Audi Super Bowl Advertisement: Green Car

Audi's Super Bowl advertisement, Green Car, shows the Green Police arresting individuals for environmentally unfriendly behavior like using plastic bags, throwing batteries in the trash, not composting, etc. So, how can consumers be more green? Buy an Audi Clean Diesel. "Green has never felt so right" flashes across the screen. Here's the ad:



The car was named the Green Car of the Year at the Los Angeles Auto Show, so it has the credentials to back up the claims. The ad was interesting in that there was no mention whatsoever of secondary benefits. Is green mainstream enough for a Super Bowl Commercial? Audi sure thinks so. What do you think?

What to call your product...green or healthy?

A few weeks ago, I was listening to the Green Talk Radio podcast from Green Living Ideas. Hosted by the digitally-prolific Sean Daily, it's always one of my favorites (especially his green blogger series).

This particular episode was an interview with Doug Farquar, co-founder and CEO of BuyGreen. Ten and a half minutes into that interview, Sean asked Doug if the demand for sustainable products was continuing on an upward climb or if green fatigue was causing consumers to care less about it.

Talk about a softball. This is the CEO of BuyGreen. He wants to sell more products on his web site. So, of course he's going to say that consumers are still clamoring for green. Right?

Guess again. His answer was surprisingly candid and offers an important lesson for green communicators:

I think green fatigue is very much a real issue and we really started to see that 12, maybe 18 months ago...Whereas, maybe 18 months ago people were interested in green products more from a saving the world perspective, those that remain interested...their own health is now becoming a bigger issue. 'What am I buying that is unhealthy to me or my family or my customers?' That seems to be becoming more of a forefront issue than doing their part to save the world.

Surprisingly candid, but shouldn't be surprising. People are much more likely to care about something that impacts them personally and immediately. But don't despair. This does not mean that all is lost for convincing the consumer to purchase sustainable products.

What it does mean is that to sell those products you may have to focus on what green marketing expert John Grant calls "secondary benefits." He writes: they can be more efficient, durable, affordable or basic (like the budget brands) or they can be healthier, better made or more indulgent (like premium brands) (emphasis mine).

Health is certainly a powerful secondary benefit. Who doesn't want good health for themselves and their family? As J. Ottman writes, health appeals to consumers' self-interest rather than just their eco-conscience.

Look at a recent New York Times story for a good example: The F.D.A. expression of "concern" about the presence of bisphenol-A (BPA) in food packaging. Let's say your company has produced a BPA-free alternative because it's better for the environment. Should your marketing lead with the global environmental benefits of the product (of which there are obviously many when it comes to plastic)? Or do you lead with the potential health benefits of eating food that doesn't come into contact with BPA? The answer should be obvious.

Doing Good is the best PR

Over the past few weeks, a lot of bytes have been devoted to PepsiCo's Refresh Project. There are many components, but the central idea is that the company will award up to 32 grants totaling $20 million to better the world.

Most of the coverage generated for the campaign has focused on it's launch at the expense of Pepsi's Super Bowl Ad - the first time in 23 years in which the soft drink company won't be present on advertising's biggest stage. This is an approach that I have advocated for previously on this blog.

Why? Is it just to alienate my friends who sell advertising for a living? Allow me to explain.

The irony is that in this world of media ubiquity, I believe that the best approach to advertising is not more, but less. I think companies would be better off to cut their advertising budget in half - spending half of it on making the world a better place and half telling the world what they're doing to make the world a better place.

Certainly, you can and should devote other portions of your company's budget to doing good, but I single out advertising for one simple reason. If the point of advertising is to tell people how good you are, it would be easier if you're actually doing something good. Besides, in the era of the 24-hour news cycle and growing consumer avoidance of advertising (see my presentation on web 2.0), advertising just isn't as effective as it used to be.

Sound too radical for you? Perhaps you should start with One Percent for the Planet or something similar.

Not radical enough? Try the approach of Ray Anderson in Confessions of a Radical Industrialist. In that book, Anderson lays out Mission Zero, his company's goal to be completely sustainable. Of the goal, Anderson writes:

Sustainability has given my company a competitive edge in more ways than one. It has proven to be the most powerful marketplace differentiator I have know in my long career...It has rewarded us with more positive visibility and goodwill among our customers than the slickest, most expensive advertising or marketing campaign could possibly have generated. And a strong environmental ethic has no equal for attracting and motivating good people, galvanizing them around a shared higher purpose, and giving them a powerful reason to join and to stay (Emphasis mine).

Doing good might actually give you more positive visibility because the potential exists to get your customers to do the marketing for you. According to PRWeek, PepsiCo has a big social media component to this campaign but it apparently stumbled coming out of the gate. If they can right the ship, it will be interesting to see how much buzz that (and the cash) get them.

Energy Source - A new blog from Forbes.com

Forbes.com launched a new blog last week called Energy Source. According to the introductory post, the contributors will be Jonathan Fahey, Dan Fisher and Christopher Helman.

According to a conversation I had with Fahey, the blog will be updated frequently with their quick, short takes on energy news, that might occasionally be a bit "snarky." Fahey said it will also give him an opportunity to write more frequently on alternative energy, like his first post on a ridiculous biofuels "study" from Rice University's Baker Institute. My quote in the post sums up what I thought of the study.

charity: water shows how to communicate

One of the many podcasts I subscribe to on iTunes is FORA.tv Environment. It's not a video podcast that I get to very often, but occasionally it contains a real gem. The most recent one was a presentation from Scott Harrison of charity: water.

The presentation contains some really innovative marketing on behalf of the charity. Things like putting all of the African wells they drill on a Google Earth map, a web site that helps people raise money by forgoing birthday or anniversary presents and things brands have done to get involved. The non-profit also has nearly 1.3 million followers on twitter.

Here's the presentation:



You can find Scott on Twitter as well.

2009 in Review: Public Opinion on the Environment

When I looked back on my tweets for 2009, I found a lot on polls and surveys regarding public opinion on the environment. Much of it was conflicting, so it's not surprising that people are confused.

But when you look back at the data in total you have to come to the conclusion that it was not a particularly good year for environmental advocates in the arena of public opinion. The economic downturn pushed environmental issues further down the public priority list while belief in and concern about global warming declined despite the ubiquity of the subject in the news.

Considering how important this subject is to sustainability communications, I've added a section of links to this info on the sidebar and undertook a recap of the major polls on the subject from 2009:

On December 23, Quinnipiac University released a poll finding that "most voters say the U.S. should not sign a treaty promising to reduce greenhouse gases, or should not sign such a treaty unless other nations do the same."

A majority of respondents from Brazil, China, Germany, Japan, Russia, and the United States to a December 17 Gallup Poll thought that developed and fast emerging economies should reduce emissions simultaneously and that no group should be obligated to "go first."

A December 7 Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that only 15% of adults favored raising the gas tax. Even fewer said that was a good idea to implement a gas tax in order to encourage people to purchase more fuel-efficient cars.

On December 6, The Nielsen Company and the Oxford University Institute of Climate Change released the results of an online survey of 27,000 people showing a decline in concern for climate change. Slides here.

On December 2, Pew Research released survey data showing that large majorities in every country surveyed believed that global warming was a "serious problem," while majorities in 15 of the 25 thought it was "very serious." Majorities in 23 of the 25 countries agreed with the statement: "Protecting the environment should be given priority, even if it causes slower economic growth and some job losses." Full study (with environmental issues section starting on page 87) can be found here.

Another survey released December 2, this one from Harris Interactive, found that those who believe that "the release of carbon dioxide and other gases will lead to global warming has dropped from 71% two years ago to only 51% now."

Fewer Americans responding to a national survey from the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press released October 22 saw solid evidence of global warming. Pew Research offered possible reasons for this steep decline here.

A July 9 survey conducted by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press in collaboration with the American Association for the Advancement of Science found that 70 percent of the American public had a high regard for scientists while most scientist faulted the media for oversimplifying their issues and failing to distinguish between well-founded findings and those that are not.

In a July 1 national telephone survey from Rasmussen Reports, 56 percent of Americans indicated that they were not willing to pay more in taxes and higher utility fees to fight global warming. Just over half said that keeping energy costs low was more important than developing clean energy and 63 percent said it was more important to create jobs than fight global warming.

The 2009 Greendex survey from National Geographic found an increase in environmentally-friendly consumer behavior in 13 of the 14 countries they surveyed in 2008. The U.S. still ranked last of the 17 countries surveyed in 2009. Full study available here (pdf).

A survey of 1,006 people conducted in April and May by the Shelton Group found that 60 percent of consumers were looking for green products but were confused by what the different eco-labels.

On Earth Day, Gallup released a slew of data on polling they did in 127 countries in 2007 and 2008, revealing that:

• more than a third of the world's population has never heard of global warming. Not surprisingly, more people have heard of it in developed countries.
• the more GDP countries produce per unit of energy, the more likely they are to believe that global warming is the result of human activities. Put another way, those who believe that humans impact the climate are more efficient in their energy usage.
• majorities of citizens in many of the world's top greenhouse gas emitters are aware of global warming or climate change, and many who are familiar with global warming believe it poses a serious threat to their families. Interestingly, the Chinese saw it as the least threatening, while their neighbors, the Japanese, saw climate change as the most threatening.

A survey released April 3 from Public Agenda entitled "The Energy Learning Curve" found that the public supported a wide variety of energy policies aimed at increasing efficiency, reducing fossil fuel usage and increasing alternative energy...as long as it didn't cost them more money.

A majority of the public (59%) favored setting limits on carbon dioxide emissions and making companies pay for their emissions, even if that may mean higher energy prices, according to a national survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press released March 25.

A survey (pdf) from the Yale Project on Climate Change and the George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication found that 90 percent of the public wanted the United States to act to reduce global warming but only 34 percent said that action should be "a large scale effort" regardless of the economic costs.

A March 11, 2009 Gallup Poll found that 41 percent of American's believe that global warming is "Exaggerated" while 28 percent thought it was underestimated.

And the year started with a January 7-11 survey of 1,503 people from Pew showing that the environment was 16th on the public list of priorities while global warming was 20th and dead last. Complete report here.

How to communicate sustainability

The first PRSA Tactics issue of 2010 includes an article from your humble blogger, titled: Communicate your environmental achievements in the New Year.

The article is a list of responses to this question:

In a world that is paying more attention to the environmental footprint of the products they buy and the companies that they do business with, what advice would you give to PR professionals who are seeking to communicate their company’s progress toward sustainability?

from some of the best green bloggers I read regularly:

• Jeff McIntire-Strasburg
• John Grant
• William Brent
• Marc Gunther
• Todd Woody
• Martin LaMonica
• Joel Makower
• Jacquelyn Ottman

I hope you read the article and let me know what you think in the comments below. More importantly, I hope you start following these great green bloggers if you aren't already. All of them are on one of my Twitter lists that you can find here.

If you do read the article, just do me one favor: ignore the photo.

Top Clean & Green Stories of 2009

One of the best ways to learn the cleantech and sustainability pitches that reporters will like is to look at what stories worked before. Seems simple, doesn't it? All you have to do is go back through hundreds of blog posts, see which ones got the most comments and trackbacks and you've got it: the popular stories to guide your pitches for next year!

Or, you could just wait until the end of the year when they actually tell you which stories work. I give you, the end of the year lists:

• Cleantech Group: Top 10 most widely read stories of 2009
• Cleantech Group: Top 10 editor's choice stories of 2009
• Renewable Energy World: Most-read Stories of 2009
• Twilight Earth: Top 10 Articles of 2009
• Treehugger: Best & Worst of 2009: The Year in Review
• Mashable: 4 Social Good Trends of 2009
• Mother Nature Network: Top 5 green jobs stories of 2009
• earth2tech: Top 10 Most Popular Posts of 2009
• Ecogeek: 10 Most Popular Stories of 2009
• Inhabitat: Top Green Architecture Stories of 2009
• Sustainable Food: Top Five Sustainable Food Stories of 2009
• Super eco: Top 20 sustainable food Stories of 2009

Rather than simply looking backward, you would also do well to take a look at what they think will be hot in the coming year. Most often this will take the shape of predictions:

• Cleantech Group: Top 10 cleantech promises to watch in 2010
• Cleantech Investing: 2010: Five predictions
• Reuters Environment: Gaze into cleantech's crystal ball for 2010
• Forbes Sneak Peak on 2010: Kerry Dolan on Clean Technology
• Forbes Sneak Peak on 2010: Jonathan Fahey on Alt Energy
• earth2tech: 4 Green Building Trends to Watch in 2010
• earth2tech: Top 10 Trends for the Smart Grid in 2010

There you go. Now you know the clean and green news that was big this past year and what will be big next year. Have you come across any other top lists from 2009 or predictions for 2010? Leave a link in the comments below. I might even update this post if I have the time. Merry Christmas.

NY Times suffers double green blogger loss

The New York Times lost two reporters in the past week that were top contributors to their two blogs that I follow: Green Inc. and Dot Earth.

The departure of Andy Revkin was big news, as he was one of the top climate change reporters in the world.

As Revkin explained, he is taking a position as a senior fellow for environmental understanding at Pace University. He plans to focus on: education and a broader exploration of new ways to make information work – to give ideas the best chance of getting where they are needed to help advance our relationships to the environment and each other.

He plans to build on his experience blogging and tweeting and look at online classrooms, Second Life and wikis to do direct outreach that he couldn't do as well as a journalist. It will be fascinating to watch what he does from here.

According to the Columbia Journalism Review, Revkin hopes to continue writing his popular New York Times blog, Dot Earth, at least through the end of the year and is talking with the paper’s management about continuing to do so on a contract basis beyond that.

In comparison to Revkin, the departure of Kate Galbraith didn't make nearly the headlines, but it is also a big loss for the Times. She has contributed 439 posts for Green Inc. since her first last September. As others have noted, she will be missed.

In an e-mail to me Kate said: Plans are still evolving, but I will certainly be keeping an eye on developments in the green space. If she is looking for a model to follow, she would do well to look at two bloggers who left (full time employment with) Fortune magazine not too long ago: Marc Gunther and Todd Woody (who know blogs for Green Inc. as well).

I'm sure that both Revkin and Galbraith will do well. Their knowledge and skills have them well-positioned in a world that is moving toward clean technology and web 2.0.

A little more disturbing is what will happen to the New York Times and their coverage of clean technology, sustainability and climate science. It's amazing to me that they would let excellent journalists go in order to maintain their old-world model rather than following the advice of TechCrunch. Here's hoping they find some way to fill these two big holes.

Now on 3BL Media Blog

I've been tracking the 3BL Media blog for several months now. In case you aren't familiar with it (and you should be), it's an excellent compilation of people blogging about Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and sustainability with a focus on business communications. 3BL, of course, is shorthand for triple bottom line: people, planet, profits, and is an agency that specializes in corporate social responsibility, sustainability and cause marketing communications.

They're in my blog roll and my Green Communications Bundle and I also follow many of their contributors: Marc Gunther, Peter Korchnak, Fabian Pattberg, SDialogue and more. I'm always using it to find new, interesting voices on the topics that interest me.

But their editorial standards department must have been asleep this week because they added me to their otherwise illustrious list. You can read my first contribution here or just go to the next post on this blog.

Anyway, 3BL Media, it's an honor to be aboard. I'll try to not let you down.

Curating Sustainable Solutions

As I have said in previous posts, managing the stream of green communications info online is not easy. My attempts thus far have been the Green Communicators list on Twitter and the Green Communications bundle on Google Reader. They're not perfect, but they're where I go to get the news I need.

But that's the large end of the funnel (see crude artwork to the left). Once you have identified the stream of information coming in (although you're never really done, the stream must be constantly managed), how do you present it on the other end? What does the small end of the funnel look like?

Let's put this another way. For the sake of the argument, pretend that my two lists above are the complete and best sources for information on green communications (I know that's a big stretch, but stay with me). Even with that stream of information gathered in two places, it still represents 49 feeds and 128 twitterers. That's a lot for anyone to wade through, which would explain why only 16 people have subscribed to the Google Reader bundle and 35 people are following the Twitter list.

The next stage is curating the content, which is the subject of the latest AdAge column from Steve Rubel. "Digital curation," says Rubel, "will be the next big thing to shake the web. There's an evergreen need for those who can separate art from junk online. However, in this era, journalists won't be the only ones to fulfill it. Brands...can play here too." (HT to FM)

Rubel lists a handful of companies who are doing digital curation. The one that struck me as the most interesting is IBM's use of Tumblr to curate ideas for a smarter planet. However, I like their use of the application in Smarter Cities even better.

There is a great opportunity here for brands to curate sustainable solutions relevant to their products. In the old model, if you are selling rain barrels, you would build a web site and pay close attention to SEO so that when anyone searches for rain barrels, they would come across your site. And that's still important. As Rubel points out, a Google search is still the place where most people start on the web.

However, that Google search for rain barrels still returns a half million results; water conservation: 12.5 million. The next step on the web, the digital curation step, would be to collect the best of that information and make your web site the place where people can find the art without having to look at the junk. While they're on the site, who knows? They just might buy a rain barrel.

Have you seen anyone who is doing this well with sustainable solutions? Share examples in the comments below.

Google Map of Green Communications Agencies

I was interested to find out the geographical distribution of green communications agencies in North America. So, with the help of Google, I created a map:


View Green Communications Agencies in a larger map

As you can see, the geographical distribution is broad. If you know of any agencies I missed, please leave a link in the comments below.

Additions to my Google Bundle of Green Communications Blogs

Wow. It had been a really long time since I last updated my Google Reader Bundle of Green Communications blogs (and my blog roll). So I added quite a few over the weekend that I thought I'd mention. Here they are in alphabetical order:

• Bright Green Marketing Blog. A blog from the agency of the same name. They can also be found on Twitter @BrightGreenMktg.
  
• DMD Green.On Twitter, too: @DMDGreen.
  
• Earthsite New Media. An agency "committed to growing the green economy through new media channels," which of course means they are on Twitter @earthsite.
  
• Enviral Marketing. An arm of BGT Partners that focuses on green marketing.
  
• Fruitful Strategy. From an agency that helps companies "integrate sustainability into [their] vision, brand and customer strategy."
• Gemma Charles' Green Blog. Providing a UK perspective as part of the excellent online network Brand Republic.
  
• Green Team USA. According to their web site, Green Team USA helps "brands succeed in a new world that demands responsible business." Also on Twitter @greenteamusa.
  
• HY-brid. A green agency that is part of Hoffman York. I came across them through the Twitter feed of co-director Tim Wirtz: @timwirtz. Marlaina Quintana is also on Twitter @MarlainaQ.
  
• Kiwano Marketing. Kiwano is a Canadian green marketing agency I discovered through their (prolific) Twitter feed: @kiwano.
  
• MediaPost MARKETING:green. I started following MediaPost years ago, but they had kind of faded from memory until a friend recently turned me back on to them and their section on green marketing.
  
• Semantics of Sustainability. I found Lewis Perkins on Twitter @lewisperkins when he started following my green communicators list. I followed his links to this blog on the Fast Company web property.
  
• Social Persuasion. This is the blog of Caroline Kawashima, a senior VP at Racepoint Group, who I also discovered through Twitter @ckawa. She also operated a LinkedIn group called Cleantech Social, which focuses on the use of social media in the cleantech industry.
  
• Sustainability & CSR Conversations. From a PR practitioner based in Shanghai, China. Follow her on Twitter as well @PerrineB.
  
• Sustainability in Context. From the London-based agency Context who develops "leading sustainability strategies and compelling communications."
  
• The Hunting Dynasty. Another agency I found through Twitter @TheHuntingDynasty.
  

There really are a lot of good green marketing blogs out there. As always, I'm sure there are plenty of others that I haven't found yet, so if you know of any, leave a comment below.

I also got rid of a few due to blog fade. I removed Greenfluencer, a blog from Porter Novelli that hasn't seen a post since February. I also removed La Marguerite, a blog I really enjoyed, but has only had two posts since March as she has moved on to other projects. Also removed were egglog, Sustainable Swag and GreenAmy. If any of them come back, I'd love to put them back in the list.

So what are you waiting for? If you want to keep up with all of the latest on green advertising, marketing and communications, all you have to do is subscribe to this bundle.

Making a Twitter list, checking it twice

So the big news in the social sphere are Twitter lists. For an explanation from the company, check out the Twitter blog. For (too much) information on how to use Twitter lists, swing by Mashable.

I've been playing around with Twitter lists the last few days and thus far I really like them. It's a helpful way to organize people I want to follow, especially since the 2,300+ I follow is a bit unwieldy. It's also been another way to find interesting people to follow.

Never one to just lurk, I thought I'd create some lists of my own. Here are my first two efforts:

@nathanschock/green-communicators. My primary reason for starting this blog was to help people (like myself) better understand how to communicate sustainability. This list is of people who have similar interests. They are communicators in green companies, experts on green marketing, agencies that focus on sustainability and more. Many of the people on this list are also bloggers in my Green Communications Bundle.

@nathanschock/green-journalists. These are the people who write the stories that help shape public opinions about the environment. Many are members of the Society of Environmental Journalists. Prominent green bloggers also made the list.

Let me know what you think or if I missed anyone who should be on the lists. Also let me know if you see any other lists that are similar.

Happy Halloween from Planet Green

Planet Green publicist Janice Green forwarded me a "ghoulish Hallowgreen" video that takes a different (but seasonally appropriate) look at recycling. Her email included a disclaimer that I will include here: "this video is not for those prone to fainting..."