the sustainly 5th annual social media sustainability index
TRANSCRIPT
SUSTAINLY I THE 5TH ANNUAL SOCIAL MEDIA SUSTAINABILITY INDEX I 2
TABLE OF CONTENTS 3 OVERVIEW – THE RISE
OF SOFT SUSTAINABILITY
11 KEY FINDINGS
13 WHAT’S THE BIG IDEA?
15 EMERGING TRENDS & TYPES OF PLATFORMS
22 BY THE SECTOR
34 THE TOP 100
38 ABOUT
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OVERVIEW – THE RISE OF SOFT SUSTAINABILITYBack in the late 1980’s Harvard professor, Joseph Nye, coined the term “soft-power” to reflect America’s ability to influence the world using persuasion rather than coercion – notably through the marketing pow-er of its global consumer brands and Hollywood’s razzle dazzle rather than the US military’s big stick.
Today, as companies, governments and NGOs all struggle with the chal lenge of persuading the public why sustainability matters, some are starting to explore a new type of communication strategy – one that stresses the sustainability values that matter to real people with-out hitting consumers over the head with the type of sustainability professional jargon that only confuses and alienates them.
The era of Soft Sustainability has begun.
WHAT IS SOFT SUSTAINABILITY?A decade ago, most companies considered sustainability, if they considered it at all, to be an environmental science pursuit that was best conducted behind closed doors. What they were keen to communicate to the out-side world was the good work they were doing supporting charities and funding projects in areas (often disadvantaged or underdeveloped) where they had activities. Classic Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) but not particularly relevant to the core operations of the business, unless it was being employed to deflect criticism of those core operations. There were small tokens of environmental responsibility that companies were willing to talk about but these were mainly relegated to employee tree planting or garbage collections along with some coordinated annual Earth Day “eco-events”.
But over the past 10 years a combination of factors – the tangible taste of climate change as witnessed through extreme weather events, a growing
ONE MAJOR DRIVER OF THIS CHANGE HAS BEEN SOCIAL MEDIA, WHICH HAS CONNECTED MILLIONS OF PEOPLE ALL OVER THE WORLD ON ISSUES AND INTERESTS THEY SHARE, AND WHICH HAS FUELED THE SPREAD OF INFORMATION (AND MISINFORMATION) ABOUT SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES.
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concern about our food and the effect the ingredients we consume have on our health, not to mention an economic wake-up call about energy and waste – have put sustainability issues into the thoughts and decision- making processes of the general public.
One major driver of this change has been social media, which has connected millions of people all over the world on issues and interests they share, and which has fueled the spread of information (and misinfor-mation) about sustainability issues.
Social media challenged companies in ways they, at first, were unprepared to handle. Blogs, then Facebook, then Twitter started exploding with indignant posts, comments and Tweets about bad customer service and shoddy, potentially dangerous products. Those who complained quickly found that they weren’t alone. The network effect of social media sent their complaints viral, connecting to others with the same problems or concerns. It also gave them a direct line of communication to companies who, faced with real time reputation attacks online, had no choice but to get involved or risk seeing a Twitter outburst turn into a major media event. In turn, this amplified anger at companies caused product recalls, consumer boycotts, and even entire shifts in business strategy. Companies were forced to acknowledge that the way they treated their consumers was becoming a serious reputation issue. Soon, an entire industry of social media listening tied to customer service and reputation manage-ment had sprung up.
Then the activists got involved and social media campaigning was ramped up to a whole new level. Issues that once would have only reached a small but committed audience – say the destruction of the Indonesian rainforest to make the palm oil that goes into so many consumer products – was reaching an online community in the millions. Geeky sustainability topics like responsible supply chains were becoming con-sumer conversations, while issues that had long dogged companies – slave labor in the apparel industry, oil spills, and chemical contamination in food for example – were now being discussed on a global level online, and the companies responsible for the debacle were being hounded through their Facebook pages and Twitter accounts.
While companies increasingly were being challenged on sustainability issues from the outside, many had already started embedding sustaina-bility into the core of their business. Unilever, for example, had put in place a responsible palm oil sourcing strategy before it came under attack on YouTube by Greenpeace. Indeed many companies were already realising that being environmentally responsible and socially responsible wasn’t just the right thing to do, it was good business.
WHILE BOTH COMPANIES AND CONSUMERS UNDERSTAND THE IMPORTANCE OF SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES THEY DON’T SPEAK THE SAME LANGUAGE.
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Of course, communicating sustainability is easier said than done. While both companies and consumers understand the importance of sustainability issues they don’t speak the same language. It’s not just consumers and companies that have this disconnect. Within companies themselves, the language used by sustainability professionals can leave the marketing and communication department scratching their heads and struggling for a way to communicate sustainability to the outside world.
Resource scarcity, sustainable supply chains, integrity of sourcing, energy efficiency and social value all are important sustainability topics of conver-sation. Just don’t try and talk about them in those terms with the public or even the media for that matter. They are and always will be terms that make people’s eyes glaze over.
Increasingly, companies are looking to talk in terms that make sense to the outside world. One reason is their desire to better communicate the sustainability work they are doing on a corporate level. But another, as we detailed in our previous Big Brand Report, is their growing realization that sustainability goals (and hence future profits and savings) can’t be achieved by the companies alone. They need their consumers to buy into sustainable behavior.
That means talking about the sustainability issues that are crucial to business survival and growth in the terms that the public understands and cares about. So what are those issues?
Food that won’t hurt you. Products free from poisons and carcinogens. Education for everyone especially around technology. Paying workers a decent wage. Fighting and curing disease. Giving everyone an equal chance regardless of race, creed, gender or sexual preference. Not harm-ing local habitats or communities. These are issues most people agree on and they just happen to dovetail with the technical terms sustainability professionals in business hold dear. It’s just about talking the same language.
That’s where soft sustainability comes in. In 2014 companies from sectors as diverse as Oil, Gas & Chemicals, Retail, Financial Services, Telecoms and, of course, Consumer Goods adopted what we call a soft sell approach to communicating sustainability.
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Perhaps the poster child for this movement is Collectively, the Millennial- focused sustainable lifestyle online magazine underwritten by the likes of Unilever, Microsoft, Marks & Spencer, Google and BT. Collectively talks about all the hard sustainability issues that trouble these companies but does so through the lens of aspirational consumer lifestyle.
Another Unilever initiative, Project Sunlight, epitomizes soft sustainability as does Coca-Cola’s Happiness campaign, with its emphasis on recycling and (whisper it) watching how much you consume. Danone’s partner-ship with Shakira to fight child hunger through a hit music video constitutes a more traditional CSR campaign but, having been viewed more than 450 million times, its mainstream impact can’t be faulted. Then there’s Apple and General Mills’ support for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans-gender rights in society – bold statements but delivered directly to the public without corporate fanfare. We’d even argue that Lego’s hit movie with its cutting and ironic critique of the corporate world can be classed as soft sustainability in action.
Some core issues like energy conservation, tackling waste and planning for a fast-growing urban population aren’t that easy to translate into a consumer lifestyle story. That’s where another element of soft sustaina-bility comes in. In 2014 innovation was the buzzword favored by marketers and communicators looking to position their companies as forward thinking and ready to meet the challenges of a (another buzzword alert) disruptive world. Sustainability featured prominently in many companies’ innovation communication and it allowed those companies to show how technology is helping them make a better world through breakthrough areas such as the Internet of Things, Wearable Tech, 3D printing and the Sharing Economy.
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As these digital and social technologies grow in importance they will also play a crucial role in how companies tackle core sustainability issues and the stories they have to tell about that work.
THE ICE BUCKET CHALLENGE BASELINEMuch digital ink was spilled in 2014 over the viral success of the Ice Bucket Challenge that raised over $100 million for the ALS charity while spawning numerous copycat campaigns. It was so successful that nearly every company we considered this year took part in some version of the challenge and posted a video on Facebook.
The success of the challenge emphasized the power of social media storytelling while also highlighting how promoting someone else’s chari-table campaign represents just the baseline of what companies should be doing in terms of sustainability and CSR communication. Scanning the entire sustainability and CSR landscape it becomes clear that there are really seven types of communication being employed.
As the diagram below shows, the easiest and most prevalent is supporting other people’s good works (the Ice Bucket Baseline). Next is a company’s own foundation and its CSR work. Then the hard work of creating a com-pelling CSR campaign in partnership with a charity or NGO – think Gillette’s support of Movember or Activia’s support (with the help of Shakira) of the World Food Programme.
Harder still is the challenge of describing a company’s own sustainability work to the public in a way where they won’t switch off. Many companies try to do this, often by sneaking in a worthy post or Tweet about recycling amid the glossy, formulaic brand messages that dominate Facebook, Twit-ter and Instagram. They do this both to talk about their sustainability goals and achievements. Communicating and marketing sustainable products is
SUSTAINABILITY STORYTELLING PYRAMID
SOFT SUSTAINABILITY
MARKETING SUSTAINABLE PRODUCTS
PARTNERING WITH CHARITIES
FOUNDATION CSR WORK
ICE BUCKET BASELINE
COMMUNICATING SUSTAINABILITY GOALS
COMMUNICATING SUSTAINABILITY ACHIEVEMENTS
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the luxury of just a few brands at present but when companies do have such products their storytelling is so much more effective. Unilever’s PG Tips is one good example. Finally, at the top of the sustainability communication difficulty pyramid is Soft Sustainability and the art of talking about sustainability without ever mentioning the term.
ABOUT THIS YEAR’S INDEX The 5th Social Media Sustainability Index takes an exhaustive look at how 475 global companies communicate their sustainability actions and initiatives using social media. We select the initial 475 from a variety of sustainable company indices including the Dow Jones Sustainability Index and the FTSE4GOOD. We also include a few companies that warrant inclusion on their communication efforts alone.
Our team of researchers has looked at every social media channel used by each of the companies for communication. This year we have assessed more than 2,500 corporate sites and social media channels.
Our initial benchmark for success is to identify whether companies have a real commitment to social media sustainability communications. We do that primarily by evaluating which companies have social media channels, platforms, campaigns or projects dedicated to communicating sustaina-bility. However, things are never simple and, increasingly, companies are talking about sustainability through their brands and corporate voices rather than relying on more niche sustainability platforms.
This year, we were able to select a long list of 273 companies that have some form of dedicated social media sustainability efforts (an increase from 230 in 2013, 176 in 2012 and a marked improvement from the 120 of 2011). We then looked at how those 273 companies used their social media sustainability voice and whether they had a joined-up strategy for sustainability communication. (We didn’t include companies that rely only on foundations to talk about CSR.) Of those 273, we selected a short list of 200 that we then evaluated to create the Sustainly Top 100.
Given the volume of information that we consider to create this Index, we realize that some sustainability efforts may have slipped through the cracks. Please let us know if you think we’ve missed your company’s social media sustainability efforts.
NO. OF COMPANIES DEDICATED TO TALKING SUSTAINABILITY USING SOCIAL MEDIA
120
2011 2012
230
2013
273
2014
176
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HOW WE RANK THE TOP 100 Our goal is not to judge the sustainability actions of these companies but to evaluate how successfully they use social media to communicate those activities. That said, good social media communications is based on having a compelling story to tell and being able to back it up. That’s what separates best practice from greenwashing. In our view, the companies that have strategies, services and products that demonstrate their commitments to environmental and societal responsibility have the best story to tell and so we rank them accordingly.
Successful social media communication is based around a combination of frequent, topical, relevant, open, authentic, creative and innovative content and dialogue. As such, we judge each company’s social media sustainability communication efforts based on:
• How often they publish and update their sustainability social media channels (maximum of 20 points)
• How transparent they are in allowing comments and responding to comments and conversation (maximum of 20 points)
• How authentic is their social media content? Do they communicate what the company is doing or what it says it would like to do? (maximum of 20 points)
• How creative and innovative is the social media content? (maximum of 20 points)
• How useful is their content? (maximum of 20 points)• Can the Sustainability or Corporate Responsibility Report be shared
in part or in full via social media? (maximum of 20 points)
Overall competition is getting tougher. Last year the cut off for inclusion in the Top 100 was 51 points out of 100. This year it has risen to 60. And while last year just 23 companies scored 80 or above this year 30 companies achieved that number.
The degree to which many different companies are looking to communi-cate sustainability online and through social media also is reflected by the the numbers of new entries in the Top 100 and companies re-entering it after a year or two out of the mix. There were 32 such companies this year.
SUCCESSFUL SOCIAL MEDIA COMMUNICATION IS BASED AROUND A COMBINATION OF FREQUENT, TOPICAL, RELEVANT, OPEN, AUTHENTIC, CREATIVE AND INNOVATIVE CONTENT AND DIALOGUE.
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THE TOP 10 The top 10 are some of the biggest companies in the world. Sure, that means they have the resources to throw at this type of communication but it also means that it’s important to them both from a reputation point of view and also from building new credibility and trust from the public.
Unilever sits top of our rankings for 2014. That might not be very surprising given the FMCG’s well-publicized sustainability commitments and efforts but, when it comes to sustainability communication online, Unilever has come a long way. Back in 2011 and 2012 the company barely registered in our top 50. Only last year did it break into the the Top 10. This year Unilever is communicating with usefulness and creativity through a vari-ety of brands and social media channels.
Intel – an old-school PC chip-maker that is proving it’s cool to have a conscience – is second. Third sits Coca-Cola Company which, mainly thanks to its main brand, is putting its faith in the persuasive power of “soft sustainability” – promoting recycling and exercise in a way that is fun and fits with the type of communication its consumers are used to engaging with. In fourth place, Philips draws on its dual strengths of being both a consumer and industrial brand to show how sustainable living solutions can have an effect when scaled on community and city level. In fifth place this year is McDonald’s, which, seeing sales slide and share price drop, has embraced, and is talking about very publicly, sourcing transparency as it seeks to win back a younger generation heading off for fast food pastures new.
Sainsbury’s has earned its place in the top 10 thanks to its Food Rescue campaign to cut down on food waste. IBM, never out of the Top 10 these last five years, still impresses with its communication of Smarter Cities and Smarter Planet. Procter & Gamble, meanwhile, has upped its game in recent years and warrants inclusion in the Top 10 thanks to its corporate and brand awareness raising of issues such as diversity, female empowerment and managing resources like water responsibly. General Electric is another perennial in our rankings and continues to warrant in-clusion because of the breadth of its sustainability as innovation initia-tives. Finally, there’s Danone, which has made sustainability a key part of its corporate narrative but really scored a goal this year when its Activia brand teamed up with Shakira to support the World Food Programme through a mega-hit World Cup song and video.
1. UNILEVER2. INTEL3. COCA-COLA COMPANY4. PHILIPS5. MCDONALD’S
6. SAINSBURY’S7. IBM8. PROCTER & GAMBLE9. GENERAL ELECTRIC10. DANONE
TOP 10 COMPANIES
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KEY FINDINGS (AS PER 2014)
BY THE SECTOR
BY THE COUNTRY
DENMARK 5FRANCE 11GERMANY 7NETHERLANDS 4NORWAY 1SPAIN 4SWEDEN 2SWITZERLAND 4UK 15
EUROPE 53US 41REST OF WORLD 6
US 41
BRAZIL 1
JAPAN 1
CANADA 2
INDIA 1
SOUTH KOREA 1
AUTOMOTIVE6CONSUMER GOODS13
FINANCIAL SERVICES12FOOD & BEVERAGE12
HEALTHCARE5INDUSTRIALS16
OIL, GAS & CHEMICALS6MEDIA5
RETAIL8TECHNOLOGY6TELECOMS6
UTILITIES5
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BY SOCIAL MEDIA CHANNELS
SUSTAINABILITY REPORTS THAT CAN BE SHARED VIA SOCIAL MEDIA
15 36 40 42 55
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
BLOGS
YOUTUBEPINTEREST
TUMBLR
15
52
83
66
5
81
11
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WHAT’S THE BIG IDEA?Each year we look at the trends and overarching themes being em-braced by companies as they seek to connect with the public about sustainability. In the past we’ve seen the success of big ideas like the Pepsi Refresh Project, Microsoft’s YouthSpark, GE’s Ecomagination Challenge, IBM’s Smarter Cities and AT&T’s It Can Wait. All these were marketing initiatives but also defined a social value and business strategy each company was committed to. Pepsi, aside, the companies continue to embrace these sustainability/business projects. So what big ideas have been born this year or been adapted to promote sustainability? Here are four we’ve identified.
1. INTEL CONFLICT FREE For Intel, the world’s No.1 producer of semiconductors, sourcing vital raw materials like gold, tantalum and tungsten is fraught with ethical risk. That’s because one of the main regions for mining these minerals is war-ravaged Democratic Republic (DR) of Congo and often they are sold to finance the conflict.
Intel has made a commitment to ensure that the materials that go into its products are sourced responsibly, and has created the Conflict-Free micro-site to raise awareness of the issue. It has also become a member of the Conflict-Free Sourcing Initiative, the Global e-Sustainability Initiative and the Public Private Alliance for Responsible Minerals Trade, two industry-based and one cross-sector organisations that promote and help ensure sustainable and conflict-free supply chains. Intel’s products also feature a “Conflict-Free” product mark to ensure the content of the prod-ucts are responsibly sourced – enabling more informed consumer decisions.
2. COCA-COLA HAPPINESS Taken as a whole, the long-running Happiness campaign isn’t about sustainability – it’s about making people smile and equate that emotion with Coca-Cola. In recent years, however, the Happiness campaign expanded its remit to demonstrate how recycling can equate with Happiness. This continued in 2014 with projects like the Happiness Arcade in Bangladesh – an arcade game that runs on empty plastic
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Coca-Cola bottles – and the 2nd Lives campaign in China. There the company designed a set of 16 bottle caps that extend the life of a Coke bottle and transform it into useful everyday products. They include a paint brush, shampoo dispenser, ketchup or hot sauce dispenser and pencil sharpener as well play stuff like a water pistol.
Happiness also dipped into the exercise and obesity territory with Happy Cycle, an experiential US campaign where people were invited to ride a bicycle that is hooked up to a fairground ride/vending machine. The contraption measures the calories people burn on the bike. Only when the cyclist has burned 140 calories does the vending machine dispense the can of Coke. Very soft sustainability – stressing the importance of exercise and raising awareness of calories without preaching in language and tone consumers don’t want to hear.
3. UNILEVER’S PROJECT SUNLIGHTLaunched at the end of 2013, Project Sunlight is Unilever’s multi-brand project to make sustainable living desirable and attainable, with a particu-lar focus on children, whom the company says play a key role in driving behavioral change in their parents.
The project and corresponding challenge has been launched in five coun-tries, each with its own website under the Unilever umbrella. In addition, the Project Sunlight campaign has teamed up with The Guardian to produce a native advertising campaign – ‘Live Better Challenge’ – to take Project Sunlight out to a larger consumer audience. The Project Sunlight content is shared via social media through the Unilever brand Facebook page and Twitter account as well by relevant individual brands.
4. BASF – CREATOR SPACE 150TH ANNIVERSARY To mark its 150th anniversary, BASF has created a global sustainability- themed project called Creator Space. Running over the next two years, the company is hoping to generate global discussion, commission work groups and come up with solutions for three major sustainability chal-lenges – urban living, smart energy and food.
The Creator Space project comes at the same time that BASF is employ-ing a fairly radical new sustainability strategy across its entire business and range of products. While that’s an important story to tell to BASF’s B2B customers, Creator Space gives them a thought leadership platform to tell its story to an audience it doesn’t often interact with – the general public and end consumer.
VERY SOFT SUSTAINABILITY – STRESSING THE IMPORTANCE OF EXERCISE AND RAISING AWARENESS OF CALORIES WITHOUT PREACHING IN LANGUAGE AND TONE CONSUMERS DON’T WANT TO HEAR.
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EMERGING TRENDS AND TYPES OF PLATFORMSWhat were the sustainability storytelling trends of 2014 and where were they communicated? In this section we look at the big ideas companies looked to communicate and the different social tools and platforms they employed.
INNOVATION IS THE NEW SUSTAINABILITYAs more companies grapple with disruptive and sustainability challenges like technological change, growing urban populations and shrinking resources, they are looking to frame their actions through the lexicon of innovation. Here are five campaigns and projects that show how sustain-ability and innovation go hand in hand.
PHILIPS INNOVATION AND YOU Philips has shaped its entire brand identity around the slogan, Innovation and You. Showing how the company is innovating its products and services to be more useful and sustainable for both consumers and business is central to the company’s corporate and brand message. It has also launched an Open Innovation challenge competition where it’s looking for crowdsourced ideas that will “change lives for the better”.
NISSAN PROJECT INNOVATION This co-branded campaign and competition run by Nissan and Microsoft challenged UK MSN readers to come up with new ideas that will change the way we connect with our cars while giv-ing Nissan and Microsoft a platform to talk about innovation in motoring.
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The campaign generated ideas for improving driver safety and more effi-cient motoring.
ERICSSON: THE NETWORKED SOCIETY The Swedish telecoms company has focused on connectivity as providing the glue for innovation and sustain-ability. It has created a brand campaign drawing on documentary films, blog posts and a dedicated Twitter account to help tell this global story.
ALSTOM INNOVATION CORNER The French industrial giant has created an innovation corner to help explain its work to the general public as well as the media, NGOs and investors. Alstom is using 3D animation to bring its innovation to life and partnered with Scientific American magazine to create an editorial series around its work.
HENKEL INNOVATION CHALLENGE This student competition, mobilized through Facebook, aimed to spark new ways of tackling sustainability at Henkel (and boost graduate recruitment at the same time). Contestants got to work with Henkel managers to fine tune their ideas and then the winner got to pitch Henkel’s CEO. Whether Henkel would put the winning idea into action isn’t clear.
KIDS AND DIGITAL LITERACY Teaching computer literacy is one of the big soft sustainability issues of 2014, allowing technology, media and telecom companies, in particular, to translate their IT prowess into social value. Here are four such projects:
ORANGE SUPERCODERS In conjunction with the European Union’s annual Code Week, Orange launched Supercoders, a day-long event at locations
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throughout Europe that aimed to teach 10 – 13 year olds digital literacy and introduce them to the coding.
PEARSON’S PROJECT LITERACY Project Literacy is an ambitious five-year project aimed at promoting literacy to tackle global poverty. Among a wide range of literacy topics, one strong component is digital literacy. Pearson has created an online idea bank for people to suggest the best digital literacy solutions being created in the world. Pearson then plans to “invest in new collaboration and action” on the literacy challenges being discussed.
TIME WARNER CONNECT A MILLION MINDS Launched in 2009, Time Warner’s Connect a Million Minds project has succeeded in inspiring one million young people to undertake after-school classes in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). It spreads its message via Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
VERIZON POWERFUL ANSWERS INSPIRE HER MIND Eighty percent of jobs in the next decade will require technology skills. As part of its Powerful Answers brand communication project, and in conjunction with its charitable foundation, Verizon is looking to get more girls involved in STEM education through its Inspire Her Mind campaign.
FOOD AND WELLNESS Given the Western world’s obsession with diet, obesity and healthy eating and drinking, it’s no surprise that these issues are increasingly on companies’ sustainability agendas. Here’s how four companies put across their point of view.
PERNOD RICARD’S WISE DRINKING APP Definitely on the soft side of sustaina-bility, this responsible drinking app from Pernod Ricard aims to promote moderation through information and an engaging interface.
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HEINEKEN’S THE EXPERIMENT Can great music inspire people to drink responsi-bly? Heineken asked dance DJ, Armin van Buuren, to put this premise to the test. Four million and more watched the entertainment with a message.
SAINSBURY’S FOOD RESCUE APP Sainsbury’s teamed up with Google to launch the smart Food Rescue app, which allows users to input up to nine ingredients via text or voice input and in return they’ll be presented with more than 1,200 choices of recipes.
MCDONALD’S OUR FOOD/YOUR QUESTIONS Fancy lifting the lid on your sourcing and supply chain? That’s what McDonald’s has done with its warts and all Our Food/Your Questions campaign. Designed to win back consumer trust (and market share), the campaign can come across as a bit stage- managed at times but McDonald’s willingness to stand up in front of the social media masses and answer tricky questions should be applauded.
PLATFORMS AND CHANNELSBe where the kids are. That’s always been a sound marketing mantra and as companies increasingly focus on that much-sought-after Millennial market, they are looking to emerging social media platforms to help them.
Here are three social media platforms that some marketers believe have potential for sustainability communication.
VINE is one of the fastest growing social media platforms that marketers want to engage with but it poses a storytelling challenge given that each video can only be six seconds in length. Consumer brands – notably in the food and beverage sector – have been very active on Vine as they seek to attract youth audiences. Other companies are looking to inspire around sustainability themes as these examples demonstrate.
• GE’s Six Second Science looks to educate about energy and other issues with fun science experiments
• The NGO QUIT created this antismoking Vine for World No Tobacco Day
• Philips created this geeky piece of Vinery about recycling• Coca-Cola offers recycling inspiration for Earth Day
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• Intel shows its smart sensor abilities with a Christmas-themed Vine• Toyota highlights kids’ dream car designs
TUMBLR – part blogging platform and part social network – has proven very successful at building community around niches such as fashion, food and technology. The following companies understand the art of cre-ating custom content for the Tumblr community rather than just repost-ing general corporate content.
• Nature Valley from General Mills taps into nature, naturally• Aetna creates a wellness blog• Maersk stresses is sustainability record while telling the
story of its global fleet • IBM has multiple Tumblr accounts including ones devoted to Smarter
Cities, Smarter Planet and its innovation-focused IBMblr
PINTEREST Many, many brands have a Pinterest presence but not many have developed a visual identity on the platform around sustainability. Here are three that have:
• Kleenex offers tips on staying cold and flu free• Novartis posts its very cool malaria-awareness posters on Pinterest• Eli Lilly uses Pinterest to highlight its Oncology on Canvas art
competition.
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NATIVE ADVERTISING Native advertising is what we used to called advertorial content before the media and marketing world decided to reinvent it for the digital age. Here are four examples of how companies are using branded content to promote sustainability.
• Bank of America worked with online news site Quartz to create an engaging infographic about climate change.
• Citi has its own BrandVoice on Forbes to promote sustainability and CSR news.
• Philips worked with the Daily Telegraph in the UK to create a branded content campaign and competition called 100 days of innovation
• Autodesk has its own sponsored channel on Buzzfeed, allowing it to talk about sustainable design, innovation and other cool stuff to a much sought-after demographic.
YOUTUBE WASTELAND?YouTube should be a perfect medium for communicating sustainability, given the short attention span of most social media audiences and the growing tendency to consume media via mobile devices. Unfortunately, for most companies, YouTube is a wasteland when it comes to sustaina-bility storytelling – a dumping ground of bad corporate talking heads or dull but worthy low-fi documentary footage of far flung CSR campaigns.
In both cases, the content companies want to highlight is important and could find an audience if only it was conceived and executed better. For the most part, the companies we looked at this year are wasting their YouTube moment. That’s not just our opinion – consider the stats. We’ve gone through 85 sustainability themed videos made by 25 companies (chosen from a mix of industry sectors) on our Index. In total these 85 videos were viewed 37,501,826 times. Pretty impressive right? Think again. Just eight of those videos had more than one million views and just 20 in total could claim more than 100,000 views. Twenty four videos from these big corporates have been viewed less than 1,000 times.
UNFORTUNATELY, FOR MOST COMPANIES, YOUTUBE IS A WASTELAND WHEN IT COMES TO SUSTAINABILITY STORYTELLING – A DUMPING GROUND OF BAD CORPORATE TALKING HEADS OR DULL BUT WORTHY LOW-FI DOCUMENTARY FOOTAGE OF FAR FLUNG CSR CAMPAIGNS.
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Of course there are some obvious exceptions to this video mediocrity. As we highlighted before Shakira’s collaboration with Danone brand Activia in aid of the World Food Programme has been viewed 400 million times (we didn’t include Danone in our slice of companies). Four of the videos in the Our Food Your Questions campaign from McDonald’s have been viewed more than two million times. Intel’s innovation meets sus-tainability slot about delivering glasses to visually-impaired children has been viewed more than six million times. And Toronto-Dominion Bank’s Make Today Matter CSR campaign video has received five million views and counting.
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BY THE SECTOR
AUTOMOTIVETwo issues concern the auto industry more than any other – lower emission vehicles and driver safety. Volkswagen, Renault, Mercedes, BMW and Peugeot Citroen all have either microsites, magazines or apps devoted to eco-mobility.
COMPANY COUNTRY OUT OF 100Volkswagen Germany 73
Ford Motor Co. US 72
BMW Bayerische Motoren Werke AG Germany 70
Renault S.A. France 66
Nissan Motor Co. Ltd Japan 63
Peugeot France 61
NOTABLE PROJECT – VW THINK BLUE
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CONSUMER GOODSThe consumer goods sector encompasses a range of mini-sectors, including FMCG, Apparel & Fashion, Toys and Consumer Electronics. Not surprisingly, nearly every sustainability issue is relevant to these companies, though responsible sourcing and supply chain along with human rights and diversity are of particular interest. Lego, Unilever, Procter & Gamble, Avon and Reckitt Benckiser all stressed the impor-tance of female empowerment while the likes of Samsung and Philips highlighted their innovation expertise to connect people and promote technology-driven sustainability.
COMPANY COUNTRY OUT OF 100
Unilever PLCUK/ Netherlands 93
Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. Netherlands 90
Procter & Gamble Co. US 87
Reckitt Benckiser UK 85
Nike US 83
Kimberly Clark US 77
Patagonia US 77
LEGO Denmark 75
Levi Strauss & Co. US 74
Natura Cosmeticos Sa Brazil 71
Avon US 65
Samsung South Korea 65
Kering France 60
NOTABLE PROJECT – RECKITT BENCKISER‘S DUREX AND MTV COLLABORATION ON SOMEONE LIKE ME
SUSTAINLY I THE 5TH ANNUAL SOCIAL MEDIA SUSTAINABILITY INDEX I 24
FINANCIAL SERVICESSustainability issues for the Financial Sector tend to revolve around issues of responsible lending, community support projects and niche areas like microfinance. For the insurance companies in this sector, climate change and wellness also loom large. Companies like BBVA, Toronto-Dominion Bank and Allianz continue to show leadership in terms of communicating sustainability values.
COMPANY COUNTRY OUT OF 100Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria S.A. Spain 84
Toronto-Dominion Bank Canada 80
Wells Fargo US 79
Allianz SE Germany 78
Swiss RE AG Switzerland 71
Sun Life Financial Inc. Canada 70
Barclays UK 70
AXA S.A. France 69
Co-operative UK 67
Aetna US 65
Allstate US 64
Deutsche Bank Germany 64
NOTABLE PROJECT – CO-OPERATIVE LET’S TALK
SUSTAINLY I THE 5TH ANNUAL SOCIAL MEDIA SUSTAINABILITY INDEX I 25
FOOD AND BEVERAGEThe Food and Beverage sector sits at the sharp end of many sustainability issues, be it healthy eating and drinking, human rights, resource scarcity, supply chain and sourcing and transportation and production emissions. Mars, General Mills and Chipotle are keen to stress the sustainability of their sourcing. Coca-Cola and McDonald’s are seeking to counter a grow-ing movement of concern about their ingredients, while the likes of Diageo, Heineken and Pernod-Ricard are eager to be seen promoting responsible drinking.
COMPANY COUNTRY OUT OF 100Coca-Cola Company US 91
McDonald’s Corp US 89
Danone S.A. France 87
Mars US 84
General Mills US 80
Heineken Netherlands 80
Nestlé S.A. Switzerland 76
Chipotle US 74
Pernod Ricard France 72
Diageo UK 69
SABMiller UK 66
PepsiCo US 65
NOTABLE PROJECT – MCDONALD’S OUR FOOD. YOUR QUESTIONS
SUSTAINLY I THE 5TH ANNUAL SOCIAL MEDIA SUSTAINABILITY INDEX I 26
HEALTHCAREIf you’re in Healthcare, sustainability should be built into your DNA as the well-worn cliche goes. All the companies in this sector stress the prod-ucts and work they perform in preventing disease and promoting wellness.
COMPANY COUNTRY OUT OF 100Novo Nordisk A/S Denmark 84
Cigna US 82
Johnson & Johnson US 80
Novozymes A/S Denmark 63
Pfizer US 60
NOTABLE PROJECT – CIGNA TOGETHER
SUSTAINLY I THE 5TH ANNUAL SOCIAL MEDIA SUSTAINABILITY INDEX I 27
INDUSTRIALSEnergy footprint, environmental impacts, raw materials and workplace diversity are just some of the issues that concern companies in this broad Industrials sector. Many of the companies in this group have a direct relationship with consumers as well as operating in the B2B market. As such they often are looking to communicate different elements of sustain-ability to different audiences and so use their social channels accordingly.
COMPANY COUNTRY OUT OF 100General Electric Co US 87
Maersk Denmark 80
Vestas Wind Systems Denmark 78
Schneider Electric S.A. France 77
PwC UK 75
Siemens Germany 73
Monsanto US 72
Accenture US 72
Akzo Nobel Netherlands 72
FedEx Corp US 71
Alstom France 70
Acciona Spain 69
Waste Management Inc US 68
Tata Steel Ltd India 65
United Parcel Service US 62
Holcim Ltd. Reg Switzerland 60
NOTABLE PROJECT – GE’S HOW DOES A WIND TURBINE WORK WITH BARATUNDE THURSTON.
SUSTAINLY I THE 5TH ANNUAL SOCIAL MEDIA SUSTAINABILITY INDEX I 28
MEDIAMedia companies often look to demonstrate social issue thought leader-ship and responsibility among the communities and audiences that they most influence. Education, diversity and mentorship are areas where these companies believe they can add real social value. BSkyB, Pearson and Time Warner promote youth education while Virgin Media emphasizes digital safety for young people.
COMPANY COUNTRY OUT OF 100Pearson UK 86
British Sky Broadcasting Group PLC UK 84
Time Warner Cable US 76
Virgin Media UK 67
Comcast US 64
NOTABLE PROJECT – PEARSON’S PROJECT LITERACY
SUSTAINLY I THE 5TH ANNUAL SOCIAL MEDIA SUSTAINABILITY INDEX I 29
OIL, GAS AND CHEMICALSThis small sector of companies breaks down into two distinct groups – the oil producers who are keen to stress responsible exploration and the chemical companies who are looking to explain the complicated process of creating more sustainable chemicals. Both groups face environmental and social challenges in terms of emissions, resource scarcity and worker safety and a lot of their communication is centered around demonstrating their commitment to safety and making the case for how oil and chemi-cals are a crucial and sustainable part of modern life.
COMPANY COUNTRY OUT OF 100BASF Germany 85
Syngenta AG Switzerland 72
Dow Chemical US 71
ShellUK/ Netherlands 69
Exxon Mobil US 65
Statoil Asa Norway 63
NOTABLE PROJECT – BASF – CREATOR SPACE
SUSTAINLY I THE 5TH ANNUAL SOCIAL MEDIA SUSTAINABILITY INDEX I 30
RETAILAnother sector at the sharp end of consumer opinion and feedback, Retail faces a host of sustainability issues ranging from working hours and wages, transport emissions, supply chain responsibility and growing concerns about food waste being driven by the retailer’s own marketing and sales strategies.
COMPANY COUNTRY OUT OF 100J Sainsbury UK 88
Tesco PLC UK 71
Marks & Spencer Group UK 70
H&M Sweden 68
Walmart US 64
Kingfisher PLC UK 61
Sears Holdings US 61
Whole Foods Market Inc. US 60
NOTABLE PROJECT – SAINSBURY’S FOOD RESCUE
SUSTAINLY I THE 5TH ANNUAL SOCIAL MEDIA SUSTAINABILITY INDEX I 31
TECHNOLOGYTechnology companies face significant energy use, raw material issues and supply chain issues, the latter often tied to working conditions in supplier factories. All these companies have a secret storytelling weapon at their disposal in the form of innovation - allowing them to position them-selves as providing smart technology solutions to sustainable problems.
COMPANY COUNTRY OUT OF 100Intel Corp US 92
IBM US 88
Microsoft Corp. US 85
Cisco Systems US 81
Hewlett-Packard US 77
Autodesk US 72
NOTABLE PROJECT – HP’S EARTH INSIGHTS IN PARTNERSHIP WITH CONSERVATION INTERNATIONAL
SUSTAINLY I THE 5TH ANNUAL SOCIAL MEDIA SUSTAINABILITY INDEX I 32
TELECOMSAs with the Media sector (where there is a great deal of crossover) Telecoms companies want to show digital thought leadership on areas like education and mobile connectivity and innovation. AT&T has led the corporate push to banish texting on mobile phones while driving and Ericsson has created a campaign demonstrating how a global networked society will drive sustainability.
COMPANY COUNTRY OUT OF 100Telefónica S.A. Spain 86
Verizon Communications US 85
AT&T US 75
BT Group PLC UK 67
Ericsson Sweden 67
Orange/France Telecom France 64
NOTABLE PROJECT – VERIZON’S POWERFUL ANSWERS
SUSTAINLY I THE 5TH ANNUAL SOCIAL MEDIA SUSTAINABILITY INDEX I 33
UTILITIES Energy – the cleaner the better – is the issue that obsesses the Utility sector. All companies in this sector have sustainability communication projects aimed at demonstrating their commitment to renewables and natural gas.
COMPANY COUNTRY OUT OF 100Iberdrola S.A. Spain 73
RWE Germany 68
Veolia Environnement France 67
Suez Environnement S.A. France 66
PG&E Corp US 62
NOTABLE PROJECT – VEOLIA’S LIVING CIRCULAR
SUSTAINLY I THE 5TH ANNUAL SOCIAL MEDIA SUSTAINABILITY INDEX I 34
1 Unilever PLC 5 93
2 Intel Corp 25 92
3 Coca-Cola Company 7 91
4 Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. 48 90
5 McDonald’s Corp 87 89
6 IBM 3 88
7 J Sainsbury 93 88
8 General Electric Co 3 87
9 Danone S.A. 17 87
10 Procter & Gamble Co. 60 87
11 Telefonica S.A. 16 86
12 Pearson New Entry 86
13 Microsoft Corp. 12 85
14 BASF 54 85
15 Reckitt Benckiser New Entry 85
16 Verizon Communications New Entry 85
17 Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria S.A. 1 84
18 British Sky Broadcasting Group PLC 8 84
19 Novo Nordisk A/S 22 84
20 Mars 24 84
21 Nike 9 83
22 Cigna 39 82
23 Cisco Systems 14 81
24 Autodesk 19 80
25 General Mills 21 80
26 Johnson & Johnson 76 80
27 Heineken New Entry 80
28 Maersk New Entry 80
29 Toronto-Dominion Bank New Entry 80
30 Wells Fargo 62 79
31 Allianz SE 32 78
LAST YEAR’S RANKING OUT OF 100NAME
THE TOP 100
SUSTAINLY I THE 5TH ANNUAL SOCIAL MEDIA SUSTAINABILITY INDEX I 35
32 Vestas Wind Systems 50 78
33 Kimberly-Clark 94 77
34 Hewlett-Packard New Entry 77
35 Patagonia New Entry 77
36 Schneider Electric S.A. New Entry 77
37 Nestlé S.A. 15 76
38 Time Warner Cable 83 76
39 AT&T 2 75
40 PwC New Entry 75
41 Marks & Spencer Group 28 75
42 Levi Strauss & Co. 6 74
43 Chipotle New Entry 74
44 Siemens 26 73
45 Iberdrola S.A. 30 73
46 Monsanto 45 73
47 Volkswagen 46 73
48 Ford Motor Co. 20 72
49 Accenture New Entry 72
50 Akzo Nobel New Entry 72
51 Syngenta AG New Entry 72
52 Swiss RE AG 18 71
53 FedEx Corp 36 71
54 Dow Chemical New Entry 71
55 Natura Cosmeticos Sa New Entry 71
56 Tesco PLC New Entry 71
57 Sun Life Financial 33 70
58 LEGO 77 70
59 BMW Bayerische Motoren Werke AG New Entry 70
60 AXA S.A. 64 69
61 Shell 80 69
62 Acciona New Entry 69
63 Diageo New Entry 69
64 RWE 31 68
65 Waste Management Inc 47 68
66 H&M New Entry 68
LAST YEAR’S RANKING OUT OF 100NAME
SUSTAINLY I THE 5TH ANNUAL SOCIAL MEDIA SUSTAINABILITY INDEX I 36
67 BT Group PLC 29 67
68 Veolia Environnement 40 67
69 Virgin Media 81 67
70 Cooperative Bank 85 67
71 Ericsson New Entry 67
72 Suez Environnement S.A. 10 66
73 Renault S.A. 35 66
74 SABMiller New Entry 66
75 Tata Steel Ltd 34 65
76 Exxon Mobil 57 65
77 Samsung 82 65
78 Avon 84 65
79 PepsiCo 99 65
80 Aetna New Entry 65
81 Deutsche Bank 66 64
82 Orange/France Telecom 72 64
83 Allstate New Entry 64
84 Comcast New Entry 64
85 Walmart 23 64
86 Statoil 13 63
87 Nissan Motor Company New Entry 63
88 Novozymes A/S Series B New Entry 63
89 PG&E Corp 54 62
90 Pernod Ricard New Entry 62
91 Union Pacific New Entry 62
92 Kingfisher PLC 71 61
93 Peugeot 96 61
94 Sears Holdings New Entry 61
95 Kering 27 60
96 Whole Foods Market Inc. 51 60
97 Barclays 52 60
98 Holcim Ltd 59 60
99 Alstom 63 60
100 Pfizer New Entry 60
LAST YEAR’S RANKING OUT OF 100NAME
SUSTAINLY I THE 5TH ANNUAL SOCIAL MEDIA SUSTAINABILITY INDEX I 37
BECOME A MEMBER OF SUSTAINLYBecoming a member of Sustainly opens up a wealth of information that will help you with sustainability communication and innovation. Our members have access to Sustainly’s Intelligence Engine data-base of over 900 case studies as well as all our Special Reports and Trend Briefings. All the information you’ll need to communicate sustainability.
RESEARCH 900 CASE STUDIES SMARTLY AND EFFICIENTLYThe Intelligence Engine is an interactive, smart database of more than 900 global case studies to provide you with marketing and communication inspiration.
The Intelligence Engine guides you through the Issues, Risk, Innovation and Storytelling of sustainability.
We’ve done the research that will help you and your clients communicate authentically and creatively
CREATE YOUR OWN PRESENTATIONSWhen you’ve finished using the Intelligence Engine, export our case studies in PDF or PPT to create your own presentations.
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SUSTAINLY I THE 5TH ANNUAL SOCIAL MEDIA SUSTAINABILITY INDEX I 38
ABOUT SUSTAINLYSustainly is a membership community that acts as a bridge between the worlds of sustainability and communication – providing compa-nies and agencies the information they need to deliver authentic and creative sustainability content.
The heart of Sustainly’s operation is its Intelligence Engine – an interactive, smart, database of over 900 original case studies that guides users through a research and planning journey to ensure au-thentic sustainability communication.
Sustainly also publishes special reports and provides consulting services for companies and agencies.
To hear more about Sustainly, contact:
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Credits
Lead Author: Matthew Yeomans Research and Editing: Andrew Weltch, Jowa Coffey, Andy Roberts & Katee Hui Production: Jowa Coffey Design: Sonia Malpeso