via Santiago Campillo-Lundbeck Horizont

Marketing for Future - on the evening of June 24, the awards were presented for the second time in a competition that aims to make marketing a force against climate change. The only gold prize winner of the evening was Ebay for its advertising campaign “Let's Act”. This year, the jury had to choose from 20 candidates who made it onto the shortlist. And the most obvious difference from last year was that among the contenders were numerous projects from the advertising mainstream.

For an award that is just in the second year of its existence, the Marketing for the Future Award afforded itself remarkable standards. While at Cannes Lions the lions are just tumbling, here the jury awarded only once gold and silver in the category “Hot Shit” (Ebay Kleinanzeigen and Ben & Jerrys) and twice bronze (Veganz in the category “Know the Score” and Runamics in the category “Start Now”). The jury also awarded honorable mentions in two other cases.

The standards of the award, which is supported by an association, are high. Marketing should no longer just be the turtbo for climate-damaging consumption, but become the motivating accelerator of a climate-positive consumption landscape. Founder Jan Pechmann put it this way at the 2020 launch: “In the past, we made people seriously believe that cigarettes were the epitome of coolness, SUVs made our lives more adventurous, and mineral water only tastes good when it comes from bottles. Marketing is a powerful force. It's time to harness it for the future.”

That’s also expressed in the design of the award. Instead of judging by different media channels, here marketing is judged by its effect: “Hot Shit” is for work that portrays climate-positive behavior as attractive and worthy of emulation. “Start now” is for work that represents a pragmatic, first step. And “Know the Score” is for work that makes the consequences of climate-damaging consumption vivid and understandable.

The award is a class reunion and exchange forum for the doers, but it is also intended to provide others with concrete examples to change their own marketing. The award explicitly sees itself as a platform to talk about the insights from the cases and to discuss future strategies. To this end, the award ceremony was accompanied by a discussion of best practices, a virtual exhibition and other networking opportunities.

Next week, there will also be a Marketing for Future online camp, where the focus will be exclusively on knowledge transfer.