18th September 2019
Mindshare Invites Ad Industry to #ChangeTheBrief to Tackle the Global Climate Crisis
New York, London, Singapore, Shanghai, Wednesday 18th September 2019: Mindshare, the global agency network that is part of WPP, is today issuing an invitation to the wider industry to #ChangeTheBrief and use its skills to address the global climate crisis.
Our greatest challenge as a society is to find a way to live sustainably.
Our greatest challenge as an industry is to show how living sustainably is possible, enjoyable, fulfilling and aspirational and that it can also drive our clients’ business. #ChangeTheBrief is Mindshare’s response to that challenge.
#ChangeTheBrief helps brands unlock and activate their social purpose in media.
Agencies that support #ChangeTheBrief commit to creating work which answers the ‘Now’ brief, to help clients sell their products, but also the ‘Future’ brief, to encourage the attitudes, lifestyles and behaviours which are consistent with a transition to a carbon-free world.
#ChangeTheBrief encourages the creation of marketing and media plans designed to encourage small changes in behaviour that will help address the climate crisis when done at scale – such as promoting shorter showers with 4 minute ad free 'songs to sing in the shower' playlists on Spotify or developing packaging that encourages people to freeze unused food to avoid food waste – the idea being to normalise these behaviours in society through advertising and use media and marketing investment to achieve this.
Every creative campaign, every media plan, every production proposal is an opportunity to #ChangeTheBrief, an opportunity to normalise the behaviour, the products, the services and the attitudes we all know we will need to adopt to achieve sustainable living.
With the global advertising industry investing circa $600bn a year on behalf of its clients to drive the consumption of their products and services there is a huge opportunity for brands and agencies to work together to direct that investment to bring the future forward.
Mindshare is using #ChangeTheBrief with some of its clients as part of its Mindshare Day 2019 celebrations – looking for fresh advertising, content and media ideas, which demonstrate the actions we can take to help end the climate crisis.
Nick Emery, Global CEO Mindshare, said: ““It’s a great idea and simple idea. Everyone should sign up. There’s no excuse not to”.
Mindshare has a strong history of helping brands with sustainability initiatives.
The agency recently worked with eco-friendly home and personal-care brand Seventh Generation to help it donate its commercial airtime on NBC’s The Today Show throughout the week of Sept. 16, all in the name of the climate crisis.
Another recent project saw Mindshare work with Volvo in Australia on the Living Seawall project - where Volvo partnered with the Sydney Institute of Marine Science and Reef Design Lab to create a Living Seawall that actually helps to clean the water.
Mindshare also created a product called Dooonate, which allows the user to donate out-of-office autoreplies by turning them into media space for charities.
#ChangeTheBrief builds on these efforts but has a specific focus on scaling smaller consumer actions to make an impact in the world.
Previous Mindshare Day events have included working with Amnesty International to drive awareness of the human suffering caused by the refugee crisis; helping student entrepreneurs in conjunction with ENACTUS and tackling gender equality issues as part of the WPP’s commitment to the Common Ground initiative that focus on the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
Read the #ChangeTheBrief manifesto
For further information, please contact:
Greg Brooks, Global Marketing Director, Mindshare Worldwide on: +44 (0)7826 869312 or: [email protected]