As in recent years, The Surfgirls for Life were again crazy as ever. On Sunday December 19th they gathered in Ghent in their wetsuits and with their surf boards to raise money for this unique, musical fight against malaria by Studio Brussel. Our senior designer Marjolein was of course the loudest and explained this great tradition on radio. BeforeTheHype together with O’Neill supported this initiative — although the rest of the staff stayed at the dry side of the action.

The whole world watched this conference, perhaps one of the most important ever. Most of us were hoping for concrete climate solutions to come out of this meeting. But once again, the world’s leaders could not agree on a comprehensive solution. This is a truly disappointing result. However, it was not all bad news. Some progress was made on several fronts but most importantly, Public Awareness and Education was raised enormously. This is absolutely critical if progress is to take place in the future. We believe that ultimately, changes are only possible through actions by a united combination of many, many small communities and interest groups.
In conjunction with the official program, BeforeTheHype helped organize and joined a parallel forum where ideas for creative entrepreneurship addressing the climate change challenge was shared. Together with Uchronia, the Polar Conservation Organization, and Jaga, we invited many renowned experts to our Ark docked at Nyhavn and the Experience Truck at Kongens Nytorv Square. Will Steger (one of the world’s most experienced polar explorers, Koen Vanmechelen (world famous artist), Nikolay Bock (Director of the European Environmental Institute), Brendon Grunewald (PCO founder), and Jan Kriekels (visionary CEO of Jaga) were among the speakers.
On Sunday Kris presented new insights into Sustainable Marketing. This is a reversed engineered method of dealing with communication and stakeholders which can lead to growth and a sustainable future for both individual companies and society in general. This offers a strategic choice for us as well as many more companies and organizations. ‘Communicate to act’ is our new creed.

More information at: www.uchronians.org en www.polarconservation.org

BeforeTheHype was present at the establisment of the Global Compact Network Belgium. Recently our country was still a blank spot considering this important UN program. Many countries were already way ahead and it was a bit strange that in the heart of Europe nobody really took the initiative. JCI colleague Stephan Vanhaverbeke talked to the UN people and was able to involve also the Belgian governement into this important establishment, together with a nice number of companies and organisations. There is of course a close connection between JCI and the UN, mainly in favour of the UN Millennium Goals. For BeforeTheHype this matches perfectly within our strategy of Sustainable Marketing.

The Ten Principles of the Global Compact are: Read the rest of this entry »

We like to announce the new Web site of the Polar Conservation Organisation, which BeforeTheHype supports in its growth. The world is talking a lot about climate issues, CSR and sustainability, but some people actually do something about it. PCO aims for a sustainable future of the poles, “because the whole planet revolves around the poles”, says founder Brendon Grunewald. One of the goals is to define an Arctic Treaty, where every stakeholder fits in.

We are also working together to create a unique precense during the UN Climate Week in Copenhagen. Together with Jan Kriekels and the Jaga team we are setting up a creative experience that people will remember. And why not grow towards a new yearly event?

So, isn’t the Polar Conservation Organisation something that suits you as well? www.polarconservation.org

It probably sounds like a Flenglish expression, but everyone will nevertheless understands it. In fact that was the question during the last meeting of the expert group Sustainable Branding at the Marketing Foundation (Stichting Marketing). We recently listened to several great cases of companies, who deal with sustainability in a fantastic way. The conclusion: few people know about it. Take Cocoa-Cola yesterday who first of all created a clear structure for their sustainable projects. Their seven values – quality, health, community, workplace, packaging, climate and water- and the proven steps they take for improvement, give them a ‘license to operate’. Right. Their believe is also that there is no sustainable business without sustainable communities, something that has been said by the ceo and has been adopted worldwide. Great. Therefore it is also necessary to have long term goals to aim at, otherwise all efforts will sooner or later end. True. The same, based on other aspects, we also heart from McDonalds and other consumer oriented businesses previously.

The thing is that almost nobody knows this, although theoretically all those arguments seem to be so important to differentiate and sell. Is it a strategic choice to tell some details, but not to create to much fuzz? These companies are frequently in the eye of the storm, because common perception today is still that their products are bad for society. Fact: this isn’t true (anymore). Fact: they deliver major efforts to improve so many things that influences their image in a positive way. Fact is also that the reason to buy a product of them is about ‘emotion’. Who cares if they reduced their water consumption with more then 25% (knowing that in Belgium more then 10 million items are sold per day), or that the meat comes from pigs that haven’t been castrated. On the other hand Coca-Cola uses it’s efforts to become ‘the’ preferred partner where brand building is important. For instance at huges festivals like Werchter. It’s because they have a recycling program that Pepsi doesn’t have a chance to get in, beside other sustainable related factors of course.

That’s the whole problem with sustainability. It sounds like every company should do sustainable efforts and, even stronger, it seems to be the only way to survive in the future, but does your client needs this? To improve your business you need a good communication and relation with ‘all’ your stakeholders, but still… the people who buy your products ask always the same question (unconscious): what’s in it for me? It remains a duality and therefore sustainability doesn’t get its value it deserves.

Good question from our colleagues at Boondoggle. Isn’t it all about glory, fame and certainly also some incest satisfaction. Here’s there story, but who did win the gold then?

The Belgian digital agency Boondoggle  won 5 Gold Lions at Cannes  this year. They wanted to know how much these trophies are worth, so they visited the Pelikaanstraat in Antwerp, Belgium, the world’s biggest centre for the diamond and gold trade … This is a very nice way to let people know that you did well at Cannes this year and having a laugh about it at the same time. Watch the video.

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Over the last seven years Belgian Post International has witnessed remarkable growth both in turnover and internally in terms of operational excellence. Supporting its long-term vision Belgian Post International wants to communicate the values and procedures that drive the company. This 3-minute video (working title child’s play) introduces Belgian Post International, in a clear, fresh and approachable manner. The movie also emphasizes the customer advantages based around the themes of customer intimacy and quality. It will be used by the sales force as well as internally.

The movie was created and produced by BeforeTheHype and Mike Van Cleven

Corporate movie Belgian Post International from Harald Dumoulin on Vimeo.

Google proposed Google Wave. Again a new of dealing with the internet. This will change a lot. The question is: is the audience ready for it? Or is this a question Google doesn’t have to ask because they can create the future they like? Please read more @ http://bit.ly/tNvbn

It seems that if you don’t say you’re green, you’re dead. Every washing machine is green today. Every car is green. And even ads in itself are green, even if they are printed. Yes it’s true, they try to pollute less, but nevertheless they still do. A car will only be green if it runs on water. Period. That’s why it is so damned difficult to promote your green investments. Check out www.greenwashingindex.com and discover what people think of previous campaigns. One example is made together with the great Dutch artist Theo Jansen, who was also at the Creativity World Forum. He creates ‘living’ sculptures, powered by the wind. It’s an ad for BMW, but I would have liked the connection better if they suggested their combined geniousity… Not to create a green image, because this isn’t the case yet for BMW. Watch it here.

Therefore companies should swith to talk about sustainability, a safer topic, but with a broader impact on society. And the green impression is one of the aspects.

Thougtpile is a new crowd sourcing tool currently in demo mode, invented by Herman Miller.
Miller has produced the project to promote a new chair ‘Embody’, which is ‘a chair built on ideas’.
The idea behind it is that you are able to submit questions of a life, universe, nature,…(e.g. ‘everything changes, whether we are agree or not’). There are bubbles all over your screen and by clicking on them, you can see what others have written down.
You can also participate in the questions of others by choosing if you are agree about a certain subject or disagree. If you like, you can add a certain quote to your favorites ones or you can send it to a friend. On my opinion it looks great and I hope they make a real tool out of it. It is an opportunity to gather people around and getting to know their opinions about certain ideas.
Check it out and visit the site.