GOODVERTISING

OFFLINE COURSE
BY LIONS AND 42COURSES
 AN INTRODUCTION TO GOODVERTISING

PAGE INDEX Good-what-now?

Should Ad-Land give a damn?
The purpose revolution
1
2
3
The power of the people 4

THE CHALLENGES OF BEING GOOD

The hero trap 5
The sustainability challenge 6
Are you ready to get naked? 7
The challenge of change 8

WHAT IS A PURPOSE?
Finding your brand’s deeper meaning 9
Don’t Panic! 10
Bringing your brand to life, literally 11

HOW TO FIND YOUR PURPOSE

Your brand has a purpose, you just have to find it 12
Tool 1 - What’s the Big Ideal? 13
Tool 2: What you can’t measure, you can’t change 14
Tool 3: Mine your ownable data 15
Tool 4: Find the tension in your business 16

PUTTING YOUR PURPOSE TO WORK

When people change, brands must change 18
Change your benefit 19
From purpose to post-purpose 20
Taking it internal 21
How to activate your customers 22

HOW TO TURN YOUR PURPOSE INTO A CAMPAIGN

An introduction to the how 23
Make it transformative 24
Make it clear 25
Make it motivational 26
Make it creative 27
Make it replicable 28
Make it easy 29
Make it relevant 30

RESPONDING TO MOVEMENTS AS A BRAND

The rise of the movement 31
How brands respond says a lot about them 32
How to Respond with Authenticity 33

MEASURING GOODVERTISING
Is it worth it? 34
What’s the value of good? 35
Show me the money (How it pays to be good) 36
The role for big business 37
Another way Goodvertising pays off 38
How to measure good 39
It’s up to us 40
GOOD-WHAT-NOW?
“You never change things by fighting the existing reality.
To change something, build a new model that makes the
existing model obsolete.”
- Richard Buckminster Fuller
Something strange happened on our way from the
60s to today. Advertising grew a heart. Marketers
and brands started to realise that customers are
human and unique, and don’t want to be sold to,
shouted at, tricked, conned, or treated like sheep.
It’s hard to believe it was any kind of lightbulb
moment, considering how quickly this has become
The New Normal.
From advertising to goodvertising
For those wondering, Goodvertising is also referred
to as purpose-driven advertising. In an effort to do
the right thing, many brands simply jumped on the
bandwagon without giving things a proper thought.
They were attacked for ‘greenwashing’
(pretending to do good for the environment but
not really following through on it) and attaching
themselves to the issue of the moment even if it
didn’t fit with what they did.
In response, brands have been forced to take a
look in the mirror and figure out how they can do
good whilst being true to their brand values and
still grow their bottom line. Even as far back as
2010, it was working for Pepsi.
Instead of running a regular ad campaign, they
made $20 million available to fund community
projects called, Pepsi Refresh The World. Each
project was pitched to Pepsi by the public and over
80 million people voted for them!
The only way to vote was to redeem codes that
were printed under the caps on Pepsi bottles, so
sales went up too. Incredibly over 37% of people in
the USA knew about the project! This just goes to
show how people vote with their hearts and ulti-
mately their feet. No one can afford to ignore this
shift, because it not only requires new knowledge,
but also demands a new approach.
So what is this course all about?
In a nutshell, building more successful brands that
make the world a better place and at the same
time, enable people to achieve their dreams, wish-
es and aspirations in a ‘post-purpose’ era.
We hope you’ll enjoy the good ride.
1
SHOULD AD-LAND GIVE A DAMN?
“‘The majority of people don’t care if two thirds of
brands are still around tomorrow.”
- Havas Meaningful Brands Study
But wait! What’s that got to do with saving the
world? Shouldn’t we just stay in our lane, sell what
we came here to sell, and then go count our
money, like we used to? But nothing’s like it used to
be anymore. Over the last few decades, things have
changed drastically.
If brands want people to notice, remember and
support them, they’re expected to play a bigger
role in the world than just selling stuff.
Plus, up until the 1980s, we didn’t have that much
entertainment (compared to today). There was
limited TV (and it was only in black and white) and
then books, the outdoors and alcohol, and that was
about it. Back then advertising was a part of the
entertainment.
Today, not only are brands up against everything
from social media to Netflix, but also Playstation,
sports, Twitch, Instagram, TikTok, an afternoon
nap, and everything in between. Which means
advertising doesn’t rule the entertainment roost
anymore (in fact, one trust study in the UK put
advertising people in last place, even behind estate
agents and politicians!)
Also, many people see companies and advertising
as part of our environmental and social
degradation. We’ve built empires out of promoting
sugary products, screwed up beauty ideals and
created a material race, where you’re considered
weird if you haven’t bought the newest phone,
even though there’s nothing wrong with your last
one. Creating what feels like a never-ending
spending cycle. So we’ve become untrustworthy
over time.
Another reason we have to change our ways, if we
want to get invited back into people’s homes and
hearts again.
According to the 2020 Edelman Trust Barometer,
80% of people feel that businesses should come up
with solutions to some of society’s biggest
problems, such as unemployment, plastic pollution,
climate change and even racism. To build brands
that people care about, companies need to have
messages that people want to hear.
This course will help you figure out your brand’s
true purpose, and how it can make a real
difference to people and the planet, while still
adding to the bottom line.
In Cannes in 2017, Keith Weed, the then Chief
Marketing Officer of Unilever, explained that their
purposeful brands had outgrown their peers by
over double, and today Unilever’s brands with
purpose are also the most profitable.
2
THE PURPOSE REVOLUTION

“It is not enough to be compassionate – you must act.”

-The Dalai Lama

Look at the rise of vegetarianism and veganism, as well as the move to artisanal and organic foods over
factory processed. And the sheer amount of people choosing to work as freelancers, as opposed to being
‘owned’ by large corporations.Now compare this to where we were 50 years ago. We’ve changed.

Plus, particularly in an affluent Western world (and ever increasingly the rest of the world), we can all buy
whatever we want anyway. So advertising can no longer just sell more and more stuff. If Maslow has taught
us anything it’s how important self-actualisation is to people. Look, it’s right up there at the top of the
triangle, it is our Everest Peak.

As a result, we can’t deny that there has been a
Personal Purpose Revolution around the world.
In alignment with this more examined lifestyle,
the stories brands tell are being scrutinised, even
questioned. Sodas that make people fat, clothing
that contains toxic chemicals, palm oil in shampoo
(responsible for chopping down rainforests),
suddenly all have a lot of explaining to do.
More and more, customers are looking for brands
that mean something AND offer transformative
personal experiences. Even better if the customer
can share those personal experiences on social
media to rack up ‘likes’ and valuable social
currency. AirBnB Experiences do this beautifully.
Offering both tourists and locals the opportunity
to share experiences. Whether it’s sharing their
culture, their skills, or their view of a city or
neighbourhood.
Other than offering the portal for access (and of
course taking a small cut), the rest of the trans-
action is out of the brand’s hands. The locals and
tourists build the experiences together and create
a beautiful two-way-street that ultimately adds val-
ue to the brand and to everyone’s lives, livelihoods,
and Instagram feeds. There’s way more recognition
and reward in involving the customer, making them
feel a part of something. That’s working towards
the customers’ self-actualisation that we
mentioned as the Holy Grail in the last lesson.
3
THE POWER OF THE PEOPLE

In line with the global shifts we’re experiencing, businesses and leaders are increasingly losing
power to people. Procter & Gamble have been around for more than 181 years, selling soaps and
detergents. They have some of the best researchers in the world and marketing budgets that run into the
googillions. But you can still click around on YouTube and find millions of people rather trusting some kid
who does something with soap in his basement (in this case over 21 million and counting!). The internet
can kill your brand if you’re not careful.

Brands need to be more aware of customer opinion and the temperature out there. As a customer, when
last did you make a big purchase without doing a quick search online? Today, people speak and the world
listens. This more transparent market is making the customer’s purchasing decisions more conscious, and
brands’ actions more considered, which is good news for sustainability.

Your company, brand or product might have the best

reasons in the world to do what you’re doing, all of
your products might be certified, you may comply with
every national law – and yet, it’s still not enough to
satisfy the people’s Twitter tribunal.

In the UK (and many other countries outside of the

USA), the much beloved brand Starbucks felt the heat

when it was found that they had only paid less than 1% in tax in 15 years after sales of over £3 Billion. Yes,
they just did what any other multinational corporation was doing, but the social media blade of the
guillotine was raised. So the trick is to turn the power of the people in your favour.

Easier said than done. Stick around for the rest of this course and we will help you ‘Just do it’.

4
THE HERO TRAP

When marketers woke up and realised they can

be a force for good, it was a massive novelty, and
brands streamed into the space, brandishing
purpose and their good intentions. Fast forward a
decade, and this approach has become
over-traded. You can barely buy anything without it
being labelled hipster handmade,
community-improving, no this-or-that. These days
even just a lowly piece of cheese is out to save the
world. Whether it really does or not is another
matter. We’ve fallen into a classic Hero Trap.
“Some people are so good at
When every brand is a superhero, it’s hard to know
pretending to be nice.”
who you can really trust. How the hell can we
believe you? - EP David

In 2019, according to the Edelman Trust Barometer
research, there is a warning for brands. While
societal trust definitely accelerates purchase
decisions, customers are becoming increasingly
concerned that brands are taking victory laps on
social issues without actually effecting any change.
56% of Edelman respondents said they felt brands
use a stance on social issues as a marketing ploy.
And 53% believed that brands have become less
than truthful when talking about their impact on
society. So sure, people value brands that do good,
but we’ve also become cynical and struggle to trust
that brands are legitimately doing good and aren’t
just greenwashing/’goodwashing’.
We need to really believe it to believe in them.
Many brands have also helped chip away at
customers’ trust. By making wild claims about their
environmental credentials, which often don’t take
much to disprove. (e.g. Oil company ads singing
about how environmentally friendly they are).
In 2019, popular ethical, vegan fashion brand
Matt & Nat were given a watchdog warning by the
Advertising Standards Authority, after misleading
customers about their green credentials and how
sustainable some of their products really were.
The claim was that they had exaggerated their use
of recycled materials in a print ad. The retailer’s use
of toxic PVC and lack of transparency was called
out by environmental campaigners, as well as
Greenpeace and animal charity PETA who weighed
in and stressed that the use of PVC does not qualify
as sustainable.
You know how they say, that’s the kind of PR you
cannot buy? Well, that’s the kind of PR you cannot
sell! It’s very hard to come back from.
If you asked a psychologist to evaluate most
brands’ purposes today, the diagnosis would be
somewhere between megalomania or delusion.
With each brand trying to outdo the other’s efforts
No wonder the relationship between people and
brands has become even more strained and
company’s motives are more in question
than ever..
5
THE SUSTAINABILITY CHALLENGE

You’ve probably already noticed, but sustainability

is the new black.Out of the five global megatrends
that are pegged to transform business over the
next thirty years, four of them are sustainability
trends. Ignore these challenges at your peril,
because these trends are going to be life-changing
for the role of brands in our world.

They are going to dramatically transform how we

eat, shop and live.

The 5 Global Mega Trends: “Infinite growth of material

1. Urbanisation: More people are moving into
towns and cities, which changes the way brands
need to think about their products and services.
(Yes, the COVID pandemic has halted this some-
what…but mainly in the western world. In India,
China, Africa and most of Asia this trend is only
strengthening and even in the west will most likely
continue given time)
E.g. Ford now sees themselves as a transportation
business, not a car company. Their new aim is to
get people from A to B in the most effective way.
E.g. 2. IKEA has reached peak furniture sales in
Europe, because we are all living squeezed into tiny
apartments, so we don’t need so much furniture
anymore, so they have had to completely relook
their business model.
2. Climate change: More real in our lives (and our
children’s lives) now than ever. It will change the
face of thousands of businesses, and create new
opportunities. If you’re a brand that sells winter
clothing, for example, the length of your biggest
sale season may increase (or decrease). This is a
huge opportunity for brands to make a change and
a difference.
consumption in a finite world
is an impossibility.”
- E.F. Schumacher
4. Resource scarcity: There are so many
industries that will be forever altered with this one.
Cars spring to mind, not only are oil and gas a finite
resource they also create huge amounts of carbon
emissions when they are used.
On a mission to make environmentally
sustainable personal transportation sexy and cool,
Tesla entered the electrical car manufacturing
market with a purposeful vision that disrupted the
entire industry.
5. Digital Rise: This is the only global mega-trend
not directly linked to sustainability, well not at first
glance that is. So many companies were caught
unprepared for the massive rise of digital, which
continues to transform the world of marketing.
There’s hardly an industry out there not influenced
by digital transformation.

3. Demographic changes: The average age in Transformation and success for digital begins at
Japan is 47. In Mozambique, it’s 17 and, in Nigeria, the top. Research shows that when there are digital
it’s 19. So these different populations demand experts on the board, the company’s more likely to
entirely different things from brands. In Japan, be on the cutting edge.
senior citizens are an important demographic.
While in Mozambique or Nigeria, surely the youth
has to be the priority? These demographic changes
affect how brands consider their purposes in
various markets.poses in various markets. 6
ARE YOU READY TO GET NAKED?

For years, Chipotle, an American chain of

“A lack of transparency
fast-casual restaurants, advocated its sustainable
and healthy eating practices, only to face scandals results in distrust and a deep
around the inhumane treatment of its pigs, bad sense of insecurity.”
labour practices among its tomato farmers and
foodborne illness scandals across its restaurants.
- Dalai Lama

Which just goes to show that the increasing

amount of accessible information is pushing the
frontiers further. In a transparent market, the truth
cannot be distorted or decorated. People are no
longer only interested in knowing if their new TV
set is making them look trendy or design-oriented,
they also want, and sometimes demand, to know
its backstory.

Where was it made? What’s its carbon footprint?

How were the workers who produced it treated?
What was used to make it? Does any of it contain
Brave and gross, but also super honest and
toxins? Where did the raw materials come from,
transparent. Sales improved a bit, but sentiment
under what circumstances were they extracted,
improved a lot, and so did customers’ perception of
and when you throw it away, what damage will it
Burger King offering higher quality, fresher, more
do to the planet? At its core, transparency is about
organic ingredients, and ultimately a more
being honest, even if the truth is an ugly one.
trustworthy and transparent heart.
Take Burger King for example, in early 2020, they
And in this day and age, that’s exactly what the
created an ad that showed one of their burgers in
world is hungry for.
time-lapse slow-motion, slowly going mouldy over
a period of time. To illustrate that they put fewer
preservatives in their food. Brave and gross, but
also super honest and transparent.

Sales improved a bit, but sentiment improved a

lot, and so did customers’ perception of Burger
King offering higher quality, fresher, more organic
ingredients, and ultimately a more trustworthy and
transparent heart. And in this day and age, that’s
exactly what the world is hungry for.

7
THE CHALLENGE OF CHANGE

The online clothing store Honest by Jessica Alba has chosen to be open about even the smallest
details in production, as well as about its products’ social and environmental impact. However, it has
taken things one step further by showing exactly how much it pays for each material going into a pair
of shoes and how much everyone earns. It’s a super risky move. And just five years ago it would have
sounded ludicrous. But today it can make business sense. Products and services are increasingly
quantified and compared on a multitude of parameters, no longer just price and quality.

Social, environmental, health and other value-added factors come into play. This puts
unprecedented pressure on brands engaging in business-as-usual rather than preparing for a new,
sustainable marketplace.

“Amenability and profitability are totally and

inextricably linked.”
- Paco Underhill, Author of Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping.

Carlsberg decided to redesign their six-pack of cans, to remove the added and now clearly unnecessary
plastic. And just like that, something that we all assumed was unavoidable is instantly redundant and
preventable. And we should never underestimate how important that is to today’s customers.

It’s these kinds of game-changing shifts that brands competing in your industry could already be looking at.
The opportunity exists for you to take a risk, and get there first.

8
FINDING YOUR BRAND’S DEEPER MEANING
For years, doing good was nothing more than a
philanthropic gesture, with board members
signing a cheque or a company owner donating to
a personal cause. The long-term effect of these is
hard to quantify, besides a copper plaque left to
erode on a building or bench, or a sponsorship on
the back of a t-shirt someone will grow out of, sleep
in, or only use when they’re painting.
“The two most important days
in life are the day you’re born
and the day you discover the
reason why.”
– Mark Twain
Now, in our increasingly social and transparent
markets, brands are moving to more relevant and
considered longer-term corporate citizenships.
Offering opportunities for brands to connect with
customers on a deeper level by starting
conversations around relevant issues that elevate
the brand AND make a positive difference.
So today, brave but smart brands are leaving the
comfort zones of a passive, always-agreeable view,
easy out, or mindless sponsorships, to rather stand
for something impactful or meaningful.
The world wants brand partnerships that illustrate
an authentic, relevant stance, in alignment with a
brand’s values and community. It’s about finding
your purpose as a brand.
The Body Shop is a classic example. They have
been a pioneer in committing to a cause and
harvesting the long-term results. Since their
beginning in 1976, they’ve been known for their
strong focus on ethics and environmental
protection.
Their founder, Anita Roddick, campaigned to put an
end to animal testing, working together with animal
rights organization, PETA. The first campaign was
launched in the late 1980s, and in 1996 one of their
campaigns alone collected over 4 million
signatures, just through their shops in the UK.
At the time, The Body Shop didn’t spend big bucks
on media or advertising – their messages were
driven mainly through in-store, product labelling,
grassroots tactics, word of mouth and by educating
and involving the store personnel.
Maybe this low-profile media strategy was the
secret of their activist appeal back in the day?
Whatever it was, their long-standing commitment
paid off. As a result of the campaign, the European
Union banned animal testing for finished cosmetics
products in 2004 and for ingredients in 2009.
And it didn’t damage their bottom line either.
In 2006, they were the second biggest cosmetics
retailer in the world. And that same year they were
acquired by L’Oreal for £130 million.
9
BEING PURPOSEFUL DOESN’T HAVE TO BE SERIOUS

Hold on a second! Just because your brand is
purposeful, doesn’t mean it has to be serious.
There are plenty of humorous ways to tackle issues
and create a purpose. In fact, you can find and
activate your purpose in any mode, style or tone.
The big trick is to make sure that you are always
honest and true to your brand’s tone and
personality. It made perfect sense for The Body
Shop to tackle animal cruelty, but is not as
relevant for a brewery, or a car brand. It would be
nice and fine and upstanding of them, of course,
but it wouldn’t be as relevant to their brand.
The ad uses humour on the outside, to discuss
methane, and how changing cows’ diets can reduce
greenhouse gases. Cos nobody wants to discuss
that in a serious way. The ad’s supporting cast
includes a herd of farting cows, farting cotton wool
clouds, and the video ends at an amusement park
called Low Carbon Land with a cow carousel and
a Whopper roller coaster. There’s yodelling too, of
course. And diamond-encrusted gas masks.
And the tagline of the ad that brings it all home, is,
“Since we’re part of the problem, we’re working to
be part of the solution.”

So whether your brand is super light-hearted, or as

serious as a heart attack, there will be the perfect
purpose out there somewhere just waiting for you.
Speaking of light-hearted, in 2020, Burger King
released an ad that mimicked a music video,
delivering an eccentric country singalong about
farting cows .

Yes, you read that right:

“When cows fart and burp and splatter, well

it ain’t no laughing matter, they’re releasing
methane every time they do.”

10
BRINGING YOUR BRAND TO LIFE, LITERALLY

The truth is brands that do well have a point of being, a point of purpose. Whether it’s serious or less
so. IKEA, creating a better everyday life for the many, DOVE, challenging beauty stereotypes, or The
Economist, making us feel smart. And brands that do this well tend to evolve an intriguing emotional
relevance. With qualities quite similar to those of an interesting person.

You see, we aren’t drawn to the people in our lives because they’re cheap or expensive. We gravitate
towards someone because of some interior quality. Perhaps they’re thoughtful or caring or even just
funny or quirky. The same goes for creating brands that people gravitate towards. Giving your brand
these inner qualities will give your brand a personality.

And that’s what makes people more likely to feel an emotional response towards them. Virgin was
created by a big personality, a maverick billionaire who did crazy stunts, and re-imagined how brands
could do things. And his personality became the brand’s personality. People felt it offered something
they were drawn to. But not all brands can rely on a person to give them soul, and it’s not always
needed. After all, brands like IKEA are much loved globally, but would you be able to name the CEO
without the use of Google?

(His name is Jesper Brodin btw)

So if you don’t rely on a person to give your brand soul, you have to at least rely on your brand having a
personality. Otherwise, the danger is that big brands can feel devoid of personality or humanity.
So, how do you know what your personality is? Well, first, you need to know what your purpose is…
good news! That’s coming up next.

11
YOUR BRAND HAS A PURPOSE, YOU JUST
HAVE TO FIND IT

Not every company is born with a burning purpose,
a distinct legacy or a strong, value-led leader at its
head, so your brand’s purpose may not seem clear
to you yet. Yet! And finding it isn’t always easy.
Pinpointing relevant issues for your brand can help
you start to unearth your brand’s deeper purpose.
The trick is to find the right stories or partners, at
the right time, for the right brand. Over the next
lessons, we will share a number of practical tools
and processes you can try, to help you discover
your brand’s true, long-term purpose.
So that you can move from snappy jokes, irrelevant
sponsorships and random story-telling or
sponsored content, to something that matters to
your customers AND makes a difference to your
bottom line. You can’t talk about purpose in adland
without first mentioning Dove.
Arguably they have been the brand that for the last
almost two decades has been a leading light.

There are, of course, many different ways to find

your purpose. But perhaps one of these tools will
help you find yours.

“A brand without purpose is just a product”

- Keith Weed, ex-Marketing Director, Unilever.

12
TOOL 1 - WHAT’S THE BIG IDEAL?
Finding your brand’s purpose, or if you like, your brand’s Big Ideal, can be a little like going on a journey.
And there are of course always many ways to get to a destination.
Here’s one possible route. A technique created by Robyn Putter of Ogilvy.
STEP ONE (10-30mins)
Get your team in a room (or a Zoom. :) ).
You’ll need a whiteboard and no judgements,
everyone gets to call out anything that comes to
mind. This is how we get to the good stuff,
although not all of it will be good at the time. First,
ask your team to share ideas of tensions that exist
for your brand, your market or your customer. Or
to put it another way, what are the problems you
need to solve?
For example, if you’re a toothpick brand, it
may be.
- People want a strong toothpick but plastic is not an
option.
- People want to get things out of their teeth, but they
want to do it in a polite way if they are in public.
- Half the world is eating itself to death, the other half
is starving.
- This is where your team needs to look at the market,
warts and all. Often even a negative can be useful and
get turned into a positive. Or at the very least guide
you in the direction of your possible purpose.
STEP TWO (10-30mins)
Next, have your team share their thoughts on what
things your product or company are really amazing
at doing. And here you can go as broad or narrow
as you want.
Again, if you’re a toothpick brand and company,
it could be things like:
- Your product is extra strong, so they don’t
break easily.
- They smell magical leaving you with a minty
fresh taste.
- They’re made out of an innovative substrate
nobody else uses.
- They’re bio-degradable or recyclable.
- You’re all proudly from outer mongolia.
You get the picture.
STEP THREE (30mins)
Now narrow the ideas in both steps down to the
top three to five points, give yourself 15mins to de-
bate the key pros and then 15 mins to debate the
key cons. Try to be brutal.
STEP FOUR (Good to sleep on it
sometimes)
Next have your team throw around sentences that
draw lines between your tension and your benefits.
If you need a structure, the one Ogilvy uses is:
Brand X believes the world would be a better place
if YZ.
So, for that toothpick brand, you might end up with
this kind of thing:
Coolio Toothpicks(™) believes the world would
be a better place, if more food ended up in the
right place.
And that would lead to massive CSI work getting
food to hungry people, disposing of food waste in
a better way, AND helping people make sure the
food is in their tummies, not between their teeth.
13
TOOL 2: WHAT YOU CAN’T MEASURE, YOU
CAN’T CHANGE
Finding your Big Ideal is just one way of skinning
this cat (please don’t skin cats!). This tool will make
you take a hard look at your business. A look that
leaves no stone unturned.
This is how Puma got to their brand’s purpose by
measuring something they (or anyone else for that
matter) had never looked at before.
It’s an old story, but it doesn’t make it any less
relevant now. As Jochen Zeitz delivered Puma’s
yearly financial results back in the early 2000s, he
shared the troubling fact that Puma did more than
€145 million in environmental damage (water use,
land use, air pollution and waste).
They measured every aspect of the good and
damage they were doing. And as a result, in 2011,
Puma became the world’s first major corporation
to publish details of the cost of its impact on the
environment. The combined cost of the carbon
they emitted and water they used in 2010 was
94.4m euros (equal to $134.3m or £82.8m).
They found the impact of greenhouse gases was
equivalent to 47m euros, while water use was
47.4m euros. The figures included the company
and its suppliers’ impact. It was a bold, unusual (at
the time) but calculated approach, and became the
starting blocks for the company to find their
purpose. Puma hoped these figures would help
them build a more “resilient and sustainable
business model”.
“Sustainability is essential to the health and future
of our business,” said chief executive, Jochen Zeitz.
And as a result, they soon rolled out their first
more environmentally friendly collection. And now
today, Puma shows the environmental costs in
euros on the price tags of their InCycle products,
and they have already succeeded in cutting down
those costs by almost 30%.
More and more companies are starting to under-
stand how the sustainability agenda can impact on
financial returns in this way.
Saving money, being slightly kinder to the planet,
being more sustainable, and making more brand
friends, by finding and following their purpose.
Measuring your input, your output and anything
else you’ve never even considered before, can help
companies minimise costs, manage risks and as in
Puma’s case, generate revenues in the form of an
entirely new, different and popular range.
So, how to apply this in your own business or
brand? Perhaps start with what you already
measure. Now, are there any glaring gaps? Is there
something you could be looking at that you haven’t
considered before? Or do you already measure
something that could open up an opportunity or
send you in a certain direction?
Or you could look at what other industries your
brand impacts. And ask yourself, are any of them
fragile, or in need of highlighting, awareness or
assistance or change? Could changing the way you
do one small something, impact the world, your
customer, or even shake up your whole industry?
If so, you might just have found your purpose.
14
TOOL 3: MINE YOUR OWNABLE DATA

“Wind for Prosperity is exactly the kind of bold and

ambitious initiative we need to combat
energy poverty.” - Strive Masiyiwa, Rockefeller Foundation Board of Directors

Danish wind energy company, Vestas, is no doubt Do any of these uses for your data feel
passionate about wind. However, it was a more like they could help you find the
analytical, big data approach that led them to their
purpose in your business?
purpose, and ultimately one of their most
successful innovations.
1) Detecting trends (If you sold shoes and you
noticed an upswing in the sale of vegan shoes,
They looked at data surrounding countries rich in
that might lead you to look to the vegan market
wind resources and then overlaid it with data on
for your purpose.)
countries poor in financial resources. With that,
Wind For Prosperity was born. In Denmark, when
2) Predicting various outcomes (Do your sales
more energy-efficient windmills are put in place,
increase or decrease drastically at any specific
the old windmills are resold to poor, but wind-rich
time of year? Could that help you find a
countries at an affordable price. It’s good business
purpose around a particular time of the year?)
for both parties.
3) Modelling target audience (What data do you
So that’s how right-brain thinking can take your
have about your target audience? Perhaps then
brand to remarkable places and help you find a
your purpose targets a specific demographic?)
purpose that improves lives as well as your bottom
line. One way in for you here is to look at possible
4) Gathering information about the product/
comparison sets and keep an eye open for gaps
service use (Is there a customer behaviour that
or opportunities. After all, you have something
pops out of your data that you’ve never
nobody else has, and that is very specific data and
considered before? That could lead to a
inside information on your own business.
behaviour change driven purpose, or if not your
purpose, certainly product improvements or
Mining your own data could just help you find a
new and improved ranges.)
gap, an opportunity or an issue that might feed
into your purpose.
Data mining helps to understand certain aspects
of customer behaviour. This knowledge allows
companies to adapt accordingly and offer the best
possible services. (Perhaps you could look at the
negative data you have from your business, where
are people complaining the most, and how might
that inspire your purpose?)

The secret hack is to engage with your data, both

the positive and the negative, to extract patterns
or come up with predictions regarding processes,
gaps or customer behaviour? It may start off
feeling like you’re looking for a needle in a
haystack, but when you do find it, it will be worth
its weight in gold.
15
TOOL 4: FIND THE TENSION IN YOUR BUSINESS

We’re at a time in history where there is a lot for OMO turned this on its head; they found the good
brands to do besides create a cheap-sell or hollow in dirt, which had previously been their enemy.
‘pretending-to-be-different’ branding fix. Take a Urging people to let their children play, because
close look at your brand and its product or playing is learning, and that’s why dirt is good.
services. Listen to all your stakeholders from the
most loyal house mum to your biggest critics and Parents felt they understood their lives and kids,
the trending news. kids got out in the dirt more, and OMO sold more
washing powder. Simply because OMO no longer
Now ask yourself, where is the tension in your brushed their dirt under the carpet.
business? From the worried mum, concerned
about the sugar content in her kids’ cereal, to
paradoxical trends like obesity and malnutrition,
poverty and extreme wealth. As well as the rights
of men and women, these tensions abound for all
brands. It’s just that we’re used to brushing them
under the carpet, pretending we don’t’ see them
and looking the other way.

It’s time to be brutally honest, look for the positive

and negative in both your advertised story and the
real story behind your product or organisation.
Now, see how those positive or negative aspects
can be turned around to help you make a
difference. Before global brand OMO (called Persil
in the UK) found their purpose, most washing
powders didn’t talk too much about dirt. Other
than showing fake spills usually generated in a lab
or photographic studio. Dirt was bad.

16
WHEN PEOPLE CHANGE, BRANDS MUST CHANGE
We’ve already established that the idea of
customers defined only by buying is giving way to a
new role. One of better living. Or to be all Maslow
about it, self-actualisation. So millions of people
around the world are reshaping their lives, so they
can live better. And the brands who recognise this
shift are benefiting.
Look at how Marie Kondō has trended, for
example. She embodies this mass customer
movement towards taking an active role in
changing their own lives for the better.
“The space in which we live should
be for the person we are becoming
now, not for the person we were in
the past.” - Marie Kondō
People are genuinely more motivated to act when
they’re in charge of their own life and happiness.
This customer mind-shift is a key insight, guiding
marketers towards a new way of moving
customers from intention to action. So, one
question that will enable you to change customer
behaviour at scale and unlock sustainable growth
that benefits all, is:
‘Who can you help me become?’
Enabling your customers’ personal transformation,
will move them from intention to action. It’s
win-win. The Tiny House Movement is another
example of how changing mindsets are causing
changing behaviours, creating sustainable
opportunities for brands. Millennials aren’t buying
property in the same way previous generations
have. Not only because they can’t afford it, but also
because they live with different values and
intentions. As a result, the idea of living small and
mobile has gained so much traction, there are
whole TV shows dedicated to it.
Not to mention all the industries and brands that
have popped up to support this way of life. Those
tiny mobile home sinks and cupboards during the
day that turn into beds and stoves overnight don’t
just create themselves. IKEA is another brand that
has embraced the value of self-actualisation. Not
only are customers able to build their own
furniture, but the company works hard to innovate
to match people’s lives.
One more recent example of this from IKEA is their
Cannes Lions Grand Prix winning work called “This
Ables”. We’ve added a behind the scenes case
study for you below. If you have 11mins, it’s an
inspirational story and an incredible piece of work.
Up until recently, people were looking for
essentials, like food, and a roof over their heads.
But as time has moved on, our needs have
changed, and while those things are still
necessities, our motivations, drives and desires
have shifted. We want to be more self-actualised,
more aware, more active in the world.
That’s why brands need to ladder up in the
purpose department so that they become more
about helping people emotionally and mentally. As
well as physically. Take modern brands like Tesla,
for example. These brands have a higher calling
that works more on an emotional level for people.
Their higher purpose is to save the world and start
an electric revolution, rather than competing on
price, they compete on purpose.
Find the right purpose, and you’ll find that it’s
priceless. (If you don’t believe us ask Elon Musk).
17
CHANGE YOUR BENEFIT

Now that we understand the way customers are looking to live their lives differently, we can make our brands
behave differently, too. By moving from a functional, self-centred or transactional relationship with
customers, to sharing a transformational relationship with them. A functional, self-centred or transactional
relationship with customers might look something like this:

“Believe in us as a company to bring about change.’ or ‘We care about this or that.’
or ‘This is why we do what we do.’ Or ‘Please just buy this thing we sell, because
it is nice.”

A transformational relationship would look like this: “Believe in your own ability to bring about change.’ Or
‘This is how we can change the world together.” You can see how this kind of relationship is less static and
more rewarding, as it enables people to become their own agents of change. Which is important since so
many people are no longer just buying what you make, but are also striving towards a “better me”.

In the last decade, Honda has changed from focussing strategically on being a brand that makes cars, to a
brand that gets people from A to B in the most efficient way.

This is a great example of a brand moving successfully from a very functional benefit to a very
transformational one. Here’s what moving from a functional to a transformational benefit positioning
might look like in the car category:

Functional benefit - a faster car

Emotional benefit - the most masculine car
Societal benefit - the most environmentally friendly car
Transformational benefit (right at the top of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, as it unlocks self-actualisation) -
Being a more conscious traveller.

18
FROM PURPOSE TO POST-PURPOSE
Purpose advertising focuses primarily on functional
benefits, post-purpose focuses more on
transformational impact. You can start to see how
this shift from a functional to a transformative
brand is about so much more than just a benefit.
It positively impacts and guides every element of
your business, from R&D to product development
(like the IKEA example in the lesson before),
marketing, PR, customer relations, promotions,
hiring and sustainability.
“Don’t seek to be the loudest voice
in the room, but seek to be a clear
distinctive voice”
- Bernard Kelvin Clive
It also gives the brand so much more to work with,
than one-sided messaging about what they do.
Ie: Make faster/more beautiful/more expensive/
cheaper/better cars. Shifting to a transformative
benefit reshapes the branding landscape and fo-
cuses efforts on the tangible outcome that people
can feel organisations play in their lives.
Such as making them healthier or wiser, or in
Honda’s case, making them more conscious
travellers. And in IKEA’s case, making them part of
the process (and fit into their lives more
conveniently, literally and figuratively.) When Dove
changed from a functional brand that made soap,
to a transformative brand that helped all women
feel and be more beautiful, they weren’t just
changing their benefit or their pay offline.
It affected every single element of their business,
even their supply chain.
The company looked at diversity in the leadership
of all their partners, from their logistics to their
product designers and their shipping partners.
Ultimately cutting contracts and changing
suppliers who didn’t share their ideals or world
view.They don’t just say what they believe. They live
and breathe it at every step and every level of
their organisation.
19
THE ARROW
So, how can we change the role of our brands in
people’s lives? One way is to refocus our attention
on our customers and the role our brands and
products play in their lives, which will instantly
enable us to create more meaningful and mutual
relationships. The Arrow is a tool used to refocus
brands, marketers and a company’s efforts on who
we can enable people to become. To help them
move towards their dreams and aspirations.
We often make the mistake of selling what makes
the brand special in the market, like a wow colour,
or a faster processor, instead of what could make
The Arrow helps us make this shift by asking four simple questions:
Find your What
WHAT product do you sell or service do you
deliver?
e.g. running shoes.
Find your How
HOW are you unique in delivering that product or
service? This is what makes your offering really
stand out.
e.g. convenience or product transparency, or maybe
it’s technology.
Find your Who
This is the core question. You ask, ‘Who can you
help people become?’ This is the personal
transformation you enable.
e.g. a mindful runner.
the people who use it special. Like making you
more unique, or making you faster at what you do.
We’ve been selling a predefined identity or vision
instead of a personal transformation. The Arrow
points and drives people towards action. And
Goodvertising at its core is about moving away
from navel-gazing and moving towards more
definitive action, the kind that makes a difference
in peoples’ lives.
Find your When
When do you want people to action this?
e.g. Is this for people at a certain life phase or
situation? Or does this need to be done at a
certain time?
This is the question that produces answers that will
help you motivate people to create the change they
want to see in their lives.
This will help you create a transformative promise,
that shows how your product or service can enable
your customer, and help you stand out from your
competitor’s positioning.
For example, Red Bull owns that the-sky-is-no-
limit role in people’s lives, pushing them further
and elevating a caffeine enriched drink to a
transformative positioning.
20
TAKING IT INTERNAL
GUY WHO MAKES CHOCOLATE BARS: So what
does your company do?
GUY WHO WORKS AT SPACEX: We’re an American
aerospace manufacturer and space transportation
services company, working on a range of fully
reusable launch vehicles, that will reduce space
transportation costs, and be capable of carrying
humans to Mars and other destinations in the solar
system. What does your company do?
GUY WHO MAKES CHOCOLATE BARS: We make
chocolate bars.
The thing is, an organisation’s brand purpose is just
as important inside the business as it is in the
external messaging. After all, which company
would you rather work for? One that wants to
ensure that the next generation grows up enjoying
a positive relationship with the way they look, to
help them raise their self-esteem and realise their
full potential, like Dove. Or one that aims to unite
the world through sport to create a healthy planet,
active communities and an equal playing field for
all, like Nike.
“You want to wake up in the
morning and think the future is
going to be great - and that’s what
being a spacefaring civilization is all
about. It’s about believing in the
future and thinking that the future
will be better than the past.
And I can’t think of anything more
exciting than going out there and
being among the stars.”
- Elon Musk
Or one that just sells stuff. Even if you’re a fan of
chocolate, buying stuff, or are partial to a
well-knitted sweater, the rewards of working with a
company that has a greater brand purpose has way
more longevity for an employee. And chances are,
if an employee buys into the very core of a well-
lived out purpose in your organisation, they are
likely to not only stick around longer, but also work
harder, and be more activated and more involved.
The bottom line, both literally and figuratively, is
that your brand’s purpose has the ability to create
a profound impact internally in your organisation.
Getting your staff onboard with your purpose and
vision is one of the most important and unifying
things you can do as an organisation or brand.
Ultimately it’s about creating a culture that your
staff can believe in, buy into and action at work
every day. We guarantee you this will result in
lower staff turnover, higher staff engagement, and
that unquantifiable but oh so important staff care
factor. So logically, it helps if your purpose has a
deeper meaning that your staff and the world can
buy into, other than simply ‘selling stuff’, or ‘making
money’.
If you want an incredible example of a brand
clearly setting its culture, the most talked about
example tends to be Netflix, they created their
infamous Netflix Culture deck years ago.
Things you can do to help bring people
along internally:
1. Share your vision and purpose as a part
of your on-boarding.
2. Work it through with your team to make
them feel part of the process
3. Don’t just write your vision or purpose
down, show it in action in the decisions
you make (from the decor, to hiring, to
evaluations, to end of year parties, to
vendors, to the jobs you do, or chose
not to)
21
HOW TO ACTIVATE YOUR CUSTOMERS

The aim is not to just create campaigns like we’ve
always known them, but rather to design the kind
of transformative platforms that are re-writing the
relationship between brands and people and
turning customers into co-creators of content.
There is no mass-market, factory-produced content
in this new branding universe.
Inspired brands are empowering an army of the
willing to join a shared mission. It’s like creating a
Wikipedia of campaigns, where anyone passionate
about your brand or your challenge or your
campaign, can create content they love, content
they’re excited about and content they want to
share with the world.
attributes of transformative campaigns, to help you
create your own. So you can move your customers
from intention to action, and help them achieve
something or become better versions of
themselves.
These attributes don’t guarantee success, of
course, if only marketing was that simple, but they
can serve as a checklist when you’re creating your
next platform.

In 2010, American Express created Small Business

Saturday, a new shopping day between
Black Friday and Cyber Monday, to support small
businesses, create jobs, preserve neighbourhoods
and fuel local economies nationwide. In its second
year, the campaign went mainstream with a
campaign that activated the small business
community, customers, media and brand partners,
and even local and national government officials.
Even President Barack Obama tweeted about it,
now that’s participation.

Today, what started as a simple idea of supporting

small businesses during the holiday season has
transformed into a permanent fixture on the
American shopping calendar. It’s time for us to
become more like game designers than campaign
designers. In the next chapter, we’ll cover seven

22
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE HOW
So now you’ve found the perfect purpose for your
organisation or brand. Whooohhoooo! That means
you have started on the road of a long, prosperous
and fulfilling journey. By now, thanks to the last
chapter, you’ve also hopefully figured out how to
put it to work internally, so that you can create the
kind of corporate culture, which will make
strangers want to work with you, and employees
want to stay with you.
Now it’s time to figure out your front-facing, public
comms and how you’re going to activate your
customers and make them love you even more.
Nine times out of ten, this means that the job to be
done here is to set your sights on your overarching
theme or purpose, and then create a series of
campaigns over time that all talk to that same
purpose. By fleshing it out, looking at it from
different angles and bringing it to life in different
ways, in the long-term.
Take Dove, for example. Their purpose has been
‘Real Beauty’ for ages now. They have stuck to it like
soap. And kudos to them, they have never changed
their focus, not even for a millisecond.
‘Real Beauty’ is always at the
heart of their work.
They’ve found their overarching theme and stuck
with it, in ever more meaningful and creative ways
as the years go by. And the rewards for them, as
the market leader, have been tangible, Nielsen
research found that for every $1 Dove spent on
their real beauty brand campaign they got $4.42
in return! So forget location location location, here
the most important asset is focus, focus focus.
You can’t regularly change your purpose if you
want people to buy into it, because that takes time.
Plus, this is the one thing you really truly believe
in. You wouldn’t trust a person who was always
changing their mind about what they believe in, so
the same goes for your favourite, or soon-to-be-fa-
vourite brand.
Next up, we’d like to share seven tools that will help
you activate your purpose or your good into a
campaign that will set the world on fire. One
person at a time.
23
MAKE IT TRANSFORMATIVE
In 2018 Nike created the Unlimited Stadium. A
stadium in the shape of a running shoe that creat-
ed the ultimate challenge for a runner, it was You
vs Yourself. Your shoe is programmed to track your
time running a lap, and then you’re encouraged to
race yourself, and beat your own time.
Customers are challenging themselves. And that’s
an important element of a transformative platform.
In the case of Nike’s Unlimited Stadium, the
individual is bettering themselves. But you can
also enable your customer as a creator to learn
or achieve something, or to try something new, or
even just to have a laugh. There is a transformation
happening there. And that is the key. So be sure
that you are setting clear transformative goals.
What is it that you want your customer to do?
It helps to think more like game
designers than ad creators.
As with games, there needs to be something
people can play to achieve, a mission of sorts, and
the goal has to be transformative for those who
take part. Moving people from one state of being
to another, from an intent to a self-actualisation, or
from an old-me to a better-me.
When building these kinds of platforms, it’s also
important to add friction to the process. Because
when we feel challenged (i.e. when we‘re engaged
in doing something that requires effort), it results
in the sense of accomplishment. Even better if it’s
an accomplishment that makes the customer feel
better about themselves.
The challenge for the brand undertaking this kind
of exercise is to find the right balance. For example,
getting your customer to write a novel for you is
obviously too big a leap, nobody is going to do that.
And then just asking them to click a button is too
small a challenge, where’s the reward in that?
So it’s the Goldilocks Principle, you need to figure
out how much of a challenge is jussssst right to
engage and reward your customer.
By challenging runners to better themselves, Nike
managed to do it juuuuust right. This is where you
figure out why you, as an organisation, encourage
people to do what they do. But never forget to
consider people’s perspective – what’s their drive
to take part? What transformation will they get out
of it?
24
MAKE IT CLEAR
To make it easy for people to get involved with
your transformative campaign, you need to make
the rules clear. In 2018, The Colombian Ministry
of Communication & Information created My Line
Powered By Google. A traditional telephone
landline people can call no matter the time of day
or the device. It was simple - the only thing people
needed to do is to call 6000913 and ask whatever
they wanted to.
Users were encouraged to place a call to this
regular telephone number and ask Google
Assistant any question. This technology makes
search in remote areas available to people who
don’t have access to smartphones or computers.
It worked because it was simple. And for the first
time in history, 99.3% of the population of
Colombia had access to all the information
available in Google Systems.
The rules or guidelines for your campaign give
people the recipe for how to participate. As long as
your rules aren’t too prescriptive or complicated,
and open enough for customers to shape their own
levels of participation, so they feel enabled, and
have a sense of self-determination.
The social media platform, TikTok, does this
magnificently. You can make your video from
scratch, or copy someone else’s concept while
putting your own spin on it. And then you get to
share, share, share and share.
We all need to build, share and create to feel
fulfilled, it’s inherent in us. And this is where, as an
organisation, you get to make your
customer’s self-actualisation possible. When done
right, the guidelines behind a platform should
unleash people’s joy, enthusiasm, creativity,
passion and capabilities, potentially creating an
exponential reach for your organisation – many
to many.
A platform enables everyone to create or take part
on their own terms generating a strong-willed army
of individuals on a mission. It’s one-to-many and
many-to-one. It doesn’t feel or smell of marketing
as it’s far from top-down, but rather bottom-up.
As an organisation your role is to create a
campaign that truly enables individuals and
ultimately unites them behind a shared, clear and
simple transformative goal.
25
MAKE IT MOTIVATIONAL

There are many ways to motivate people to change
their behaviour. OMO/Persil created an ad that
used a surprising and shocking fact to motivate
parents to ensure that their children spend more
time playing outside, and getting dirty, and less
time inside on screens.
And that motivating fact was that, ‘On average
children now spend less time outdoors than the
average prison inmate.’ How shocking is that?
In fact, it’s so shocking that it’s actually motivating.
When your organisation has figured out their pur-
pose and set a clear transformational goal, the next
logical step is to motivate action.
So OMO used shock as a motivating factor. I.e.
Make sure your children don’t spend less time out-
doors than prisoners! Using time is another great
way to motivate customers into action.
So that’s using shock to motivate action and using
time to motivate action. Of course, those aren’t the
only ways to make your campaign or platform
motivational. No matter how you choose to
motivate your customers to act, make sure that
your ‘ask’ is always simple and as motivational
as possible.
You can always ask yourself the question,
How can I get… (insert your customer in here - e.g.
if you’re OMO it would be mothers and fathers)
to… (insert your goal here - e.g. if you’re OMO it
would be, to make sure their kids get outside and
play more.) And that might help you find a route to
their motivation.

Take computer games, for example. They often use

time pressure as a way to motivate players to act
quickly. The player is up against a clock, and if they
run out of time, their character runs out of life.

One way to translate the use of time to motivate

people when looking at your campaign is to put a
clock on it. Another way is to use time tactically to
motivate your customers to act. For example, when
would be the best time to motivate your customers
during the year, during the day or when they’re in a
specific state of mind?

The Movember platform runs and creates aware-

ness around testicular cancer every November,
American Express’ Small Business Saturday is
always the Saturday after US Thanksgiving and REI
always asks people to #OptOutside during Black
Friday.

26
MAKE IT CREATIVE
As a platform, TikTok has a very single-minded and
unique purpose. To be creative. It’s that simple and
single-minded. And that might just be the reason
that it’s currently the world’s fastest-growing social
media platform with millions of people using it
every day. In the past few years, it has unleashed
an unprecedented amount of creativity, passion,
fun and commitment from not only ordinary
people but from celebrities too who take up
the challenge to create content in their own
unique way.
Users who want to unleash their full creativity
can have a unique idea and create a video from
scratch. Or users can pick up templates and
challenges and put their own spin on it. It’s
creativity on your terms, and everyone is invited.
Whether you’re Will Smith, a 16-year-old dancer
or a 96-year-old grandmother and her teenage
grandkids.
Hopefully, as with creating a game, your campaign
can open up an infinite number of ways to play.
Think about the simple design of the board game
Ludo and the endless ways the game plays out.
And therein lies the secret to creating your
campaign. When you want people to get involved,
always make sure there is plenty of room for their
creativity to shine. Whether they’re doing the whole
thing from scratch, or you’re simply giving them the
building blocks they need to get started. It’s
important to ask yourself how many possibilities
for interaction your platform offers.
Think about the feeling people have when they
have been part of creating something like
refurbishing an apartment, building their own IKEA
furniture, or adding something to their garden.
This kind of creativity causes a sense of pride,
excitement and fulfilment that is priceless.
Look at one of the most successful platforms in
recent history, the #MeToo movement. It doesn’t
have a clear goal and the guidelines, if any, are
rather loose, but it’s a decentralised platform,
where everyone can voice up and turn a broad
message of female empowerment into their own
rallying cry.
It does give women across the world a possibility to
use their creativity and voice to make the platform
the very loudest it can be! So, do what you can to
ensure you give your customers plenty of creative
possibilities and ways to express or challenge
themselves.
27
MAKE IT REPLICABLE
One way to make your campaign travel far is by
making it easy to replicate. Reality TV offers so
many great examples of this in action. Shows like
Shark Tank offer a platform for people to pitch
their business ideas to a panel of wealthy investors.
It’s a simple, single-minded platform, that is
enticing to take part in and to view. But then
most Reality TV operates on this kind of replicable
format or platform. Just look at Survivor, which is
currently on Season 40 and counting! And Project
Runway is on Season 18. We know what’s expected
of us as entrants, participants and viewers and it is
endlessly replicable.
But these are TV shows, what about in advertising?
One example is the Danish Cancer Charity,
Kræftens Bekæmpelse, which has launched a tool
where everyone can raise funds for the organisa-
tion, often centred on a loved one diagnosed with
cancer. So the structure or format is the same, but
users are able to insert their story, their ideas and
their causes into the platform.
It’s easy to do, the rewards are endless, both
emotionally and financially, and it can be repeat-
ed over and over and over, simply tailor-made to
fit different people’s causes and cases. Compare
this to the old-fashioned way of raising money, by
going door-to-door, holding fundraising events or
sending emails.
Here they have allowed individuals to create their
own personalised and heart-felt fundraisers, which
often generate great returns and have exponential
shareability. After all, we tend to trust our friends
more than some non-profit or organisation. And
creativity is a great motivator. And yes, this is proof
that everyday customers can be endlessly creative
if they’re given the right structure or format to
work in.
p.s. When writing this lesson we felt it would be
rude to not mention the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge,
it was HUGELY successful and very replicable.
28
MAKE IT EASY
It’s difficult to get people to change their behaviour
because we’re creatures of habit. That’s why you
need to make the new behaviour easy to do.
So how can you achieve this? By making the
‘barriers to entry’ low so that everyone feels like
they can take part.
Easy peasy.
In Colombia, the Environmental Agency saw an
increasing threat to local fish species from the alien
Lion Fish. Methods to catch the fish were expensive
and something most fishermen couldn’t afford.
So, the Agency turned to a do-it-yourself model,
where they devised several ways for the fishermen
themselves to create tools to catch the dragon fish
out of readily available, cheap materials, like old
soda bottles. And so the concept of “Priceless
Traps” was born, enabling fishermen to take
matters into their own hands and saving hundreds
of thousands of fish. The model was self-sustaining
rather than being dependent on continuous
government grants.
Always think about how you can keep the barrier
for participation as low as possible, as inviting as
possible, and as simple as possible.
29
MAKE IT RELEVANT
It’s no use creating a huge campaign that is simple,
creative, replicable and motivational, but at the end
of the day, nobody remembers who the brand was
behind it all. That is not money well spent.
Think about how often you see a campaign or an
initiative, but you can’t remember who or what it
was for. Most often, it’s a lack of relevance between
the issue or the goal of the campaign and the
brand that makes it unmemorable.
So one of the secrets behind creating memorable
campaigns is to ensure they are relevant. John
Hunt, general advertising guru and head honcho
and name-sake of TBWA Hunt Lascaris, always
says, ‘Make it relevant and unexpected.’ And that’s
excellent advice and a useful lens you can cast over
all your work, to judge if it will hit the spot.
Only a washing powder brand that wants kids to
get dirty, can create a campaign that shows that
prisoners spend more time outdoors than kids.
Totally relevant. If you had to guess which brand
got runners racing against themselves, Nike is likely
to be one of your first guesses. Very relevant.
A dog food brand sponsoring rescue animals,
and inviting rescue dog owners to share pictures,
videos or stories of their doggie family members
makes sense, and it’s memorable and relevant.
These campaigns work because they are on brand
and they are relevant.
30
THE RISE OF THE MOVEMENT

In an earlier lesson, we touched on the power of THE UGLY - Facebook

the people. But it needs a more in-depth look at
how you can put your purpose to work in times of
massive cultural shift. In the last few years, the rise
of public movements across the globe are making
a significant impact on countries, on people, on
politics, and even on brands.
Black Lives Matter, the #MeToo movement, and
so many more. These are big, important shifts in
culture. And how brands react (or don’t react) to
them is crucial.
In June 2020, Julian Cole, Lexie Pérez, Davis Ballard,
& Stephanie Vitacca pulled together a document
containing more than 100 brand responses to the
Black Lives Matter movement. They then delved
into how those brands reacted and how their
actions were received. Here are three examples of
how big brands reacted to the movement and how
the world responded.
Their reaction: Mark Zuckerberg issued a
statement acknowledging inequality in the USA.
He also defended the decision to take no action
on Trump’s “when the looting starts, the shooting
starts” Facebook post. Zuckerberg later followed
this up with a message about reviewing existing
products.
Their action: $10 Million donation pledge to
groups working on racial justice, and promised to
work on products to advance racial injustice.
The world’s reaction: Facebook was criticised.
Employees staged a virtual walkout, circulated
petitions, and some resigned.
The old adage appears as true to people as it is to
brands; you can tell a lot about a person/brand by
how they react to things.

THE GOOD - Lego But this is new ground for many, and it can be
scary, challenging and daunting for brands who
Their reaction: Lego, went to social media in decide to dip their toe, or indeed both feet into
solidarity with the fight against racism. their place in a movement. Do you react? And if so,
how do you react? That is the question. Stay tuned
Their action: They pledged $4 Million to for some answers in the next lessons.
organisations that support black children and
educate all children about racial equality. They
paused all digital advertising and social media con-
tent that promoted toy sets that included
police characters.

The world’s reaction: They were applauded for

taking a stance and investing in action.

THE BAD - Amazon

Their reaction: They tweeted an empathic mes-

sage acknowledging racial injustices and support-
ing protesters.

Their action: None.

The world’s reaction: Customers called them
hypocrites for their controversial internal policies.

31
HOW BRANDS RESPOND SAYS A LOT ABOUT THEM
If those three case studies in the last lesson are
anything to go by, how brands react in a movement
makes a big difference. Alongside the case studies,
Julian Cole, Lexie Pérez, Davis Ballard, and
Stephanie Vitacca also ran a survey with 400
participants across the USA, to better understand
how people feel about the way companies can
engage with Black Lives Matter.
73% of Americans surveyed
support BLM.
84% believe the movement is here to
stay and isn’t just a passing trend.
They discovered that people believe that what
companies do matters. After all, many of the big
ones have the kind of resources, reach, money
and influence that can drive change at scale. As we
discussed in an earlier lesson, people are realising
that their governments are becoming less efficient
at solving problems, so more and more we’re
turning to companies, businesses and brands to
step in.
A whopping 90% of people agree that when a
brand they like publicly responds to BLM in a
way they view as positive, it increases their
loyalty to that company. BUT, and this is
important, 79% of those interviewed warned
brands not to use the BLM movement to sell
products overtly.
And another 79% don’t want brands just to pay lip
service to a cause just because it’s politically correct
at that moment. So it’s a fine balancing act. You can
respond as a brand, but you can’t sell anything.
No wonder so many brands are confused about
how to act at this point. This is where your purpose
can play a big role in guiding you. Evaluate where
you are as a brand. Where you stand concerning
the issues, and what actions you already take or
could be taking? And only then consider what an
internal or external message might look like.
And most importantly, it absolutely can’t just be
shallow lip service. You have to commit to some
form of lasting change that will have measurable
results. Goldman Sachs pledged to donate $10
million to organisations addressing racial injustice,
structural inequity and economic disparity.
But not everybody has that kind of bankroll. And
this really doesn’t have to be massive or expensive.
Starbucks took action in a different way. The CEO
hosted a forum, where they invited business
partners to share their stories. They then posted a
letter from their CEO on their website. A few days
later, Starbucks updated its message to support
Black Lives Matter explicitly.
They also shared educational resources on social
media, reversed company policy that banned the
BLM phrase, and enlisted Starbucks Black Partner
Network to co-design t-shirts in support of BLM,
which they distributed to 250,000 stores.
Sometimes, where appropriate, it really is the
thought that counts. 32
HOW TO RESPOND WITH AUTHENTICITY
For brands, there is no one-size-fits-all response.
The world doesn’t work that way. What is relevant
and appropriate for one brand might be
problematic for another one.
There is only one universal core truth that applies
to all brands trying to figure out what path to take
during a crisis or a moment in culture.
BE AUTHENTIC
Move away from just trying to get it right, and
instead ground your response in your values,
mission, culture, and purpose.
Here are four steps that will help you
get it right:
1. Look inwards
How is the cause important to your brand?
How does it reflect your company’s values?
Interrogate why your response is important to your
brand, rather than just making a big noise about
any actions you’ve taken or just saying something
cos everyone else is. Be true to you!
2. Use your brand’s unique power
Is there any link between the movement and
something unique to your company or brand?
Do you have some unique industry influence you
3. Be passionate
Bold responses show that you understand your
brand. Generic responses can feel like you’re just
saying something for the sake of saying something.
Your passion is what will make your response
authentic.
4. Commit to long-term, exponential change
This is the biggie! Where possible try not to just
treat the symptoms and instead look to treat the
root cause. The closer to the root cause you get,
the more helpful in the long term you will be.
And consistent, long-term action shows that you’re
committed to the issue, for reals. And that matters.
Try to figure out how you can invest in actions that
will grow over time. Four small steps, but followed
carefully, we could all really make seismic changes
for good here, as we keep on saying, for our
customers, for our brands, for our businesses and
the world.
33
IS IT WORTH IT?

If the last seven chapters have shown us anything, But the truth is, they’re likely to experience a larger
it’s that finding your purpose and activating it to staff turnover in the long run, and while we can’t
put it to work for you, is hard work. see into the future, all research is pointing to the
fact that sustainability is more, well, sustainable.
The question we’ll answer in this chapter is,
so is it worth it? In the next few lessons, we will look at the results,
stats and figures and strategies that make
goodvertising measurable, as well as a few good-
And if so, how? old-fashioned case studies. So stick around,
because if you like making more money, this is
We need to double-check and ask ourselves if there
about to get good.
truly is a wider business case for goodvertising.
And ensure it’s not simply a niche movement or
quick current trend. That it’s worth your while and
worth your pocket to find your purpose and then
activate it and your customers though it.

Of course, common sense tells us that people are

much more likely to like, support, and be loyal to
a brand that has a good heart, and just generally
isn’t being evil. That being said, there are still plenty
of brands who make an absolute truck-ton of cash
every year, without doing anything particularly nice
at all.

34
WHAT’S THE VALUE OF GOOD?
More research is being done now than ever before,
that backs up purpose as having huge value to
offer brands. Take Discovery for example (in many
parts of the world they are called Vitality).
They are a massive global finance, medical aid,
and insurance brand, led by businessman Adrian
Gore (No relation to Al ). The organisation is worth
billions. They operate in categories that have not
traditionally been particularly purposeful or overtly
focussed on doing good.
Until now. Discovery has built its entire corporate
architecture and business plan on purpose. But
this isn’t just good or altruism for the sake of
altruism. Sure, they do good, but ultimately
creating profit for all is another one of the main
benefits of their purpose. Literally.
Here’s their thinking. In medical aid/health
insurance, if Discovery takes an active role in
rewarding their clients to live healthier lives,
ultimately those clients will cost them less in the
long run and also live longer, so remain paying
customers too. The same goes for insurance. If
your insurance company rewards you to drive
better, there will be fewer accidents on the road,
and ultimately fewer insurance claims, and fewer
medical claims too.
Triple winning! It’s good for the insurer, for the
hospitals, and for the client!
And it works in banking too. If clients are financially
motivated to change their banking behaviour, to
spend their money more wisely, and save it more
wisely too, they become infinitely richer and more
bankable. The difference between Discovery and
other more old-fashioned brands who have also
activated a ‘rewards culture’, is that these aren’t
simple reward programmes, created to curry
favour and drive sales.
Instead, this purpose-driven thinking is at the very
core of their business strategy. It’s called ‘Shared
Value’. They take the value they create by
encouraging clients to live better, eat better, drive
better and bank better, and then share it back with
those clients to encourage them even further. It’s
beyond win-win, it’s win-win-win. And we’re betting
that it’s the way all brands will do business one day.
Particularly since it’s had such a great impact on
the bottom line too. Discovery’s share price has
gone from ZAR 700 ($50) to ZAR 13,000 ($855) per
share even rising during the Covid crisis.
What more could a business (and it’s
customers) want?
35
SHOW ME THE MONEY (HOW IT PAYS TO BE GOOD)

Okay so sentiment, common sense and current While Deloitte found that purpose-driven
trends confirm everything we’ve been banging on companies grow three times faster than their
about for the last seven and a bit chapters, but competitors, and yield high employee and
what about the numbers and the bottom line? customer satisfaction.

i.e. Show me the money! In the 2020 Edelman

Trust Barometer, nearly two-thirds (64%) of the
32,200 people surveyed identified themselves as “Don’t talk, act. Don’t say, show.
‘belief-driven buyers’. That means they will choose/ Don’t promise, prove”
switch/avoid/boycott a brand based on its stand
on societal issues. Belief-driven buyers think that
brands are a powerful force for change that can
- Fred Levron, Creative Partner, FCB
solve societal problems. The brands that lean into Worldwide
that role have the most to gain. The ones that don’t
are jeopardising their long-term health.

Which is tangible proof that the average customer

really does care. And yes, it pays. In the
post-purpose world, values have become
common currency. According to Kantar’s 2020
Purpose study, brands that are known for their
high commitment to purpose have grown at more
than twice the rate of others.

36
THE ROLE FOR BIG BUSINESS

Another interesting stat to come out of the 2020
Edelman Trust Barometer, is that 85% of
respondents claimed that they want brands to
‘solve my problems’, while 80% want brands to
‘solve society’s problems’. And a whopping 74% felt
that CEOs should take the lead on change rather
than waiting for governments to impose it.
These jaw-dropping statistics maybe because we’re
feeling let down by our leaders right now. It’s no
secret that governments and large institutions are
slow-moving and increasingly inefficient, on the
whole. Generally strangled by red tape, corruption,
budget cuts and even more dangerously; old ways
of thinking.
It’s for this reason that the world is looking more
and more to big business and leaders to do good.
And if not to be completely good, to at least
balance a bit of their bad with good. So brands,
and tech brands in particular have never been in a
better position or found it more necessary to build
trust with customers.
Dove just seems to do this all so well. The brand
is committed to addressing outdated stereotypes
around masculinity by celebrating the caring side
of men. Which has led them to drive action around
an issue that inhibits men’s ability to care –
paternity leave.
Dads want to be more involved with their kids, but
fewer than half of the world’s countries offer paid
paternity leave. So Dove Men+Care launched the
Pledge for Paternity Leave to empower dads
worldwide. In the US, they built a community of
‘Dadvocates’ – composed of dads and allies – to
convince US Congress to pass comprehensive paid
family leave policy. Ten, even five years ago, you
wouldn’t have found any brands caught dead
circling government policy. Today it’s a very
important social movement for brands
and customers.

They have the budget, they have the technology

and they have the modern thinking and tend to be
less bogged down with legacy rules or systems.
Plus they are all too aware that if they don’t build
more trust, it’s likely that they will not only lose
customer faith and support, but they will also be
forced to be government regulated.

So if doing good isn’t motivation enough, the threat

of government regulation should do the job. It’s
time brands take a more active role in society.
People expect brands to step in to fill the void left
by other institutions. And in the Havas Brands
Report, in 2019, 55% of customers stated that they
believe companies have a more important role to
play than governments today in creating a better
future. No pressure.

A good example of this in action is the Dove

Men+Care Campaign.

37
ANOTHER WAY GOODVERTISING PAYS OFF

If someone you like, believe in and understand to
be a good person at heart, who has made your life
better at one point or another, screws up,
chances are you’re more likely to see it as a slip-up,
or an error, and find it in your heart to forgive them
relatively easily. Now consider the same scenario
if the person who screws up is someone you don’t
know all that well, don’t trust, don’t understand,
and who has never done anything good for you or
the world in general?
So, sure, you could make tons of cash going about
your business the same one-sided way you’ve
always done it. But don’t expect your customers to
stand by you, should you slip up, mess up, or for
whatever reason, fail to deliver. The lesson here is
be more likeable and in return your bottom line will
become more likable too.

Chances are you’ll be less likely to forgive them,

even less likely to buy anything from them, and
more likely to block them on social media (But not
before you tweet the world to let them know how
little you think of them). The same goes for brands
and organisations.

38
HOW TO MEASURE GOOD
Traditionally in our industry, we’ve just about
always looked at the marketing effectiveness or
the return on investment (ROI) of our campaigns.
First and foremost measuring market share, brand
awareness, sales and profits. Advertising awards
are another reliable and sure-fire way we measure
results. As there is proof that more creative brands
can demand higher prices and have greater
stability in turbulent times. Of which we have
many. But over and above these old tools for
measuring effectiveness in advertising, perhaps
now is a good time to add a new kind of ROI.
Instead of Return on Investment, rather Return on
Impact. The idea of including a Return on Impact
metric is still relatively new in our industry, so we
have yet to create one definitive way of measuring
the environmental, social or health impact of what
we’re trying to achieve. But what we do know is
that now our measurements of success can
become much wider and broader.
This is going to take more patience and a new kind
of thinking, as we will no longer simply be looking
at short-term sales results or other more
immediate metrics. Instead, the world is starting to
measure the success of our endeavours in things
like tons of lower carbon emissions (like Puma did
in an earlier lesson) or even lives saved. The best
example of a company doing this is well is outdoor
clothing brand, Patagonia. Since the creation of
the brand in 1973 the company has been living
true to it’s mission: “Build the best product, cause
no unnecessary harm, use business to inspire and
implement solutions to the environmental crisis”
They do this by many ways such as giving away
1% of their total revenue each year to companies
working on sustainability issues, allowing
customers to easily repair their clothing items so
they don’t need to buy new ones, and creating new
KPI’s that measure their impact on the planet. They
even made great ads like the one below.
When trying to decide what impact you want to
measure for your brand, simply look at your
purpose and use that to figure out an important or
valuable measurement of change you can track.
For example, if you’re a milk brand that uses plastic
packaging, you could start to measure how many
kilos of waste you’ve recycled.
Dove could well use customer surveys to measure
how good their converted customers now feel
about themselves as a measure of success. These
kinds of metrics need to be built in as early as the
briefing process, if not before and made as
imperative as your financial results. This is new
from a company perspective, but there’s no doubt
that it’s becoming increasingly important for
modern brands and modern bottom lines.
39
IT’S UP TO US

Larry Fink, the CEO of the world’s biggest asset
manager, Black Rock, representing $6 trillion, wrote
in his annual letter: “Without a sense of purpose,
no company, either public or private, can achieve
its full potential. It will ultimately lose the license
to operate from key stakeholders.” Innovation and
technology are moving at the speed of light. Or
even lightning. Twenty years ago, home computers
didn’t exist, and we were all attached to our phones
by a cord. Literally. (Not just figuratively like we
are now.)
So technology is really taking us places. (Even when
we don’t go anywhere.) Today anyone can cause a
revolution. You may feel all of this stuff is too big
and too grandiose for any of us to be able to solve.
Most of us aren’t leaders of companies or leaders
of governments, so all of this may seem
insurmountable. However the changes are in all of
our hands, it’s in the brands we choose to buy on a
day to day basis, the companies we choose to work
in and the companies we choose to talk about and
share with our friends.

Today there isn’t much you can’t do from It’s time to make a better choice.
anywhere, on your phone, as evidenced by our
time in lockdown in 2020. We work, shop, are
entertained, share and even order pizza (in our
pyjamas) from anywhere, at the touch of a button.
In the USA (perhaps worryingly), you can sign up
to order a pizza from Dominos by text messaging
them a pizza emoji. Then confirm your order with
a thumbs up . And your pizza is delivered to where
you are. Ta Dah!

40
RESOURCES
Here’s your holy grail of Goodvertisng links, books, videos, and newsletters, chosen
by Lions & the 42team.

ACT RESPONSIBLE WEBSITE GO TO LINK

Excellent resource to inspire, promote, and unite the advertising industry on social and
environmental responsibility for a better world. Browse their vast gallery of over 18,000 of the best
social & environmental campaigns created by creative agencies from around the world.

GOODVERTISING: CREATIVE ADVERTISING THAT CARES BY GO TO LINK

Can advertising be a force for good? With today’s consumers being more informed, empowered and
ethically minded than ever, advertising needs to do all those things and more. Organised around 10
Commitment chapters, Goodvertising showcases outstanding creative work from over 120
campaigns from around the world that communicate that the client is actively being and doing good.

THE HERO TRAP: HOW TO WIN IN A POST-PURPOSE MARKET BY GO TO LINK

PUTTING PEOPLE IN CHARGE BY THOMAS KOLSTER

Most companies today are firmly on the social and environmental issues ‘bandwagon’, like bees
around a honey pot, from plastic in oceans through to diversity. As a result, people are increasingly
distrustful of these efforts which they view as cheap marketing stunts meant to wow people into
buying more.

CULTURAL ENGINEERING: THE ROLE OF BRANDS IN A GO TO LINK

CHANGING WORLD BY VASANTH SESHADRI

Why do some brands successfully thrive in a rapidly evolving world while others fall by the wayside
of history? How can you ensure that your brand emerges with flying colors from the disruption and
upheavals inflicted upon it? In Cultural Engineering, agency founder and creative director Vasanth
Seshadri tackles how brands can build brand love and enjoy sustained business results by turning
themselves into forces for cultural change.

CAN’T SELL WON’T SELL: ADVERTISING, POLITICS AND CULTURE GO TO LINK

WARS. WHY ADLAND HAS STOPPED SELLING AND STARTED SAVING THE
WORLD BY STEVE HARRISON
The advertising industry has lost interest in selling. Instead, we’ve embraced a new raison d’etre:
we’re saving the world. But how genuine is our commitment to social justice? Who’s buying our
purpose-driven campaigns? And what of the angry mainstream who are alienated by the agenda
we’re imposing upon them? Most urgently, as businesses close and millions of families face
unemployment in the post-pandemic recession, will advertising rediscover its commercial purpose
and help revive the free market? This is the choice we face, and it’s one that adland cannot shirk.

DO PURPOSE: WHY BRANDS WITH A PURPOSE DO BETTER AND GO TO LINK

MATTER MORE BY DAVID HIEATT
The most important brands in the world make us feel something. They do that because they have
something they want to change. And as customers, we want to be part of that change. These
companies connect with us because they have a reason to exist over and above making a profit:
They have a purpose. In Do Purpose, David Hieatt offers insights on how to create, build and sustain
a purpose-driven company. You know, those companies we all fall in love with. The crazy ones that
don’t just make something, but change something as well.
ACTIVATE BRAND PURPOSE: HOW TO HARNESS THE POWER OF GO TO LINK
MOVEMENTS TO TRANSFORM YOUR COMPANY BY SCOTT GOODSON AND
CHIP WALKER

We live in an age of activism - the conscious consumer is more socially aware than ever before, and
this is reflected in their buying habits. Yet, activism on behalf of brands is lagging. While many claim
to be ‘purpose driven’, far too often this purpose is relegated to a plaque above the CEO’s desk, and
never goes any further. Or, worse, the ‘purpose’ is transparently used as a marketing ploy, but never
acted upon in any real way.

Activate Brand Purpose shows readers how to transform their brand’s purpose into meaningful
action by sparking a company wide cultural movement, beginning internally and permeating
externally. This book contains a clearly explained, proven framework that will make this happen.

SUSTAINABLE BRANDS GO TO LINK

The premier global community of brand innovators who are shaping the future of
commerce worldwide.

THOMAS KOLSTER GO TO LINK

Thomas Kolster is an internationally-recognised marketing & sustainability expert, author of two
books Goodvertising & The Hero Trap and keynote speaker.
“Being good is
good business”
- Anita Roddick

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