According to Love Actually film maker Richard Curtis it is marketing, actually, that helps make the world a better place.
In this Youtube clip for The Drum he expresses astutely, and as charmingly as one might expect, how important marketing is in changing the world for the better: big ideas need to be boiled down to something easy to understand. The most worthy matters require maximum creativity to get the right results.
Of course, marketing agencies are creating inspired campaigns every day for charities such as Engine agency’s Missing Type campaign for NHS Blood and Transplant to raise global awareness of a shortage of donations from people with various blood types.
The letters A, B and O were removed from signs, logos and social media of landmarks, brands and companies around the world attracting huge attention and a spike in donor registrations.
Sometimes marketing departments ‘do good’ in a more direct manner.
Despite environmentalists’ long fight against waste, the sudden prominence of sustainability and single-use plastic in the public consciousness has been driven by big businesses such as McDonalds dumping plastic straws in favour of paper and Waitrose pledging none of its own products will be sold in unrecyclable black plastic by the end of the year.
“Single-use” became Collins Dictionary’s word of the year for 2018.
It is highly doubtful this would have happened had organisations’ marketing departments not ensured the very clear message that they were taking the plastics threat seriously was effectively conveyed to their customers.
ATTAIN has also been sharing our skills to help the next generation tackle another huge problem: homelessness.
We have been working with Wigan Youth Zone members on their incredibly creative idea of upcycling shipping containers into homes for people with nowhere to live.
Wigan council and business mentors were so impressed by the teenagers’ environmentally-friendly and socially sound Project Homezone they vowed to help make it a reality.
Our commercial manager Jackie Salt worked with the young entrepreneurs to develop the idea and their skills in public speaking, marketing, website design and social media.
Attain Digital also helped them design a prototype version of the accommodation.
We are thrilled talks are now underway to make a brownfield site behind the Armed Forces Hub the first location for new accommodation. ATTAIN is proud to have not only contributed to tackling the issue of homelessness but also given a group of highly impressive young people skills they can take with them on their journey to change the world, one shipping container at a time.
If you want to make a change – however big or small – talk to our friendly team today. There is more to marketing than meets the eye!
