Opening Remarks

Liz Kneebone

Vice President, Sustainability Collective ANA

The Power of Purpose: Storytelling for Impact

In today’s marketplace, whether you work for a for-profit or nonprofit organization, purpose is power. Consumers expect it. Employees demand it. And the world needs to see it put into action to drive real change. ALSAC, the fundraising and awareness organization for the iconic St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, has proven that purpose can be a differentiator in your success or failure, depending on how you are able to identify it, articulate it, and deliver it in relevant and authentic ways to your audiences. For St. Jude, storytelling with impact has inspired millions to help children worldwide, including powerful partnerships that drive reach, reputation, recruitment, retention, and revenue that can be invested for real change. Emily Callahan, chief marketing and experience officer at ALSAC, will share best practices for how your brand can harness the power of storytelling to drive real impact and results.

Emily Callahan

Chief Marketing and Experience Officer ALSAC/St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

How Co-Creation Can Drive Growth, Delight Consumers, & Benefit Our Planet

Brand storytelling practices combined with traditional advertising channels continue to lose effectiveness because most campaigns have become intrusive and lack a clear purpose or consumer connection beyond selling.

This is why the era of “one-size-fits-all” campaigns is clearly over. The need for brands to engage the consumer is crucial; in fact, this is challenging marketers to overcome 4 key issues: (1). content saturation, (2). increased social and eco-anxiety, (3). general distrust in governments and institutions, and (4). increasing financial scrutiny to drive ROI.

Brands and marketers answering this call to co-create are fast becoming category leaders. Co-creation is now at the heart of better marketing and is key to providing meaningful interactions with consumers, co-delivering content in a way that is relevant, timely, and authentic. The Co-Creation Method® has have been effectively proven to drive user-generated content at scale via extensive research and inspirational case studies in collaboration with Story Making 4 Good (S4G), The World Advertising Research Company, Cannes Lions, and Sustainable Brands.

In this workshop, you will be introduced to the concept of co-creation – what it is, why it matters, and how leading brands have used it to gain competitive advantage, benefit people the planet, and, in many cases, double their ROI. Participants then learn the ‘Storymaking for Good’ framework and apply that in completing a co-creation brief.

Jose "Pepe" Gorbea

Global Head of Brands, Agencies, and Sustainability Innovation HP, Inc.

Measuring the Impact of Sustainability on Brand Love

When consumer brands invest in sustainability, it’s important that consumers get the message. In this skillshare, we’ll see how the latest consumer insights technology now lets major brands see, for the first time, the impact of these messages on brand love and other key marketing outcomes, supporting the business case for these investments, and lifting the game for other brands to do the right thing.

Join Swayable CEO James Slezak in this skill share session where you’ll learn:

• How ANA members are tracking consumer perceptions with the ESG Brand Perception Index and what it’s showing
• How brands can measures the persuasive impact of its ads using rapid RCT lift testing
• What systems, processes and roles teams are now creating to take advantage of these new measurement capabilities.

James Slezak

CEO and Co-Founder Swayable

FIRESIDE CHAT: THE RISE OF THE CHIEF IMPACT OFFICER

Feeling the pressure to pursue impact in their work across the entire stakeholder ecosystem, companies are adding a new role to the C-suite: chief impact officer (CIO). This mission-critical position, with horizontal influence across an organization, is responsible for aligning purpose, mission, vision, and values with cohesion. In this session, get an inside look at the CIO role, learn how it benefits employees, and why it is instrumental to both short- and long-term business success, at a time when consumers expect companies to both act responsibly and make a difference in the world.

Samantha Fennell

Former Founder & Managing Director Athari Collective

The 2023 CMO’S Guide: A Compendium of Cases from Brands Driving Business Growth Through Sustainability and Inclusive Innovation

Marketers play a critical role in the sustainable transformation of business. With a deep understanding of consumer insights and the ability to tell authentic and human stories, CMOs and marketing leaders provide a unique perspective in the C-suite to drive collaborative innovation for the good of the planet, consumers and the bottom line. In this session, you’ll learn some rich insights from case examples within the compendium to help all CMOs accelerate their progress and drive more growth.

Liz Kneebone

Vice President, Sustainability Collective ANA

Developing an Effective Multicultural Marketing Strategy

If you are not doing multicultural marketing, your competitors are. As markets grow more diverse and companies expand across borders, some still struggle to adjust to the dynamics of an evolving marketplace, let alone compete effectively for diverse consumers. Brands that fail to develop winning marketing strategies for diverse audiences miss opportunities to create authentic connections that last – and risk losing credibility and audience share long-term.

In this virtual workshop, we will review a number of best practices for multicultural marketing that render enviable ROI and brand loyalty. We will also discuss when multicultural marketing has gone wrong. Led by a multicultural marketing expert with decades of experience working on multicultural campaigns in the travel, finance, and pharmaceutical industries, this workshop guides you through the entire process of multicultural campaign building, from insights, to briefing, to execution and launch. You will also receive recommendations on how to set up a system of internal and external cultural checks and balances to ensure your campaigns are authentic and drive customer loyalty.

Renée T. Walker

President RENEE WALKER & ASSOCIATES

B2B Master Class: Driving Breakthrough ESG Results Through Bold Actions

ESG presents a unique opportunity to enhance brand strength and build customer trust but – without bold commitments grounded in substantive action – it can open the door for reputational risk and accusations of greenwashing. Courageous marketers have a unique opportunity to guide the development of ESG programs that build sustainable brands and a more sustainable world. Attendees will learn how global insurer AXIS took bold steps to build an industry-recognized ESG program while navigating a series of challenges and “moments of truth” that required brave decision-making. Attendees of the session will learn tips and best practices to:

• Build an ESG program from the ground up
• Lobby internal support to drive bold actions
• Identify distinctive elements to create breakthrough ESG programming
• Maximize limited resources and staff bandwidth

Joe Cohen

Chief Marketing & Communications Officer AXIS

Taking Action Beyond Communications: The Role of Creativity to Impact the World

It’s no secret that the advertising industry is oftentimes complicit with greenwashing. Despite the best intentions, organizations are often reluctant to truly embrace sustainability practices and green initiatives. However, sustainability and ESG now affect how all companies conduct themselves today, making it an imperative and material business issue. Awareness is just the beginning; the real impact comes when we commit to our creative ideas and follow-through on our intent to produce a marked impression.

In this session, you’ll hear from Tomas Gonsorcik, Chief Strategy Officer at DDB North America, and Cyrill Gutsch, Founder and CEO, Parley for the Oceans, who will provide an outside-in view of the key sustainable trends encompassing our creative market, and remind us why these trends are multidimensional, relating to all organizations that are led by collaboration, eco-innovation, and forward-thinking.

You’ll learn:

• The role of creativity and creative problem solving, solutions or other initiatives that seek to positively impact the world.
• Advice for how leaders can implement their sustainability agendas successfully and maximize the value of these programs to meet stakeholders’ increasing expectations.
• How leaders can pave the way by taking risks to innovate and re-define what sustainable success looks like.
• How leaders are positively changing the narrative in how consumers view sustainability – how to maximize the value of eco-friendly practices that can be adaptable and effective.

Tomas Gonsorcik

Chief Strategy Officer DDB North America

Consumers & The Future of Sustainable Shopping

Mainstream Green is about driving sustainable choices by all consumers, not just those who are moved by sustainable claims. Because while 96%1 of consumers try to live sustainably at least some of the time, less than 10%2 consistently act and purchase on sustainability just to “save the planet”  This session will uncover valuable insights on purchasing behavior and insights from leading experts.

Lauren Taylor

Global Leader for Customer-Centric Sustainability & Innovation BCG

B2B Master Class: Innovation's Role in Sustainability

De-carbonizing the global economy remains one of humanity’s greatest challenges. The rapidly changing environmental context urges the business community to innovate and operationalize with this larger purpose in mind. As a global company, Lenovo recognizes its fundamental responsibility to preserve the ecosystem on which our future depends.

Gerald Youngblood, Chief Marketing Officer, Lenovo North America, will speak to Lenovo’s sustainability journey, highlighting areas of progress for the business, as it eyes its net-zero emissions goal for 2050. Mr. Youngblood will offer his perspective on the role of innovation in sustainability, the importance of private enterprise leadership, and insights that organizations can consider for their own sustainability ambitions.

Mr. Youngblood will also point to how these efforts extend across the business—from its global supply chain to the design and packaging of its products—and the continued importance Lenovo places on using its scale for good.

Gerald Youngblood

Chief Marketing Officer Lenovo North America

Sustainability in Creative Production: Steps You Should Take Today

In a world increasingly experiencing the impacts of climate change, it has never been more important to understand actionable steps you can take now for sustainability in creative production. This dynamic session offers practical insights and tips for adopting eco-friendly measures within your production processes. From reducing carbon footprints to minimizing waste and conserving resources, to developing an approach to production that better serves the planet, participants will be armed with a comprehensive roadmap of sustainable practices and guidelines that can be implemented immediately.  

Jillian Gibbs

CEO Advertising Production Resources

Inspiration through Brand Values: Transforming Words into Action

Brands can struggle to connect their values to actionable outcomes that then affect customer satisfaction (sales), employee satisfaction (retention and innovation), and investor satisfaction (growth). When brand values don’t connect to brand actions, dissatisfaction and disillusionment can set in among core stakeholders, threatening a brand’s overall health long term.

At a time when political partisanship, climate change, economic uncertainty and social impact backlash dominate the new scycle, an organization’s values can serve as a compass for leadership and employees, guiding everything a brand does. Brand values not only provide the moral and ethical framework that shapes decisions, they also influence how a company activates against environmental, social and economic challenges.

Key stakeholders–employees, customers, consumers and investors–are looking for more than product and profit from the organizations they partner with. Aligning sustainability efforts with brand values allows you to demonstrate a deep commitment to responsible practices that can drive brand reputation, create a culture of innovation, and help mitigate risks. To foster a sense of accountability to achieve those benefits within the organization, a company must translate staid value statements into actionable behaviors, easily understood and applied at every level within the organization.

This workshop highlights the integral connection between company values and empowering employees to implement your purpose and sustainability strategy, emphasizing the potential to drive positive impact and lasting change. In this course you’ll evaluate the effectiveness of your current brand values and learn how to craft more focused and actionable values. Additionally, you’ll explore ways to communicate and embed these values to guide behaviors and inspire both internal and external audiences.

Jennifer Cawley

Executive Principal Act Digital Consulting

HP & Sustainable Co-Creation

HP Inc is a $60+ billion enterprise engine created to enable human progress through innovation.  Digital Printing represents close to 30% of its annual revenue, and digital printing as an industry represents about 10% of the total print industry, and is outpacing analog print because of its speed to market and sustainability benefits. This session will showcase how HP accelerated technology adoption and serve the diverse needs of the creative and printing communities.

Jose "Pepe" Gorbea

Global Head of Brands, Agencies, and Sustainability Innovation HP, Inc.

How Consumers are “Welcoming” Corporate Sustainability

Do people believe companies in the private sector should have a welcome seat at the “sustainability table”? Do consumers believe corporate America can contribute solutions? Do they trust them to participate... and trust what they say about their efforts? In this session, you’ll get a sneak peek into new research around those sentiments and more to help inform corporations’ direction and messaging when they choose to debut on the “sustainability stage.”

Alexis Schwartz

Executive Director, Head of Purpose Partnerships Guardian News & Media

Unlocking Business Value From Your Enterprise Purpose

Activating your purpose is no simple matter and it only gets more complicated when you're an enterprise with a wide portfolio of brands. Yet done well, it can become a force multiplier for both your business growth and positive impact. In this session discover how VF Corp., a global footwear and apparel leader, and We First, its strategic consulting partner, launched its enterprise purpose across its brand portfolio including Timberland, Vans, The North Face, and more. You'll hear key strategies and tactics to leverage, as well as critical greenwashing pitfalls to avoid.

Join Simon Mainwaring, CEO of We First and New York Times bestselling author, for this actionable learning session where you'll hear:

• How to align and activate purpose across your enterprise and portfolio brands
• How to create a red thread through brand activations that build enterprise reputation and competitive advantage
• How to activate and communicate purpose in ways that engage all stakeholders to build brand loyalty and sales

Simon Mainwaring

Founder/CEO We First, Inc.

A Brand Guide to Driving Sustainable Behavior Change

By creating a culture of sustainable living, brands can help to make sustainable products and services the norm in the marketplace. To make that happen, though, brands need to meet people where they are first and understand their values, motivations, habits and preferences.

Behavior change can be a difficult process, and there are various models and frameworks to help people understand and overcome obstacles. 

That resulted in the creation of the SB Nine Sustainable Behaviors™ written to be as consumer-friendly, approachable and accessible as possible, applicable to any brand, in any industry along with any consumer, in any segment.

Samuel Monnie

VP Marketing & Thought Leadership Sustainable Brands