Contagious case study: The colour of money.

Read it in ADOI this month's issue on page 65 (funny, I just realised that the pagination stops at 64).

This month's case study feature, titled 'Colour of Money' is about the greening of consumerism and how global consumers are breaking into segments. It's very similar to what we have done to increase sustainable advocacy in mass consumerism in Malaysia. And it's also interesting to note some segments that are covered by GfK Roper Consulting but were not visible when we completed our local study. Hmm, it really gives us an idea on how to improve The Green Chronicles to further distill insights, should we run it again. And I seriously think we should run it again next year. Inspired ;) Now I just need funding. Solutions, solutions, solutions. Hmm.

It's time for Agencies to consider a sustainable role towards the future.

The nice people at ADOI did a write-up on The Green Chronicles research which we did last year. I think Agencies really need to stop and think about the future and realize that they too can be a strong advocate in sustainable production. Everything that has anything to do with production and manufacturing will come under the spot light when it comes to sustainability.

At Dentsu Utama, doing the research was a first step to an effective CSR outreach. Contrary to popular belief in this industry that knowledge should be kept for the sake of competitive edge, we have long-debated and decided that sharing in this case is much more important. This is not an area where we can afford to be selfish. Hey, if another agency does a better job than us from utilizing our research, then great! It only means we're picking momentum, the pressure is on and change is happening.

Honestly, I don't know how many agencies would really care. But it's not about whether they do. They have to. Think internal - our paper consumption, visual presentation, cost-efficient material and think external - pressuring both our clients and vendors to practice at least a 1 degree of change when it comes to communication and production. If every day, we can change 1 degree, we only need 180 days to throw away old habits and embrace new ones. That's less than 6 months. That's half a year.

To those of you who want to know learn more about the state of our environmental understanding and action in Malaysia and more importantly, want to know how they can play an active role, individually and collectively as a company, please do not hesitate to contact us.

I'm sorry the jpg is too small, you can read it in this month's ADOI starting from page 48.

Nice to be spotted and featured ;)

Was notified by Slideshare that our presentation is being featured. Can you spot us?

The Green Chronicles 2009.

The Green Chronicles 2009

View more presentations from createsparks.

We've got the kind permission from our employer to share the findings of our social research on environmental awareness and conservation efforts in Malaysia. One of the biggest reasons why we've decided to share this openly is to spark thoughts and discussions on really how to design effective 'green' strategies, for we all know that this is a global or in a smaller scale, nationwide cause. It's not a battle that can be fought (and won) by one single company, and definitely not a single agency. So, please feel free to share your thoughts if you have any.

And please. Respect intellectual property. Read. Don't rip.

What if my favourite colour is not green?

T'was a year long project. No, come to think of it, almost one and a half years. I think this is by far, the biggest, longest, most in-depth social research I've done to date. Not to mention heaviest. Some of the findings may step on somebody's toes but then again, this research isn't intended to highlight any negativity. They're just facts. Awareness provides better decisions.

Phew~ and it's finally a wrap :) The objective of the study is to understand environmental conservation efforts and awareness level to date amongst Malaysians. But I think what I've learned from this study is to understand what messages have been sent out there and how effective (the word of the order is 'sustainable') they are in getting people on board to be not just a little more concerned about the environment but enough to nudge them to act upon it. I thought the question, "What if my favourite colour is not green?" is quite apt. Too often than not, we assume that we're all motivated in the same way. Especially when environment is concerned because it's such a global (and at the same time, personal) issue. That we stand as one race, which is humankind (I really have to re-think about the word kind here cause you and I know, we're far from that :P ). This study has enabled me to understand that, we're so motivated by different issues and causes and reasons that green communicators perhaps failed to identify the niche which they could have been more effective by segmenting their target strategically. We learned from conventional marketing that when you target everyone and anyone, you target no one. That kinda makes you think exactly how effective these two years of greenwashing had been right? Hmm.

Wanna know more?

*This project is a collaboration between Sparks and Dentsu Utama.

The Green Chronicles.

Just started on a new project with DU called The Green Chronicles. Not sure if that name is apt for the research but I think it should work fine for the blog that was set up to keep up with the reports, activities and archives.

It's gonna be a lot of work but I think there will be a lot of fun too. Great things to come, so follow us on our journey there.