SUSTAINABILITY

Sustainability and advertising: Friends, foes or eternal ‘frenemies’?

By our News Team | 2022

With consumers increasingly expecting advertisers to push for enhanced sustainability, it’s clear the two forces must find common ground.

How can advertising and sustainability work together to support a more sustainable future and responsible brand growth? This is a question that research company Ipsos has explored in a new paper.

“At first, there can be a cognitive dissonance when associating advertising and sustainability. Don’t they have irreconcilable objectives? Advertising’s purpose is to sell more, while sustainability aims at ‘meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’, Ipsos observes in a blog post.

Sustainability

Photo by Markus Spiske from Pexels

To answer this question of how sustainability and advertising can work together, the company evaluated 200 ads from its global database that included some sustainability messaging and asked what works and what doesn’t work? How can brands find a sustainability message they can own?

Five key takeaways for brands

The research team identified five key takeaways it believes can help brands successfully change people’s behaviour and create a more sustainable future, while also helping to grow their sales and market share. These are:

  1. The sea of sameness Simply adding a sustainability claim to your ads does not make them work better for your brand; ads must be executed in the right way in order to stand out.
  2. It is all about balance
    Ads that blend brand and sustainability messages perform much better; do not forget to include brand-benefit messages in your ads.
  3. Make it easy
    Ads that offer a solution, pulling the consumer into a sustainable behaviour by making it easy for them, are the most effective.
  4. Face the issues
    Ads that start with the problem of sustainability head-on, outperform other ads in terms of effectiveness.
  5. Walk the talk
    Make sure that the claims in your ads are credible and that you are following through on them. Not doing so exposes you to the risk of being accused of greenwashing and facing a media backlash.

You can download the full Sustainability and Advertising paper here.

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    Dr Kin Kariisa

    Group CEO - Next Media

    Dr. Kin Kariisa is an extraordinary force at the helm of Next Media Services, a conglomerate encompassing NBS TV, Nile Post, Sanyuka TV, Next Radio, Salam TV, Next Communication, Next Productions, and an array of other influential enterprises. His dynamic role as Chief Executive Officer exemplifies his unwavering commitment to shaping media, business, and community landscapes.
    With an esteemed academic journey, Dr. Kariisa’s accolades include an Honorary PhD in exemplary community service from the United Graduate College inTexas, an MBA from United States International University in Nairobi, Kenya, a Master’s degree in Computer Engineering from Huazong University in China, and a Bachelor’s degree in Statistics from Makerere University.
    Dr. Kariisa pursued PhD research in Computer Security and Identity Management at Security of Systems Group, Radboud University in Nijmegen, Netherlands. As a dynamic educator, he has shared his expertise as a lecturer of e-Government and Information Security at both Makerere University and Radboud University.

    Dr Kin did his PhD research in Computer Security and Identity Management at Security of Systems Group, Radbond University in Nigmegen, Netherlands. He previously served as a lecturer of e-Government and Information Security at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda and Radbond University in Netherlands.

    Dr Kin did his postgraduate courses in Strategic Business Management, Strategic Leadership Communication and Strategies for Leading Successful Change Initiatives at Harvard University, Boston USA.

    • Other current and previous roles played by Dr Kin Kariisa:
    • Lecturer of e-Government and Information Security to graduate students at Makerere University, Kampala and Radbond University in the Netherlands
    • Director of Eco Bank Uganda Limited, one of the largest banks in Africa
    • Chairman of the National Association of Broadcasters, an umbrella industry association for all Television, Radio and online broadcasters in Uganda.
    • Chairman of Board of Directors of Nile Hotel International, that owns the leading hotel in Uganda, Kampala Serena Hotel.
    • Chairman of Board of Directors of Soliton Telmec Uganda, the leading telecom company in Optic fibre business managing over 80% of optic fibre in Uganda.