Big growth in greener marketing predicted by advertising agencies
Mon 12 February 2007
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The UK's largest advertising agencies are expecting a rapid growth in eco-marketing as businesses compete on their environmental claims. According to a report in the Financial Times, some agencies are even arguing that becoming involved in greener approaches to marketing could become a matter of their very survival.
In an article by the Financial Times' Marketing Correspondent Carlos Ghosn, Agencies - including the heads of the 'top six': AMV BBDO, JWT, Ogilvy, RKCR/Y&R and Saatchi & Saatchi - say that communicating green values is fast becoming an act of "corporate hygiene" needed to retain competitiveness and standing with customers. All the agencies contacted by the FT said that they believe green advertising will grow in the next 12 months.
The FT quotes Lee Daley, Chairman and Chief executive of Saatchi & Saatchi UK, who said: "Brands will not be able to opt out of this. Companies which do not live by a green protocol will be financially damaged because consumers will punish them. In the longer term, I do not think they will survive."
Alison Burns, chief executive of JWT London, said: "Once a company makes an environmental statement, its direct competitor is now conspicuous by its absence if it hasn't too. Consumers are suspicious of that silence. This isn't restricted to a particular industry. It is increasingly pervasive. There is an underlying expectation that we are asking more questions about companies' intentions. That is partly a phenomenon of the digital age where consumers are used to interviewing brands like they might be interviewing people for a job."
The FT's survey was echoed by an article in The Independent ('Adland's discovered the green issue - and now it's the only one in town') which said: "The "green" brand is undergoing dramatic rehabilitation. Once a pejorative for all things grubby-hippie, green is now a status brand with the sort of zeitgeist creds that big advertisers are desperate to get their hands on."
The Independent article analysed the effectiveness of energy giant BP's marketing strategy. The article stated that: "according to observers, BP now spends about 75 per cent of its annual ad spend peddling the green line...the strategy has become something of a blueprint for other big corporations seeking to clean up their environmental image."
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