Impact-Driven Marketing

Let’s be honest – marketing isn’t what it used to be.  

In our hyper-distracted age, most ads will disappear from our conscious memory as quickly as they appear on our phone screens.

Not only that, consumers are wary of businesses, both big and small.

They’re less likely to blindly trust companies.

People are more drawn to brands that stand for something bigger than themselves.

Brands that aren’t just selling a product, but are doing cool and impactful projects in the world.

Brands whose marketing captures attention because it showcases how they’re driving positive change in a way people haven’t seen before…

…and engaging with these brands allows people to contribute to that positive change themselves.

If you want your business to do good in the world and stand out because of it, this is the way to go.

So who are the innovative companies we can learn from?

Just one week ago, Beast Philanthropy posted a YouTube video titled “We Gave Every Family in a Village a Full Year’s Salary.” It sounds unbelievable, but Jimmy Donaldson (aka MrBeast), is the highest-paid YouTuber with one of the highest view counts because of his wild, viral stunts that are not only entertaining, but also double as philanthropy. 

He’s given away millions from his earnings to winners of his various viral challenges as well as charitable causes, and he’s also raised tens of millions of dollars from his fans toward social and environmental causes. 

Veja is a footwear brand that focuses on using environmentally friendly materials and ethical production practices. They buy Amazonian rubber and various innovative materials made directly from recycled plastic bottles, as well as organic cotton directly from Brazil and Peru. Not only that, they increase producer income by setting a market-decorrelated price for the organic cotton or rubber, ensuring that producers can live decently and reinvest in their farms. They even explicitly state they don’t run ads so they can allocate capital more efficiently, yet have gotten a ton of press for their approach.

Ecosia is a not-for-profit search engine that plants trees for every search you make. They power their servers with solar energy and invest all profits into tree-planting projects around the world, which absorbs more CO₂ than the company emits. Since 2009, they’ve planted over 200 million trees and raised over 85 million euros dedicated to climate action.

At the end of the day, if you’re running a conscious company, you want to attract conscious consumers.

And the way to do that is by making your mission statement directly tied to your marketing – and if possible, making your company’s impact directly tied to the time or money that consumers invest in you.

So people know that by investing in your company, they’re helping to make a difference too. 

Talk soon,

Oliver