Unity provides integrated corporate communications strategies that consider political, social, and environmental issues. They work with companies like Unilever, GSK, Café Direct, and M&S to develop campaigns that achieve an average 28-35% ROI. Unity focuses on starting conversations to shape public understanding of companies. They develop strategic toolkits that measure how policies, media, social/economic changes, and people influence brand exposure, customer understanding, environmental impact, and regulatory risks.
3. When it comes to Corporate
Communications
• Unity believe companies must consider political, social and
environmental issues as part of their core strategy.
• We are small enough to be nimble, responsive and fully integrated.
• We are big enough to deliver campaigns for Uniliver (Ben and Jerrys),
GSK (Ribena), Café Direct, M&S and the Law Society which integrate
these fundamentals with exciting consumer brand campaigns. We
also work with a lot of charities in the third sector.
• Our approach has resulted in an average ROI of 28%- 35% on our
clients campaigns, laws being changed, debates in parlaiment and
brand reputations being raised on the super brand index.
• We have achieved this by focusing on how people to start
conversations.
• This might sound simple but in reality ……..
4.
5. The Unity Corporate
Strategic tool kit
These are the things we believe shapes public
understanding & engagement with companies
Government Social &
Media People Policy Economic
Regulation change
6. To develop a corporate strategy we believe
as companies we must measure and
understand if we have ……..
• High brand exposure with substantial good will and intangible value;
• A clear understanding of what matters to our customers; social and
economic changes;
• Big environmental impact across our operational and supply chain;
• Risks that come from natural resource and ecology dependency;
• Current exposure to regulation at a national and international level;
• Increasing potential for regulation on social and environmental grounds;
• Competitive market for talent and customers who care about these
issues;
• Heritage and established environmental reputation with a duty to
continue.
7. We understand climate change;
politics, the environmental
debate and the implicit
challenges and risks involved in
our world today. We have been
influenced by our friend Paul
Gilding and we call it…
The Great Disruption
8. This Great Disruption started in 2008, with spiking
food and oil prices and dramatic ecological
changes, such as the melting ice caps. It is not
simply about fossil fuels and carbon footprints.
We have come to the end of Economic Growth,
Version 1.0, a world economy based on
consumption and waste, where we lived beyond
the means of our planet’s ecosystems and
resources.
These are serious issues. We believe we can
overcome them. We definitely need to engage
consumers in the right way to succeed.
9. Never
We engage, we start conversations, encourage and
empower. We support people in taking positive change.
10. Resistance to change is futile,
businesses in the 21st Century are
facing increasing pressure to
act…..
• As a company we agree. Our focus must be on
going ‘greener’ faster. We realise this is going
to happen to our business and brand whether
we like it or not…
- We will be pushed by Government and lawmakers to go greener faster
- We will be pulled by our stakeholders (employees, customers, opinion
formers and suppliers/partners) to go greener faster
- We will be forced by our shareholders, CFO and bank – because,
increasingly, doing anything else will be financial suicide
• We call it the ………
11.
12. We have some very deep
thinking,understanding and
strategic depth on this
subject. We know and work
with some of the national
and international groups who
set the agenda.
13. Water, Land, Waste, Environmental Laboratories, Carbon and Environmental
Management, Sustainable Buildings, Air Pollution, Transport Pollution, International
Business and Sustainable Buildings
EU ETS, Carbon Leakage, Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC), construction and the
build environment, Low Carbon Buildings (Domestic and Non-Domestic), Agriculture
policy, Offshore Wind, Marine energy, Energy Efficiency, Aviation, Energy pricing, Post-
Copenhagen world and the build up to COP 16/17, Green Investment Bank and Green
Finance, International Carbon Flows and Carbon reduction in the supply chain.
14. Now the good
news…
• This ‘great disruption’ represents a rare chance to
replace our addiction to growth with an ethic of
sustainability, and it’s already happening. It’s
also an unmatched business opportunity: Old
industries will either collapse or evolve and new
companies will literally reshape our economy. As
Daniel Burrus says, we are at a base of a
mountain of disruption, but we are also at the
base of a mountain of opportunity.
But you have already started ……….
18. Unity Launch M&S
Swhopping
• A massive new sustainability initiative from one of the UK’s biggest retailers
launched on April 2012 in East London.
• The campaign was looking to introduce major permanent change in Consumer
habits (1.2 million tones of clothing into landfill every year) ,Reusing and recycling
unwanted clothing, Manufacturing and retailing processes (‘closed loop’
economy).
• Some Early Results
• In partnership with Oxfam and London College of Fashion’s centre for sustainable
fashion
• Unity’s biggest integrated campaign to date (PR, social, blogger / influencer
outreach, experiential)
• The campaign focused around a experiential lab in Dray Coat East London where
the public and the practitioners could see
19. Some Early Results
2m reach, over 4m social impressions on launch day #Shwopping, Joanna Lumley, M&S trending
Blanket national coverage
TV: This Morning, Sky News TV, CNN, Five News, CNBC, BBC News
Radio: LBC Radio, BBC Radio 5 Live, Radio 4
Press: The Mail, Express, The FT, The Guardian, Vogue, Metro, The Daily Telegraph, The
Independent, I Celebrity, influencer and blogger involvement at the Shwop Lab.
20. Corporate UK and European issues management
Corporate leadership in living the core values of sustainability, labour rights, being fair and protecting
the environment;
We have completed a corporate and environmental business risk audit for the European business. We
are now managing the implementation;
We are responsible for identifying, creating and developing all of the social and political campaigns.
We are working on the ‘Fair Climate’ project which is focused on reducing carbon in the supply chain
and protecting Ben and Jerrys producers.
In February 2012 we will be launching the ‘Join Our Core’ Campaign which is an international campaign
to find new global entrepreneurs and includes a trip to Uganda and extensive integrated media
coverage.
In January 2012 we will be running the european stakeholder and political engagement for the ‘Caring
Dairy’ campaign to raise farming standards for dairy cows in europe.
21. How to make all of Europe's cows
(nearly) as happy as B&Js cows
We did a bit of Friesian detective work, commissioning some
European research in the dairy industry, and we found some sad
truths…
- Widespread health problems, lameness, infertility & low life
expectancy
- Uncomfortable cows, at times injured because their cow
pads are cramped &/or poorly designed
- Some cow subjected to a poor diet
- Limited access to pasture, meaning they can t roam freely
22. Café Direct
Corporate leadership pioneers in being and ethical business focused on the the triple P’s
of people, planet and profit.
We advise and develop corporate strategy for their media and stakeholder engagement.
Today Cafédirect is pre-investing in a carbon credits scheme with CEPICAFE in Peru, one
of the original AdapCC pilot groups
Cafédirect is investing back into its supply chain, leading the way as an example
to other businesses to take sustainability to the next level and look to its suppliers
rather than external companies
In January 2012 we will be running the a stakeholder trip to Peru with leading economists,
environmentalists, business, social affairs and climate change journalists.
We have helped establish Cafédirect as truly ethical industry
pioneer…
23. The results are good, In the last
two quarters we have
55 pieces of 20 pieces in trade
coverage media
7 pieces in national online pieces 9 regionals 3 consumer
16
media magazines
25 pieces 10 referring
containing directly to the
pictures, 7 brand as
containing pioneering
Cafédirect
images
Six-month campaign that re-established Cafédirect as truly
ethical industry pioneer…
24. The Ribena Make-Kit
Report
It is in playing that the
individual…is able to be creative
and to use the whole
personality…it is only in being
creative that the individual
discovers the self.
Donald Winnicott, 1979
Report to be used to support Ribena Plus range and as
the basis for Ribena’s standpoint as the champions of a
‘make do and mend’ mentality, and to give us cultural
authority across the campaign
25. The Law Society “Sound Off For Justice”
In December 2010 Unity was engaged by the Law Society to develop a cross-channel campaign strategy
to campaign against of the cuts to Legal Aid.
The Government’s proposal to brutally slash the Legal Aid budget by £350million, leaving hundreds of
thousands of vulnerable people without access to justice required a campaign to engage, inform and
provoke.
The immediate challenge was the intangibility of the cuts – unlike schools, hospitals and battleships, it’s
hard to envisage ‘less justice’.
Our way of responding to this was by focusing on Justice and the British sense of what’s fair and unfair.
From this we bridged to the idea of not being heard - of being unable to speak up for yourself and
called for people to ‘Sound Off for Justice’. This campaigning name had a neat double meaning 1.
Speak up whilst you can 2. This is what will happen if we don’t fight these proposals.
26. An ambitious and complex multi-channel campaign has been executed throughout 2011, raising
awareness, engaging the public, gathering petition sign-ups, lobbying politicians and influencing the
media agenda.
Online ads, experiential activity, video content, campaign marches, stunt activity and extensive digital
work have combined to create a campaign with in excess of 30,000 ‘Sound Offs’ and has brought a
difficult subject matter to the attention of millions of people that were previously unaware of what the
Ministry of Justice are up to.
And did it work? We won’t know until Q1 of 2012 when the final bill goes through, but to date our
campaign has directly led to £20 million being put back into the legal budget.
We know this campaign is a million miles away from paint marketing, but have included it as an example
of a fully integrated campaign.
27. And did it work? We won’t know until May of 2012 when the final bill goes through, but to date our campaign has
directly led to £20 million being put back into the legal budget and funding for Clinical Negligence and Domestic
Violence cases are now protected.
The results in full today are
202 national print articles (FT, BBC, Economist, Guardian, Times etc)
448 online articles and blogs national and international
5 letters to the national press
97 letters to policy makers
5 reports produced
47 radio/tv interviews (newsnight, five live, bbc news, ITV news – national and regional)
193 blog posts
The campaign work has reached over 2.3 million people and 35k people have signed our petition.
We know this campaign is a million miles away from retail food and fashion but have included it as an example of a
fully integrated campaign.
28.
29.
30.
31. Powering the Future
In June 2012 we will start working with Global Village Energy Project (GVEP). We will be working on
raising their profile and the work they do with the national and international press, international policy
makers and the donor community.
GVEP’s mission:
GVEP aims to change lives through accelerating access to affordable energy - heat, light
and power
GVEP’s focus:
Africa, Latin America, Caribbean
The most appropriate technology – usually renewable
Small & medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)
GVEP believes:
Sustainable businesses last longer than the effects of direct donations
So, supporting energy businesses should achieve more access per $ of aid
GVEP’s approach supports:
Poverty alleviation - through enabling poor disadvantaged people to access power to
improve their lives and provide basic needs, and developing local micro and small energy businesses
Clean development – predominantly renewable energy
10th Anniversary Development Programme
October 2011
32. We branded and launched 10:10 in the Tate Gallery Turbine hall. We
still work with them on a pro-bono basis. They are a group of people
we believe in and are making real changes.
35. To be successful……
Its more than simple PR, a media release and a good consumer idea. It
requires a deep understanding of the wider picture, context and issues that
impact and influence people.
We develop a strategy by listening to our clients and putting all of their
thoughts into context of the public sphere.
We understand that companies need to talk at different times, levels, and to
different sections of the media. Some stories will be for current affairs, social,
consumer, finance and economic journalists. It changes day-to-day.
This is something we have delivered. We call it whole brain strategy.