Search results for: Tag: sustainability

Sustainability, Collaboration and Data: Themes dominating this year’s WMA Shortlist

Although the World Media Awards are now in their seventh year, I never fail to be surprised by the increasing quality and creativity of the submissions every time we begin the shortlisting process. Our panel of 39 judges spent hours poring over the entries to select this year’s finalists, whose campaigns represent the very best in international content-driven, cross-border advertising.

As we’ve all adjusted to life after Covid, priorities have changed, and so has the popularity of certain categories this year. Entries doubled in both the Automotive and Social Good categories, while Technology & Telecoms submissions increased by 175% compared to the previous year. The judges also noticed some clear themes emerging across all categories.

Read the full article here

Are marketers doing enough to encourage sustainability? Belinda Barker

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]The desire to become a more purpose-driven business is one of the positive trends to emerge from the pandemic and brands are becoming increasingly more progressive in their outlook. Last week’s Advertising Week Europe had a whole track dedicated to Purpose & Practice, and while purpose can encompass many things, it’s clear that in today’s climate, any purpose-driven business strategy must have sustainability high on the agenda.

The World Media Group’s members have been covering climate change and sustainability for years and continue to play a critical role in holding companies to account as organisations chase Net Zero ambitions. While ‘Profit, People and Planet’ is high on the agenda at board level, the question is, how is the media and marketing industry doing overall, and can we do more to effect change?

To read the full article published on Mediatel click HERE[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Join the World Media Group at Advertising Week Europe

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]After a two year hiatus because of the pandemic, Advertising Week Europe returns to London this week and the World Media Group and our members are delighted to be participating in a variety of panels and events. If you’re attending Advertising Week, come along and join us. The sessions featuring World Media Group members and our partners are as follows:

Tuesday 17th May 

11:40 AM Forces Of Influence 2022 – Stage 6 – The Boardroom Stage

Atlantic Brand Partners has uncovered the five Forces of Influence that are continuously shaping our world, our industry, and our customers’ lives in order to give brand leaders a deeper understanding of the newest trends, behaviours and ideas. Find out more.

1:20 PM The Future of AI – Stage 3 – The Tech Lab Stage

Bloomberg Technology Columnist Parmy Olson joins the panel to ask What does the future of AI look like? We ask the people leading and involved in businesses pushing the boundaries of AI. While we all know that artificial intelligence will change business forever, how will this happen? And what will it look like? Find out more.

1:40 PM Take Action Now To Support Underrepresented Talent To Thrive – Stage 6 – The Boardroom Stage

A panel featuring NABS, Brixton Finishing School and the ADcademy, Media for All (MEFA) and Outvertising on their recent research partnership. Sharing insights on the experiences of marginalised people in our industry and our plans for a brighter future, together. Find out more.

3:40 PM  Building A Culture Of Marketing Effectiveness – Stage 1 – Great Minds Stage 

Duncan Chater, Managing Director, Europe, Bloomberg Media joins this panel about marketing effectiveness. Only half of organisations have a marketing effectiveness roadmap, according to the inaugural IPA Effectiveness Culture Monitor. But those organisations who do so feel more empowered to deliver great marketing and aligned with the aims of their business. Whether you have a roadmap or a toolkit to ensure effectiveness, what truly works when it comes to transforming businesses? Find out more.

4:20 PM BBC News: Dispatches From Ukraine – Stage 1 – Great Minds Stage 

The inside story of BBC News’s coverage of the Russia-Ukraine conflict. This is a BBC Studios session, on behalf of the international, commercial part of BBC News. During the first weeks of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, global audiences turned to the BBC to experience the frank and fearless journalism of the BBC’s Chief International Correspondent, Lyse Doucet and Anchor and Correspondent, Yalda Hakim. In this interview, they’ll lift the lid on the past few months of reporting from Kyiv and Lviv, two cities under siege. Find out more.

Wednesday 18th May 

10:20 AM The Sustainability Imperative: How Your Brand Can Take the Lead – Stage 6 – The Boardroom Stage

Implementing a sustainability strategy is a commercial imperative to ensure that your business model and operations are resilient enough to thrive in the long-term. Communicating these sustainability efforts openly, transparently, and authentically is critical. 

This Reuters panel will provide valuable insights and case studies from clients’ sustainability initiatives, using branded content, that is underpinned by the core Reuters principles of integrity, independence, and freedom from bias. Find out more

11:40 AM Can Marketing Lead the Sustainability Agenda? – Stage 1 – Great Minds Stage 

Bloomberg’s Group Head of Sales, David  Bradford joins the panel to discuss why driving a sustainable transformation is one of the greatest challenges facing business. Does marketing have the right to play a leading role? Iris invites big thinkers from outside Adland to give CMOs advice on the changing role of consumers into ‘citizens’, how to see sustainability as ‘the new digital’, and understand the opportunity circular economy, smart product switches and even pricing can play in driving a sustainability agenda. Find out more.

12.00 PM The Science and Art of Content for the C-Suite – Stage 5, The Market Place Stage

Join The Financial Times as they present The Science and Art of Content for the C-Suite with Joanna Harrison, Head of Thought Leadership, Alpha Grid and Janet Wagner, Senior Director, Columbia Threadneedle Investments.

12:15 PM The New, Responsible Rules For Advertising – Stage 3 – The Tech Lab Stage

Join Permutive’s CEO and co-founder, Joe Root, in conversation with Michael Gewirtzman, Global Programming Director at Advertising Week Europe, to hear about the impact of privacy on advertising and why publishers and advertisers need to activate audiences responsibly to rebuild consumer trust. Find out more.

12:50 PM The Power Of Immersive To Transform Your Marketing – Stage 4 – The Creative Showcase Stage

Marketeers continually face the challenge of how to engage effectively with their target audiences, cutting through the clutter to remain relevant to consumers.

BBC Studios’ Head of Interactive, Tom Burton, joins the panel which explores the power of immersive events to engage with audiences in rich, meaningful, and new ways. Discussing best-in-class project examples with leading marketeers, this talk covers the value of ticketed brand experiences, and key learnings for brands looking to develop projects in this space in the future. Find out more.

1:20 PM  The Future of TV & Measurement – Stage 3 – The Tech Lab Stage

Grab your seats for a packed panel of advertising industry leaders for a lively debate moderated by Business Insider’s Lara O’Reilly on the future of TV advertising and how consumer attention should be measured across every screen. The great measurement debate will feature the premiere of Samba’s latest State of a Viewership Report from the UK and Germany, which shares what viewers watched in the first quarter of 2022 and how their shifting consumption patterns are changing the future of advertising. Find out more.

1:40 PM Purpose and Profit: What It Takes To Deliver Both – Stage 6 – The Boardroom Stage

The pandemic accelerated trends and placed more responsibility on the corporate sector. In this panel, presented by the World Media Group, we discuss the importance of a purpose driven vision and strategy. Duncan Chater, Managing Director, Europe at Bloomberg Media leads the discussion around how Purpose can drive business transformation and profits, alongside the challenges and opportunities business leaders and marketeers face along the way. 

The conversation will centre around the journey brands must now take to redress the balance to move towards a world that’s more progressive and demanding. Find out more. 

2:35 PM Convene & Curate: How Forbes Harnesses Community To Drive Conversation & Change  Stage 6 – The Boardroom Stage

Alex Wood, Managing Director of Europe at Forbes, will discuss how the business media brand is tapping into the power of global communities – from Under 30s to Billionaires – and building mission-aligned brand partnerships to drive meaningful systemic change and spur conversations around sustainability and social responsibility. Find out more.

2:50 PM Finding the right model to support original, independent journalism – Stage 2 – The Innovation Factory Stage

With ambitions to reach 15 million subscribers, The New York Times aims to be the essential subscription for every curious person—from news to cooking to games to sports. Fueled by the subscription-first approach, The New York Times has developed an innovative advertising model with a privacy-forward and premium ad ecosystem that supports The Times’s high quality journalism. delivers measurable impact and helps brands make their mark on the world. Find out more.

3:20 PM Brands, News & Gen Z – Stage 3 – The Tech Lab Stage

This is a BBC Studios session, on behalf of the international and commercial part of BBC News.

Get under the bonnet of what makes Gen Z tick, their relationship with global news providers and tips for brands in how to communicate to them.

They only communicate online, they are less brand loyal, they are entitled and self-focused; How much do we really know about Gen Z? In this session we aim to break down a few common myths and misconceptions about them. As part of a new piece of thought leadership, BBC News has surveyed 12 global markets, to find out what makes this cohort tick. Find out more 

3:30 PM Catching the Spark: Conversations With Journalists – Reporting On Innovation – Stage 2 The Innovation Factory Stage 

“Marketing is about innovation” to quote former Vice Chair of GE (General Electric) Beth Comstock. So it follows that journalists who write about marketing must write about innovation. But how do reporters define innovation? What is worth their attention and why do they dismiss some stories that seem to meet the innovation brief?

Join a panel of top marketing journalists including Lara O’Reilly Media and Advertising Editor, Insider, as Propeller Group’s Director of Content and former journalist Branwell Johnson turns the tables and gives some top editorial gatekeepers a grilling. Find out more.

Thursday 19th May 

9:20 AM Great Minds Morning Debate: This House Believes Your Carbon Footprint Doesn’t Really Matter – Stage 1 – Great Minds Stage and Streaming To The Studio – Stage 7 – Amazon Ads Studio 

Giving up meat, taking fewer flights, using public transport – for years the responsibility for the climate emergency has been focused on our own personal choices.

But let’s address the 35 billion carbon tonnes of gorilla in the room – we’re not the problem. Even if we eliminated 100% of our emissions for the rest of our lives, it’s estimated it would only save 1 second’s worth of emissions from the global energy sector. So does our carbon footprints – a strategy popularised by Adland — really matter? Find out more.

10:10 AM The Future Of TV: Will You Survive Or Thrive? Stage 4 – The Creative Showcase Stage 

Streaming is now firmly entrenched in people’s viewing habits. But never before has there been such a wide option of brands, services, channels, and ways to watch. With so many choices available and increasingly data-driven ways to serve viewers in advertising, this is a time of great change.

What does this mean for the future of TV and the ads that live in it? In this debate, the participants will discuss the future of TV advertising, how brands should be engaging with it, how it can and should evolve, and what creative agencies need to be doing to drive innovation in the space. Find out more.

11:00 AM – Make Inclusion Meaningful – Stage 6 – The Boardroom Stage

Brands can only really understand how to reach inclusive audiences, customers and communities when they do that themselves. Many companies have begun this work under the heading of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG), but this broad categorisation has been criticised for lack of nuance. How should brands look at inclusivity today in Europe? This session brings together experts in the space to tackle everything from language to KPIs. Not just for inclusion specialists, this discussion aims to equip marketers and agencies with new tools to make their work more inclusive and successful. Find out more.

1:30 PM – A New Era Of Responsible Advertising – Stage 3 – The Tech Lab Stage

The rules of advertising are changing. Consumers are concerned about how their data is being used in advertising, regulators across the globe are closing in, and browsers are blocking third-party data. Now more than ever, advertisers need to develop responsible marketing practices that protect consumers’ data.

The decisions that brands and agencies make today will impact consumers and businesses alike. Join Permutive’s Head of EMEA, Advertiser & Agency, Chloe Gilman & Agency Partner, Izzy Jenkins, in this keynote session to get the context, insight and actions you need to effectively execute advertising in the future. Find out more.

3:40 PM Bloomberg’s Levelling Up Scorecard – Stage 1 – Great Minds Stage

In 2019 Boris Johnson won an election with two promises: Complete Brexit & Level Up Britain. The Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill was introduced into Parliament on 11 May 2022 with the objective of spreading wealth & opportunity across the UK, closing the gap on the most deprived areas and the richer region of London and the SE.

Bloomberg has produced an exclusive data analysis to track the government’s own policy paper on levelling up and tracked the metrics on all 650 constituencies in the UK, comparing their performance to London and the South-East since 2019. Find out more

For more information about buying passes to Advertising Week Europe, please visit https://advertisingweek.com/event/aweurope2022/[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Sustainability: From Pledges to Progress – Key Take Outs

With sustainability high on the agenda for many businesses, particularly in light of COP26, the United Nations Climate Change Conference in November, the World Media Group invited a panel of sustainability transformation experts to discuss how businesses make the move from talking about sustainability to undertaking concrete action. The panel was chaired by Katya Ionova, Creative Director, Business Insider, who began by asking each representative to explain the role of sustainability communications in their business.

Sofia Lotto Persio, Assistant Editor at Forbes explained that although Forbes has been covering sustainability issues for a while, it has been siloed across different channels such as business, finance or lifestyle, which hasn’t necessarily presented the whole picture. “It’s something that needs a holistic approach and needs players from all industries to get involved in, to share knowledge, share awareness and best practices,” she said. To this end, Forbes is launching a sustainability channel next month, with a more intersectional approach to coverage.

Enabling change throughout the supply chain

For Santosh Sethumadhavan, Interim Global Head of Communications, B2B, at HSBC, communications play a role in dismissing the growing narrative that businesses are part of the problem. Describing HSBC’s “Business plan for the planet”, an initiative that promotes the idea that business can be part of the sustainability solution rather than the problem, Sethumadhavan said most businesses “want to make the change, but they just don’t know how to get started and they need help.” HSBC is committing between 750 billion and $1 trillion over the next nine years to drive sustainable transitions, supporting its clients, and, importantly, their supply chains, to thrive in a low carbon economy.

Turning to Devapriyo Das, Senior Communications Advisor, Market Communications and Sustainability at Ørsted, Ionova asked him how the company came to be one of the most interesting examples of sustainability transformation. Ørsted has reduced its carbon emissions by 87 percent over the past 14 years. In 2020, the company generated 90 percent of its energy from renewable offshore, onshore wind and solar sources. They are on their way to being carbon neutral by 2025 and net zero by 2040. “Becoming sustainable is not just about changing your own business, but about changing the partners you work with and the impact you have on the globe,” he said. This means tackling the difficult challenge of decarbonising heavy industries like steel and fuel for transportation, but he believes that increasing demand will put pressure on innovators to come up with the right, low carbon solutions.

The same applies to a business such as Capgemini, which works with companies across many different sectors, including finance and energy. In the race for net zero, Emmanuel Lochon, Chief Marketing Officer, Capgemini Invent, said having a very clear action plan and measurable steps towards the next objective was essential. Research and insight into the evolution of sustainability, from energy to mobility to the circular economy, forms the basis of Capgemini’s communications strategy. Lochon cited a recent example of an actionable project that Capgemini Invent developed for the Gates Foundation, which identified 55 high-impact, climate technology projects that can help Europe meet the 2025 net zero emission targets. He said they are continuously researching how sustainability is evolving so that they can offer clients implementation support to put their own sustainability strategies in place.

Avoiding greenwashing

Ionova’s next question to the panel was how to avoid the label of “greenwashing.” According to Sethumadhavan, the problem arises when companies stand up and shout about how sustainable they are without any real transition. It can’t just be the marketing team pushing a company’s sustainability merits. “It needs a strong leadership commitment and collaboration across the organisation to make this a reality. It truly happens when the organisation comes together and recognises sustainability as a priority, then the whole organisation mobilises in that direction,” he said. “Without that, it becomes a hollow promise and maybe just another nice marketing campaign.”

According to Ørsted’s Das, maintaining credible consistent communication, sticking to the facts and putting it into context is key. “We take great pains to show how much we have actually reduced in terms of emissions, but also how we are contributing to an accelerated build out of green energy. And I think as much as numbers can be tedious and facts can be very heavy, we need them to support our story.”

Lotto Persio said that one of the biggest issues she comes up against when covering sustainability initiatives for Forbes is a lack of actionable evidence. “The press release will say, we’ve decided to create this goal and we’ll be carbon neutral by 2030. But it’s always lacking in the details as to how they’re doing it. Explaining the mechanism as to how these actions happens is very important in our coverage.” She also warns against developing initiatives that may create a catchy headline but don’t actually align with what the business is about, or its goals.

Expectations for COP26

As the topic turned to COP26, Lochon pointed out that this too should not be viewed as a marketing opportunity but as a chance to make a difference. “It’s not about sponsoring the event,” he said. For Capgemini Invent “it’s about taking part in it, taking the floor and sharing, insights in front of a panel of decision makers. It’s a very concrete and very direct way of involving ourselves.”

Continuing with the theme of concrete action, Das said the one message he would like people to take away from COP26, and particularly for some of the emerging economies, is “that green energy is now cheaper than fossil fuels in two thirds of the world’s countries. There is simply no economic reason not to act on the climate crisis,” he said. He felt that there was a lot of momentum to make sure COP26 was a success, and, with the new administration in the US, there was the potential to really kickstart the action needed for change.

Lotto Persio agreed that President Biden’s decision to re-join the Paris Agreement was not only hugely symbolic but also opens up the sustainability conversation in the US again, putting decarbonisation at the top of the agenda. “With some leadership in this topic again, I think the message will be more powerful and will echo to normal people,” she said. However, she urged companies to think about the context, framework and relevancy of any communication they were planning for COP26, as it was unlikely to filter down to the general public.

The celebration of transition

Ending with a question from the audience, Ionova asked Sethumadhavan how the media and marketing industry could credibly focus on messaging around sustainability when also faced with the physical carbon cost of the internet, which if it were a country, would be the sixth largest carbon emitter on a planet. Sethumadhavan replied that the internet is no different from steel or any other resource and “needs to be held to equally high standards as any other company.” However, with the goalposts constantly moving, Sethumadhavan believes we need to be mindful about the “celebration of transition”. If a company, or sectors like the internet, start making transitions towards being more sustainable, if we as marketers and advertisers try and find even small steps that can quantify and make some kind of meaningful impact, I think we should celebrate those things,” he said.

Wrapping up the discussion on a positive note, Sethumadhavan said that HSBC was seeing interesting ideas coming out of really small businesses around the world that showed real hope for the future. “I might be one of the few optimistic people about this but the kind of changes we’re seeing bode well for the future. People are making real change happen and really, there’s a lot to look forward to.”

Cause and Effect: How global media brands can engage audiences for action around climate change

By Katya Ionova, Creative Director, UK & EMEA, Business Insider – Member of the World Media Group

With the COVID-19 pandemic presenting an existential threat to many areas of economic activity and human development, it’s no surprise to see governments worldwide prioritising economic recovery above all else. But as we mark the 50th anniversary of Earth Day today, let’s not forget another of our existential threats – climate emergency.

In late January, when COVID-19 was beginning its global assault, we were embracing the Decade of Action with a renewed commitment to sustainability at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Climate change and sustainability were the most discussed topics. For the first time, WEF’s Global Risk Report was dominated by the environment, with “failure of climate-change mitigation and adaption” cited as the year’s number one long-term risk, according to impact, and top second risk when measuring event likelihood.

Now, just three months later, we’re approaching Earth Day with 2.5M confirmed cases and 175K dead as a result of coronavirus. What may not be so apparent is the direct cause and effect relationship – both positive and negative – between these two existential threats. Global warming has been linked to an increase in diseases that could transfer from animal to human, and mass globalisation has facilitated the spread of such diseases. With more than a fifth of the global population under lockdown, however, COVID-19 could trigger the largest annual fall in CO2 emissions ever this year, due to interrupted energy demand and reduced economic activity.

In 2019, the “Greta effect” elevated climate change onto the global stage and into our collective consciousness. Now, COVID-19 has taken that a step further by enforcing behavioural change on a global level. As we prepare for life after COVID-19 – whatever the “new normal” may look like – we have a real opportunity to impact long-term change. As media organizations with global footprints, we have a responsibility to think about our own cause and effect: the critical issues we choose to cover, from pandemics to sustainability, have the potential to empower audiences into making meaningful and positive change.

At Business Insider that can be seen in our dedication to reporting on companies that balance profit with purpose. In 2018, our CEO and founder, Henry Blodget, issued a call for “better capitalism,” saying that sustainable economic growth comes from providing value for all stakeholders: employees, customers, and society. Since launching the Better Capitalism platform, sustainability has been a core editorial pillar of the company, with a focus on companies that deliver practical outcomes, not just PR hype.

We tell stories about the people and organisations working to solve our biggest problems. One of our most popular series was Saving Our World, a 2018 in-depth newsroom examination of how climate change is altering the way we eat, live, and power the world. This resonated deeply with our audience with engagement far surpassing our expectations.

In 2020, our focus is on the Circular Economy. Coinciding with the UN General Assembly in September, we’ll be launching Closing the Loop, a series about how corporations are operationalising closed-loop systems, and what it will take to make these practices widespread.

We’re not alone in our efforts. Many other World Media Group brands are dedicating more time and resources to ‘impact’ or ‘solutions’ journalism. The New York Times, for example, delivers a comprehensive weekly newsletter from its climate team with stories and insights about climate change, and tips on how to help.

The Washington Post launched Climate Solutions in partnership with Rolex last year, with a focus on individuals, companies, and other organisations that are exploring ways to address our most significant environmental problems. The series highlights people who are committed to reducing their own carbon footprints, and its Climate Curious feature provides readers with ideas for doing the same.

Last September, The Economist dedicated its weekly edition to climate change, with Editor-in-Chief, Zanny Minton Beddoes, saying, “Climate change is sometimes portrayed as something capitalism cannot deal with – or worse, does not want to deal with. That is not our view. Our reporting clearly shows the scale and scope of the problem; we accept that it cannot be solved simply; but we think free markets, smart regulation and liberal values are the key to an effective response.”

 The Economist continues to report regularly on climate change and produces a fortnightly newsletter featuring climate-change analysis. The Economist Films has produced three series of ‘The Protectors Oceans’, examining the science and radical thinking at work in tackling the crisis facing the world’s seas; and The Economist Group’s World Ocean Initiative (WOI) fosters a year-round global conversation on the greatest challenges facing the seas and the progress towards building a truly “blue” economy.

Bloomberg Media launched Bloomberg Green in January, a new editorial platform dedicated to the business, science, and technology of climate change. Focussing on climate change news, analysis and solutions, it includes a website with a global, interactive climate data dashboard, a daily email newsletter, a podcast and a magazine.

Finally, National Geographic has created its first ‘flip’ issue this April to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. The issue features two magazines in one, revisiting environmental milestones of the past half-century and looking ahead at the world our descendants will inhabit in 2070. The magazine presents two possible outcomes – firstly, a verdant green earth in which we have successfully reversed climate change; then a browner earth suffering from longer droughts, deadlier heat waves, fiercer storms, and more.

As we approach this year’s Earth Day, ask yourself, which outcome do you want to be responsible for creating?

The next few months will be key. As we search for the path towards the strongest possible economic recovery, media companies have a choice about the causes we continue to spotlight. The COVID-19 outbreak has given us a unique opportunity to heal the planet, but will we be prepared to socially distance ourselves from unsustainable business practices needed to flatten the curve of the persisting environmental crisis?

 

 

 

WMG Davos Diary – Key Takeaways from WEF 2020

Many World Media Group members were at the World Economic Forum in Davos last week to discuss the global, regional and industry issues affecting business leaders today. Here are some of the key takeaways, as observed by Katya Ionova, Creative Director, UK & EMEA, Business Insider and Damian Douglas, Managing Director, EMEA, Time.

Youth Power

Although the average demographic of attendees at Davos is aged 52-54 for men and aged 49 for women, the question of how we can support the younger generation was a critical theme that ran across many areas of discussion. Concerns ranging from the kind of planet we’re passing on, to the lack of funding for the global mental health epidemic that’s affecting the younger generation were high on the agenda. Greta Thunberg wasn’t the only young voice to be heard this year – 10 teenage activists from all over the world were invited along to encourage collaboration between generations.

Sustainability

Environmental risks, renewed commitments to sustainability, carbon-neutrality pledges, the circular economy and financing a sustainable future were all big themes and more CEOs were seen wearing the SDG pin. The message was clear: we have less than a decade to act, so maintaining the status quo or ‘business as usual’ is no longer acceptable.

Stakeholder Capitalism

The growth of stakeholder capitalism was a frequent discussion point. Companies can no longer serve only their shareholders but must consider all stakeholders, using business as a platform for change to address the environmental and societal issues that matter most to today’s employees and consumers.

Transformation

The Fourth Industrial Revolution and technology such as AI, driverless cars and the IoT formed the basis of many discussions around digital, organisational and societal transformation. The transformation of people was another important theme, from supporting mental health issues to unlocking the potential of human capital.

Brands as Content Creators

A packed fringe agenda featured events from brands such as Accenture, who produced a daily live show. Bank of America, EY and Refinitiv used their social and digital channels to deliver lively content throughout the week. Many World Media Group members led with a content agenda, such as The Wall Street Journal, which hosted The Journal House again, curating discussions on topics aligned to the seven themes of the main agenda. Media newcomers included Condé Nast’s Vogue, which hosted a networking nightcap in Davos House.

Purpose-Driven Marketing

Will we see Davos’ ‘Youth Activism’ theme translate into purpose-driven marketing campaigns? If previous years are anything to go by, they will trickle down from CEO to the rest of the boardroom and start to manifest in 9-12 months. Two years ago, the themes at Davos were around Women, Gender, Diversity and Equality; it’s no coincidence, then, that we saw an increase in DNI campaigns at Cannes last year. We predict that we’ll start seeing Gen Z-centric creative at Cannes in 2021.

Finally, we couldn’t sign off without mentioning the best-branded swag at the event! Every year, Zurich Insurance provides blue woolly hats and they were everywhere – even featured on posters for the Zurich-sponsored airport WiFi. Zurich gave out 13,000 hats this year and pledged to plant 13,000 trees. It goes to show that merchandise can still be an effective marketing tool if it’s a) useful, b) on-brand, and c) entirely fitting for the environment it’s being shared in.