Tag: GM

From millennials to the boardroom, people are starting to question the role of business and brands in society. Should it stand for something more than profit?

The elevation of conscious capitalism is seeing a parallel rise in a new breed of marketer, one that puts social change on equal footing with brand and business growth. Purpose-led marketing has become increasingly prevalent across global, regional and local media platforms. Engaging campaigns and partnerships are grabbing attention across almost all sectors, from FMCG and Auto to Retail and Luxury. While purpose-led activities were previously restricted to the CSR department, they are now being brought front of house and are delivering on broader business objectives.

In 2015 the Cannes Lions Awards proved purpose is firmly on the advertising agenda. 50% of the Grand Prix winners were purpose-led campaigns and the Glass Lion was introduced to celebrate work positively impacting gender inequality.

Today, at the 2016 Cannes Lions Festival OMD launched a Purpose-Led Partnerships division within Fuse. The new offering will help clients develop partnership strategies and marketing activities for brands looking to leverage their business purpose to create sustainable and positive social change.

The launch kicked off with a Panel Discussion at the OMD Oasis where EMEA President Nikki Mendonca was joined by an esteemed panel including; Gareth Dunsmore – GM of Electric Vehicles at Nissan Europe, Winnie Palmer – Digital Director HP Enterprise, Lucas Watson VP of Brand Solutions & Innovation at Google and Finola McDonnell – VP of Marketing at CNBC. Panellists discussed the increasing prevalence of purpose marketing within their comms planning and the rising consumer demand for brands to be present in this space, shared their recent activations and predicted that the future will see brands behaving with even more purpose.

Lucas Watson started by saying “that any brand to be around in the future needs to be purposeful”. This sentiment was supported by Finola McDonell who stated, “businesses are taking purpose seriously if they are to retain market share”. This was followed by Gareth Dunsmore of Nissan who said, “purposeful marketing is a magnet for talent. Brands that do not recognise this won’t attract the best, most forward-thinking employees so essentially they won’t grow, and could even die out.” Dunsmore went onto say that collaboration and partnerships were integral to effect big societal change.

Winnie Palmer reiterated the point that purpose is integral to future growth stating that “businesses need recognize that a purpose-driven strategy is their path to long-term sustainable growth” pointing out that purpose isn’t for the sake of doing the right thing, but fundamentally affects the bottom line and drives business growth.

During the panel audience members were given hand-outs of OMD’s guide to Purposeful Marketing, a precursor to a larger Thought Leadership Report that will be used to promote the new offering to clients. In the report, we investigate the key drivers behind this marketing movement. Drawing on our experience, research and C-suite interviews, we outline how brands can unlock growth in this area.

For more information or a copy of the full report contact our Purpose Director, Rachael Smith: [email protected]