Hey, happy Monday.
I look forward to meeting you this evening, March 14, 2022 at 6:30 p.m., in the STRTGY Meeting with Small Giants founders to talk about Design, Environmental Sustainability and FoodTech.
Small Giants produces sustainable snacks using cricket meal, which is responsible for less than 0.1% of greenhouse gases compared to cows. Eating insects also means reducing methane emissions, and 1 ton of methane is equivalent to 25 tons of CO2. Crickets also require only 20% of the water that cows need to produce the same amount of protein (Source Small Giants).
Doing good for the world means creating more trust not only in customers but also for investors. Indeed, growth rewards those who are finding new ways to solve important challenges for humanity, such as, in this case, climate change, because people are more willing to buy products and services from companies that can change the status quo.
Actively engaged
I have compiled a small list representative of only a handful of brands that have mobilized to do something against this war and support Ukraine. Here it is in no particular order.
Elon Musk has made Starlink available in Ukraine.
Anonymous launched cyber attacks on the Russian administration.
Pornub blocked access in Russia.
Netflix, Disney, Sony and Warner Bros. have suspended the distribution of films in Russia.
Prada, Moncler, Hermès, LVMH, Inditex, Kering, Richemont, Chanel, Balenciaga, and Bottega Veneta have temporarily closed their stores in Russia.
Yoox Net-a-Porter Group and Farfetch do not guarantee deliveries to Russia.
But also.
PwC, EY, Accenture, and KPMG have cut their operations in Russia.
The list could go on for a while longer.
And I deliberately did not include Meta with Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp for confusing moves with their algorithms optimized for profits and not for people.
This war documented 24 hours a day on all the world’s screens offered an important opportunity for brands to communicate, reestablish trust and strengthen their reputation.
Opportunism? Necessity.
People see brands as “change agents” and firmly believe that CEOs need to commit to change rather than wait for the government to do it.
Anyone with a cell phone in their hand right now is not only consuming content but producing new content by actively deploying for a cause.
These people are not only citizens who expect politics to do something, but they are also employees, customers and influencers of companies they have decided to trust and from whom they expect concrete actions to create a better world.
According to the influential 2022 Edelman Trust Barometer report ( 36,000 respondents in 28 nations) two critical points emerge:
- distrust is new default emotion
- brands are perceived as the most trusted organizations (more than NGOs and governments!)
People trust influencers more than newspapers. Half of the respondents believe that news in the media is manipulated and place more trust in the information that algorithms let out (search engines and social).
Social Leadership is now a function of business. According to Edelman’s study, 60 percent of employees want their CEO to speak out on controversial issues they care about, and 80 percent of respondents want CEOs to be personally visible when discussing policy and how the work at the company is benefiting the company.
Never before have brands been called upon, by consumers themselves, to break this cycle of distrust by combining actions with words, behaving ethically and communicating appropriately.
As always, in order to be guided and learn from the best, I invited Francesco Oggiano, Digital journalist and one of the faces and partners of Will Italia, to talk to us about his just-released book “SociAbility. How social is changing the way we inform ourselves and do activism” published by Piemme.
We will meet on March 21 at 6:30 p.m. at a STRTGY Meeting to understand how to use the network dynamics that generate memes, fake news and “fuck news,” looking at the phenomenon not only from the perspective of users, but also from the perspective of companies that need to ethically insert themselves into the conversation.
See you live,
the March calendar is full of times to meet and work together.
ALWAYS MAKE PROGRESS
-Antonio
