Ogilvyearth launched

Ogilvyearth is being established as a separate Communications Practice and will be the South African division of the international Ogilvyearth organisation. 

The new Practice will be driven by Ogilvy agency, ZOOM, and is headed by Steve Massey as MD,  Sello Leshope on strategy and Deon Robbertze on creative.

Deon Robbertze explains: "Sustainability in Africa is much more complex than in other markets where it has really become just about environmental management. Here, in Africa, sustainability cannot be divorced from giving people a sustainable future. In communication, companies need to strike the right balance between what they’ve done and what’s left to be done.  Authenticity is key."

As Ogilvy’s global sustainability Practice, Ogilvyearth’s principal mission is to help brands uncover leadership opportunity in sustainability through a set of unique and proprietary services that provides clients with the necessary strategies and definitive processes for the road ahead.

Ogilvyearth in the US works with brands such as Coca-Cola and Craft as well as with a number of Fortune 500 companies; most recently, the New York agency created ‘Hopenhagen’, a global movement to raise awareness of climate change around the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP15).  ‘Hopenhagen’ engaged more than six million supporters.

One of the main challenges in sustainability marketing is to counter the effects of corporate greenwashing – the practice of falsely spinning products and policies as environmentally friendly. Greenwashing threatens to erode consumer trust and Ogilvyearth helps companies go through a process of auditing their sustainability and green credentials so that a workable, responsible and socially conscious future strategy may be developed.  This ranges from an audit of the environment in which the company currently operates to a staff survey and a process by which every aspect of the company as a whole is evaluated. Ogilvyearth has a suite of five specially designed ‘strategy tools processes’, namely:

• Earthview Software
• Landscape Audit
• Eco Audit
• Three Pillars Employee Survey
• The Lab

The latter – The Lab – is an intensive workshop process aimed at mapping out the basic tenets of a company’s future sustainability communications strategy.

Ogilvyearth global CEO in New York, Seth Farbman explains that ZOOM is ideally suited to spearhead the Ogilvyearth practice in South Africa.  "ZOOM Advertising has done some great pioneering work in South Africa", says Farbman.  "They developed the book, The Conscious Brand, they were the first ad agency in Africa to measure and offset their carbon emissions and they developed a global campaign – Consider Us – to give children a voice about their future.

They work with their clients to promote awareness of sustainability practices and that is what Ogilvyearth is founded on".

Valere Tjolle

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Valere Tjolle is editor of the Sustainable Tourism Report Suitewww.travelmole.com/stories/1143624.php