Our Breakfast Club: sustainability and social media

We set up Our Breakfast Club as a forum for clients get together and get inspired before work. It's a small and informal breakfast session designed to encourage discussion and sharing. Come along next time and listen to our two chosen speakers talk about the big topics of the day over coffee and croissants.

Huge thanks to everyone who came along to our very first breakfast club and made it a great success. Special thanks to our speakers Alex Cole from Sainsbury's and Robyn Pierce from The Crocodile. Listening to both of them you really got a sense of how sustainability and social media are intrinsically linked when it comes to having an authentic and transparent brand.

First up Alex talked to us about sustainability at Sainsbury's. She spoke of the importance of having a brand or company with character and the right values. She quoted Lincoln, "Character is like a tree and reputation like its shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing."

 

Next Robyn looked at the key trends coming out of  The Social Media Marketing Report and talked about the 5 things marketeers must know about social media. She stressed the need for fantastic content and said that continued to be the challenge for all marketeers.



We are already planning the next breakfast club and we'd welcome any ideas or suggestions for topics or people to speak in the future. Is there someone you've always wanted to see speak or ask a question? Is there a topic you'd really like to debate with others? If so then please do email us at hello@our-design-agency.com.

Brand purpose: thumbs up or down?

Elvis didn't want to be a singer. He wanted to changed music. Did he have purpose? Ahaha. I believe that great brands need purpose. What do you think? Do you agree with the following statements about brand purpose?

1.Business can do well by doing good.

2. Great products that are based on real problems that consumers really care about.

3. First it was product benefit, then it was emotional benefit, and now social benefit is new frontier for brands.

4. Purpose can reinvigorate and empower capitalism.

5. Purpose will make better brands, brighter companies and lasting legacies for all.

Will you give purpose the thumbs up, or the thumbs down?

How does your brand make people happy?

Nobody likes bad news. It's a downer. We like to hear good news. It's how we're programmed.

So far most talk of sustainability has usually been
framed in terms of apocalyptic outcomes rather than creative possibilities. But it doesn't have to be that way. Brands like Tom's create happiness in spades.

Now take a look at your category through a happiness lens. 

What makes people miserable about it? Can your brand could turn that around?

Our Breakfast Club: the 'S' Words

Our Breakfast Club is an idea we've had to share and debate brand challenges and opportunities before work, and with coffee and croissant in hand. Each small session will offer simple straightforward advice on some of marketings sometimes complex topics, and we'll hear from people who've been there and done it. Our inaugural club is happening on 7th June with special thanks to our experts Alex Cole and Robyn Pearce and our client friends who are participating.

We agree with David Jones (Who Cares Wins) when he says, "Two of the biggest issues and opportunities facing business today are how to cope with the dramatic rise of social media and how to be more socially responsible."Social media and social mission are not two different things, but very much interlinked as I hope this first session will go to show.

We'll be posting content after the event and sharing the ideas discussed and soundbites.

If you are interested in attending or speaking at subsequent events please get in touch.

Is your brand improving quality of life?

There's a shift of focus happening in our society. From standard of living - a financial measure - to quality of life - based on our sense of wellbeing. But a study of 50,000 people in 14 countries, the Havas Media's Meaningful Brands study, showed that in the UK only five per cent of respondents believe that brands have a positive impact on their health, fitness, happiness or social relationships. 

The New Economics Foundation (NEF) has a shortlist of 5 ways to safeguard wellbeing in our everyday life. Which one is right for your category or your brand?

1. To connect with people
2. Be active
3. Take notice
4. Keep learning
5. Give

What's the best way for your brand to champion your consumers' wellbeing?