Helen Brain: Building a Sustainability Strategy that Drives Real Change

In episode 36 of the Alt-Normal, we ask the hard and important questions at the intersection of sustainability and advertising with Helen Brain, a Strategy Director at MediaCom UK with 16 years of experience solving business challenges within media, digital, social & content across a diverse set of verticals -- including retail, tech, government, luxury, fast moving consumer goods and utilities. She sits as Joint Head of MediCom’s Social Chang Hub, supporting clients in creating positive social change and a sustainable future. Additionally, she represents MediaCom in GroupMs’ Mission Zero team and the IPAs Climate Charter alliance, both of which aim to support the industry in transitioning to a zero carbon future.

To make sustainability sustainable (and not just another fleeting trend that’s lost all meaning much like ‘brand purpose’), brands need to start asking the right questions to have the greatest possible impact. After all, sustainability is a scientific field that is now entering the world of marketing, and the level of collaboration that takes place with experts and thought leaders will shape a brand’s sustainability success. It comes down to three questions: 

What does your audience care about within sustainability? 

What are you doing that’s credible to be talked about publicly? 

Where is the ownable opportunity within the sustainability convo for your brand? 

On this episode, we unpack what today’s post-pandemic brands (what Purpose Disruptors calls “systemic amplifiers”) can consider when building out a sustainability strategy:

• Sustainability is about how your product or service is helping your audience (especially those who are most affected by climate change and historically underrepresented) 

• Consumers want to live a low carbon footprint, but they can’t always act upon it. Why? It’s too expensive.

• Greenwashing isn’t intentional for the most part. When there’s a gap in sustainability know-how, brands need to recruit experts who can support them in collaborating towards a solution. Collaboration is advertising’s greatest currency for a sustainable future. 

• Reducing carbon emissions has to coincide with making a profit. Both have to happen for sustainability to impact people and planet 

• To drive behavior change, we need to frame climate change as an opportunity (vs. responsibility) 

• Look to these brands who are doing it right: IKEA, Ben and Jerry’s, Unilever, Patagonia and Sky.  

Follow Helen on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/helenbrain/ 

More about the show: https://www.digseedgrow.com/thealtnormal-podcast

Produced by Resonance™, the creative practice of Dig | Seed | Grow

This show is hosted at Destination Outpost, a coliving and coworking community based out in Bali.