🏆 Oatly, Wall Street & Tampons: Successful green marketing campaigns
How three campaigns managed to stand out and be successful with a clear strategy and clever use of PR. And what we can learn from them for our green marketing campaigns.
Hi 👋 I’m Florian Schleicher. This is the FutureStrategies newsletter of FUTURES. Thank you so much for reading along 💚 If you want to learn strategic marketing from me, then my Simple & Sustainable Marketing Academy is the perfect fit for you.
Green marketing addresses key consumer needs. It therefore offers great growth potential.
And that's not all: it promotes products that have a positive impact on society and are also good for the environment.
Some brands have already recognized this growth potential. I have already presented some of these pioneers in this newsletter. Today I have three new examples for you.
The "Fck Oatly" campaign
The "Fearless Girl" on Wall Street in New York
The "Tampon Book" campaign
Oatly counts as a green marketing campaign due to its ecological core. The other two examples place a strong focus on social inequalities, i.e. the former in the sustainability triad of people, planet, and profit.
🌾 Fck Oatly
“There’s always this one person at a party who walks in and they’re so interesting and intriguing, but you can’t quite put your finger on why… That’s who we are.”
Michael Lee, Creative Director von Oatly
A mysterious website revealed conspiracies and scandals at and by Oatly.
Then it turns out that not just anyone is behind it, but Oatly itself.
The website is a "time machine for everything bad about an oat drink company" and lists some of the biggest controversies surrounding the brand. They call the website short and sweet: FckOatly.com.
It's a playfully sarcastic website that documents scandals they've had to deal with in the past - boycotts, bad press, online insults, etc.
What I find so fantastic about this campaign is that Oatly takes a very different approach from most companies who want to bury past mistakes as deeply as possible.
The oat milk brand speaks openly about topics that most consumers or journalists have perhaps already completely forgotten.
This takes transparency and authenticity to a whole new level.
“We’ve said everything we need to say about certain things, so why not put it all in one place?”
Brendan Lewis, Executive vice-president for global comms and public affairs Oatly
Scandals that they pick up on there include, for example, the sale of leftover oats to pig farms or a worldwide boycott following the entry of the new investor Blackstone.
But what makes a company communicate something like this itself?
64% of millennials and 60% of Gen Z would no longer buy a brand if they did not trust the company.
With its website, Oatly can gain the trust of its target group. Because the website is credible and authentic. And approachable. A perfect marketing mix.
And ultimately, they are true to themselves, because they retain their tone of voice and integrate humor into all corporate communication.
Campaign successes:
Every unpleasant PR is accepted. And even reminded of it. Oatly even revisits controversies that may have been forgotten by consumers. And can bring its perspective to the fore sympathetically and transparently. A master class in SEO (search engine optimization).
The website itself was not highlighted by the company through marketing activities. The initial success was a few 792 website visitors in the first 3 months. After 6 months, the website started to bear fruit: 54,000 website hits. Another 4 days later: 247,000 website views. Just good SEO.
In my opinion, this is not only a success of the campaign, but a success of the brand itself. Oatly has managed to create a tone of voice that is simple, attention-grabbing, and always leads back to Oatly. A perfect example of agenda setting in PR.
Key Learning:
An Outstanding Performance requires (in Oatly slang) being "F*cking Fearless". The company accepts negative comments as if it were the most normal thing in the world and thus also captivates critics.
They always manage to be the talk of the town through incredibly courageous actions and campaigns, while appearing authentic and credible.
👧Fearless Girl
In the middle of Manhattan's busy financial district, on the eve of International Women's Day 2017, a fearless bronze statue that never existed before suddenly rose: the Fearless Girl.
The girl stands there, confident and proud, her hands on her hips and her head held high. And looks boldly towards the famous "Charging Bull".
While the bull stands for power and the up-and-coming stock market, the so-called bull market, the Fearless Girl symbolizes courage, strength, and, above all, the unwavering determination for equal rights and the empowerment of women.
The 'Fearless Girl' was a campaign by State Street Global Advisors, an asset management firm.
On the one hand, the statue was to be used to market a new index fund, the SHE Fund. But more importantly, it was to promote gender equality in business.
“[The Fearless Girl is a] powerful symbol of the need for change at the highest levels of corporate America, [which] will be came a durable part of our city’s civic life”.
Bill De Blasio, New York City mayor
The placement in front of the Charging Bull in the Financial District was symbolic. It was intended to show the hurdles women have to overcome in the world of finance.
Historically, the boards of directors of financial institutions have mainly consisted of men. Women were (are) underrepresented in management positions in the financial services sector.
In 2016, women made up 54.3% of the workforce at S&P 500 financial companies. Despite this, only 18.7 percent of board members and just 2.1 percent of CEOs at these companies were women.
In 2019, the figures have increased compared to 2016. But even today, in 2024, there is still room for improvement.
Other measures pursuing the same goal were also implemented.
The campaign not only used the company's voice but also its right to vote. They wanted to get portfolio companies to take the Sustainable Development Goals more seriously.
So they informed hundreds of companies without women on their boards and threatened to vote against the chairs of their nomination committees if no action was taken on gender equality.
They also sent letters to thousands of companies in the Russell 3000 Index calling for action to increase board diversity.
With success, as the campaign had a lasting impact.
“I believe the reason the artist did it as a girl, not a woman, is she wanted to show inspiration. It’s possible to take on the bull.”
Gail A. Brewer, Manhattan Borough President
In the meantime, the Fearless Girl has been moved to the New York Stock Exchange. The originally planned few weeks in which the statue was to remain in the Financial District turned into almost 2 years due to the high demand.
Campaign successes:
On Twitter/X, the Fearless Girl generated more than 1 billion impressions within the first 12 hours. More than 4.6 billion impressions within 3 months.
SSGA's SHE fund saw a 384% increase in average daily trading volume in the week following Fearless Girl's launch.
The campaign generated an estimated USD 7.4 million worth of free advertising - real PR power.
The number of companies in the Russell 3000 Index without a female board member fell from 29% to 21% between 2017 and 2018. Today, in 2024, only 1% of companies are without a female board member.
Key Learning:
Sometimes a symbol or an action helps us to understand something holistically. It completes the story. Placing it in the right place and at the right time underlines the message.
The Fearless Girl manages to reflect this strength. She makes the problem tangible. True to the motto "Actions speak louder than words", the Fearless Girl speaks for herself. She needs no further explanation.
📕The Tampon Book
For 16,000 euros, you could buy around 1,600 books - or a lifetime's worth of tampons.
But what do books have to do with tampons?
And why did a company sell tampons in the form of a book? These questions are answered by The Female Company's next impressive campaign.
The company has set itself the goal of bringing about lasting change in Germany: they want to reduce the VAT rate on tampons to 7% and at the same time remove the taboo surrounding menstruation.
If you want to use strategic marketing for your campaigns, I can help you!
Simply reply to this newsletter or contact me directly.
One reason for the high financial burden on women - roughly as much as a small car over a lifetime - is the general tax rate, the so-called luxury tax rate, which is applied to tampons.
This tax rate is intended for products that are not part of daily use. But for many women, menstruation is anything but a luxury: it is often accompanied by nausea, abdominal pain, and mood swings.
This is why The Female Company came up with the idea of selling tampons in the form of a book, as the reduced VAT rate applies to books.
For 15 organic tampons and a 46-page book that provides information about menstruation in a light-hearted and humorous way, customers pay 3.11 euros online plus 2.50 euros postage.
For comparison: In the drugstore, a pack of 16 "o.b." brand tampons costs 1.95 euros.
The Tampon Book was a complete success and the first edition sold out within a day.
A simple marketing idea with a direct impact.
The second edition was just as successful, and 100 books from this edition were sent directly to members of the German Bundestag to attract attention and get closer to the goal of tax reform.
Despite an online petition with 130,000 signatures that was launched before the introduction of the Tampon Book and the commitment of two women, the Ministry of Finance remained unimpressed.
The Ministry argued that the reduced tax rate of 7% was "not a suitable means of achieving lasting relief for those affected" and that the products would remain the same price for consumers, as companies would pocket the additional profit.
Due to the great success and the media attention that the tampon book attracted, political support also came, for example from Katharina Schulze, the leader of the Green Party in Bavaria.
She showed her support for the book on social media and explained that when the tampon tax was introduced over 50 years ago, 499 men and only 36 women passed laws in the Bundestag.
Shortly afterward, the two founders of The Female Company, Ann-Sophie Claus and Sinja Stadelmaier, were invited to the Bundestag by several political parties to talk about reducing the tax.
With lasting success, as the reduced tax rate of 7% on hygiene products has been in force in Germany since 2020.
The campaign also attracted huge international attention. TheGuardian, CNN, and the Irish Times reported on it. It was, so to speak, a creative activism project with enormous PR impact.
But: there is still room for improvement, as 7 countries and 10 US states have already completely abolished the tampon tax. Canada, Australia, South Africa, India, Kenya, Malaysia, Ireland, and 10 US states.
Campaign successes:
As they say in the video: The Tampon Book is the first marketing campaign that has led to a change in German law. Something that Oatly would also like to see.
The book was sold out within a day. The second edition, 10,000 copies, within a week.
The campaign received many advertising and marketing awards, including the Cannes Lions 2019 Grand Prix for PR, Clio Award 2019 for Design, Clio Award 2019 for Public Relations, Clio Award 2019 for Branded Content, Clio Award 2019 for Direct Communication, Clio Award 2019 for Innovation.
Key Learning:
The campaign is a great example of modern communication.
The Female Company has created a powerful combination of creativity and the craft of public relations. The campaign illustrates that the interplay of strategic marketing and PR can have a magical effect.
By the way, the power of PR is also an insight that I took with me from my Too Good To Go days.
🔑 My conclusions
All of these 3 top campaigns show us how great marketing can be and what kind of reach and sustainable effects we can achieve. The power of green marketing is impressive. The power of change is enormous.
“Marketing is the act of making change happen. Making is insufficient. You haven’t made an impact until you’ve changed someone.”
Seth Godin, American author & entrepreneur
And with good marketing, we can achieve lasting change. We can make the world a little bit better than it was before.
However, this always requires a clear and sustainable marketing strategy, consisting of
a diagnosis that describes our initial situation, the target group, and the challenge,
guidelines that give us a direction for our communication in the form of a vision and strategic goals
and actions that then transform this direction into action.
The biggest mistake that many companies and campaigns make is to start with the actions and simply think in terms of implementation. However, successful marketing requires a deep understanding of the needs of the target group, otherwise our campaign will fall on barren ground.
Here is an overview of my key learnings.
1️⃣ We can use criticism to our advantage. We can dare to be courageous. To stand out. To set ourselves apart. To show our opinion. And to stand up for ourselves. Our actions must be in line with our vision and mission. When drawing up our strategy, we need to think about how we deal with criticism. So that we are prepared for all eventualities.
2️⃣ We can use the power of symbolism to our advantage. Not only do we feel this with the Fearless Girl campaign, but Oatly and the Tampon Book also work successfully with symbols.
This insight is not new. And not outdated either. We were already aware of the power of symbolism in the 19th and 20th centuries.
“The whole of life is symbolic because the whole of it has meaning.”
Boris Pasternak (1890-1960), poet and writer
3️⃣ The symbiosis of marketing and PR has great potential. Many companies (still) make too little use of its power. Although we continue to impress ourselves with campaigns such as the Tampon Book. Even Bill Gates has already understood the connection and the potential.
"If I was down to my last dollar, I'd spend it on public relations."
Bill Gates, Microsoft Founder
🤗 Now I'm curious
Which of the campaigns do you find the most convincing? Have you perhaps even signed one of the petitions?
Do you know of any other great green marketing campaigns?
Feel free to share them in the comments or contact me on Linkedin. I'm looking forward to exchanging thoughts with you.
Thanks for reading along,
PS: You can also read this Posting in German.