Hill+Knowlton Strategies

Launching the world’s first snore absorption room; creating the world’s biggest shave; reinterpreting art with technology; revealing the best place in the UK to bring up a family… As 2011 draws to a close, we take a look back month by month at some H+K Strategies campaigns and work throughout the year.

January: City & Guilds Million Extra

You're hired: Karren Brady+ City & Guilds' Chris Jones

To start the new year, preparations to launch City & Guilds first ever Apprenticeship Summit went underway early on. The aim of the campaign was to help ensure one million Apprenticeship starts by summer 2013.

In January, we commissioned a report to identify the barriers employers face in hiring apprentices with the findings discussed by key political and business leaders at the Summit, hosted by Apprentice star Karren Brady.

Nearly 100 pieces of coverage resulted from this campaign as well as a request from Professor Alison Wolf to receive a copy of the full report after seeing the articles to include in her Government review of 14-19 education.

February: Intel Remastered

Shortlisted for various industry awards, our Technology team created an exciting art campaign- Intel Remastered to showcase the creative application of Intel technology. The project saw 13 modern artists reinterpret iconic masterpieces using digital technology and techniques.

Pushing the boundaries of art and creating one of the most talked about art events on the year, the stories and inspiration behind classics such as Picasso’s ‘Guernica’ and Da Vinci’s ‘The Last Supper’ were retold and presented to a digital-savvy audience.

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We recently hosted a sustainable brands roundtable, here at H+K, in association with Forum for the Future. A diverse group of sustainability marketeers attended (Burberry, Alliance Boots, Cafedirect, Dyson and eBay to name a few), some brands were just stepping into this space and some had been carrying the flag for years, but the desire to mainstream sustainability was felt throughout the room.

1. Forum for the Future has been exploring the role of brands as agents of transformative change for some time, most recently through the launch of Consumer Futures. This research highlighted that there are huge opportunities for brands to engage with consumers on sustainability. It’s clear that most companies are only beginning to explore what sustainability means for their brand, and what their brand can do for sustainability. At the roundtable, we had a productive and lively discussion about what brands need to do individually and collectively. Three take outs from the session were the need for brands to:
2. 
3. 1) Be brave: There are huge (commercial) opportunities out there for brands on this agenda if they’re prepared to be brave and do things differently
4. 2) Be authentic: It’s crucial to find what’s authentic to the brand (e.g. quality/ durability in the case of the Patagonia/ eBay partnership) and to play to those strengths, rather than blindly trying to sell ‘green’ credentials to an audience who aren’t looking for that
5. 3) Be open: Don’t do this in
   a vacuum. Sharing challenges, stories and best practice openly with non-rival brands can be hugely inspiring and empowering. It’s only by coming together that we’ll stand any chance of overcoming some of the systemic barriers that exist.

There are of course plenty of challenges to overcome before brands and sustainability can work together to deliver a sustainable future, from the ways in which marketeers are incentivised through to the tensions in that small phrase, sustainable consumption.

Overall it was really encouraging to see the enthusiasm for brands wanting to push the boundaries in this area.