than the other names were taken at Saatchi. (And Outreach.)
For example, for General Mills’ Green Giant, the first year we were digging in deep with them, getting operations to sit in the room with marketing and PR to look at the whole picture, from packaging to farming – across their supply chain, and identify areas that might be blind spots. Like GMO – if they were to put a position out into the marketplace that was controversial, how they should do that.

Our goal is not to unseat the brand’s current position. We put the lens of sustainability over it. In the case of Green Giant – their vegetables are “as nutritious as fresh,” with flash freezing to preserve them like our grandparents used to do. It’s a misunderstood process in frozen vegetables. The Green valley is an actual, real place, and the brand comes from a farming background.

Often times you open yourself up to a massive debate – online and offline. Shoppers are talking about what they’re seeing on the shelf. So we’re facilitating the story of “stewardship of the valley” and involving the customer.
We call it “Community-built brands.” The building of a sustainable brand needs to involve the consumer, let them build that story with you. It’s similar to “brand activism” – standing for something larger than the brand itself. It needs to be blossomed out by giving the marketplace something – like little “chew toys.” We create magical chew toys that the customers can either play with or not – and that feeds into the brand.

M+G: Are you guys mainly a “green” agency? Or do you push for other causes too?

CJ: We’re 100% sustainability driven. We define it in 4 streams. Cultural, social, environmental, and economic. Of those, the two hardest to define are social and cultural.

Social is things like fair trade, fair employment, social justice issues. Cultural is more about as we globalize, how do we retain the inherent magic of individual cultures. A brand can globalize while still staying true to local cultures. How can we help a culture live on for hundreds of years?

M+G: How do you determine what is a truly “good” brand? Vs. not?

CJ: We work on huge brands. WalMart, Frito-Lay … we tell our clients that it’s not a destination we’ll arrive at, this is a journey. We look for brands that are willing to do that.

(With our Outreach group) we ask, how do you activate sustainability inside pre-set cultures? WalMart really did that. The person that’s a blackberry person is the same person that has a family at home. So the approach is based on more than traditional ROI models. The clients we work with has a handle on their own goals here. Ingredient safety, in skin care, and others – what might be “safe” today might actually be causing cancer. So we’re looking to see what companies are open to these kinds of conversations – at the “C” level. We look for a visionary, a hero in the space.

M+G: How do you connect being “good/green” with sales and profits?

CJ: We don’t think they’re mutually exclusive, and they shouldn’t be. We don’t think money is bad. We connect it through the fact that every choice is relevant. Those micro-choices, the very small sustainable choices – laundry detergent or toothpaste – are the choices that either contribute or don’t. They add up to large scale sustainability to save the planet, and also to build sales. Both factors are equally important in today’s economy. Clients come to us because they get that.
Where it gets tricky is when it’s about commercializing sustainability vs. DOING sustainability. And we’re pretty hard core about sniffing that out. We know that every client isn’t doing all they should be, but we’re willing to work with them and make that connection.

Stay tuned for Part 2 of the blog-erview, with more great stuff from Cari and Saatchi S.

Saatchi S: the “Blue Movement”

Saatchi&Saatchi recently opened a new branch of their agency, Saatchi S. It’s the socially-conscious branch of the agency. They call their mission “blue.” (As in, “bigger than green.”)



Saatchi’s worldwide CEO Kevin Roberts has declared the goal of, “transforming one of the world’s great advertising companies, with 7,000 employees in 84 countries, into the world’s most powerful sustainability advocate… (to) radically dematerialize and de-carbonize the products they sell.” Wow.

Founder/CEO of Saatchi’s “S” group Adam Werbauch says, “Shopping gives us an opportunity, a platform, to reach more people than we can reach through traditional means of activism.” Hear, hear.

Saatchi S made at least one top 10 list of “most influential agencies of 2008.” The agency I work for has research outlining the 4 top trends of the coming year, one of them being "good" (i.e. making the world a better place).

I think there's a future in this stuff.

You can watch Adam Werbauch's launch speech about the Saatchi S vision - it's kind of long, but it starts HERE.

Being Good vs. Doing Good

I was looking at a company called Innocent today. They make fruit smoothies, and other foodstuffs. The products are all-natural, and their corporate ethics are squeaky clean. They’re doing “good” simply by being good.

It’s an interesting distinction. Some companies operationally ARE good (i.e. have a conscience), and then there are companies that go out and DO good.

Companies that ARE good: Tom’s of Maine, Innocent (drinks), Method (soap), Icelandic Glacial water, Starbucks fair trade coffees, Kashi and other organic foods, etc. A Hybrid car may fall into this category. They make internal decisions about how they run their business with one eye on profits, the other on impacting the world. The sustainability movement pushes for this sort of thing, and it’s a huge part of “good” marketing. Their customers are fans because of the way they do business.

Then there are companies that DO good. Many of those are featured in this blog. Pedigree helping shelter dogs, Quaker feeding the hungry, Diet Coke advocating heart health, Tropicana saving the rainforest, etc. These companies aren’t necessarily “green” or operationally “good” at all. But they see the value in helping society – not just for the world, but for their brand.

Ideally a company will do both. They’ll BE good, and they’ll DO good as well. But heck, I’ll settle for either.
They’re both very real reasons to choose one brand over another, especially in a parity category. (“Would you like to buy the soda that’s two cents cheaper, or the one that saves babies, ma’am?”)

So while WalMart keeps tweaking it’s operations to become more “green” (thanks in part to the efforts of SaatchiS), shoppers will be looking for ways that part of their consumer buck can go toward making the world a better place in the regular course of buying dog food.

Hey, lazy people can save the world too.