Issue #2: Collaborations, or aberrations?

As they say, what a year last week was.

This week’s edition includes a lot of news about collaborations and partnerships that are designed to have favorable outcomes for both brands and society. They are built for purpose, and purpose-built to be interesting to consumers. Is this the new normal? These have a different feel to me than the fashion-driven collaborations of the past. What started with Adidas x Parley is now manifesting in more things that feel and do ”better” instead of just being in limited supply. When two or more companies or organizations get together to do something with substance, something designed to make an outsized societal or social impact, they are more likely to recognize the potential they have to be force multipliers with each other.

What I love about these collaborations is that they can’t just be led by the marketing teams. They need all hands on deck to operationalize through supply chains, employee advocacy and engagement, and legal/operations. Silos are broken down because of this. Companies, nonprofits, and society will be better for it.

If this is the new normal, I’m ready for #normcore.

What’s Good.

The future of sustainability must be evenly distributed. In this beautiful but devastating report by the Forum for the Future, facts about the next decade are presented in a way designed to create a sense of urgency. But perhaps the most important point they make is how important it is for businesses, innovators and new cultural values to come together — before it’s too late.

And what happens if it worked? That’s the thought behind 2040, a documentary film about what the world could look like in 2040 if we just committed to getting it right.

Bieb Better. Justin Bieber and Hailey Baldwin have started promoting a new angle to their partnership with Unilever’s Schmidt’s Naturals brand and nonprofit Active Minds. Justin has had quite publicized experiences with his own mental health, and he’s taken to Instagram to use his influence for good. If you’re not familiar with the tremendous work that Active Minds does to encourage youth to talk about their mental wellness, get familiar.

Transparency or else. Transparency is the new technology. It’s a disruptive force. Consumer and employee expectations around transparency have been escalating as we’ve gotten more access to information, and more access to each other via social media. Cultural pressure can force companies’ hands to not only share more information, but make more ethical decisions. Or those companies can opt-in to do it for themselves. In the latest example of hand-forcing, the fashion industry is reckoning with pressure to publish the lowest wages it pays employees. This is an age-old problem, but one these companies have historically been able to avoid. No more?

The future is female. Our sister event, Shoptalk, has committed to a 100% female speaker lineup for its 2020 event. Extreme? Yes. Making a point that it’s not that hard? Absolutely.

Holding the Business Roundtable Account-table. Just Capital took a look at the behavior of the 181 companies who signed the Business Roundtable letter earlier this year. The good news? Their behavior is trending in the right direction, and signatory companies behave better than the average company. But there’s a long way to go if we want to see “Stakeholder Capitalism” become the norm.

The Great Unbottling continues. Hyatt is the latest hotel chain to do away with mini shampoo/conditioner/soap bottles from its rooms in a move they say is not just good for the environment, but for business. If you’re a millennial, congratulate yourself on “killing” something else that deserves that fate.

Dove x Shonda Rhimes. A black woman is 80% more likely to change her natural hair to meet social norms or expectations at work and 50% more likely to be sent home or know of a black woman sent home from the workplace because of her hair. That’s why Shonda Rhimes is helping to support Dove’s CROWN (Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair) Coalition in partnership with the National Urban League, Color Of Change, and Western Center on Law and Poverty.

McSustainability. McDonald’s announced “Better M” a Europe-wide commitment to sustainable packaging That means fiber lids, edible packaging, better paper straws, and the like. Given the size of their footprint, every little improvement a company like McDonald’s chooses to make can have an outsized impact, and shines a light on the need for corporate partnerships to make these improvements a reality. EU pressure has definitely accelerated these changes. Will these changes make it to the US, even if the US government lags behind the world on commitments to sustainability?

What if crowdfunding is not only part of the solution, but also part of the problem? The Atlantic takes a long, hard look at crowdfunding platform GoFundMe, and how “sadvertising” isn’t just for companies looking to tug the heartstrings of America when everyone’s learned how to use social media to be a marketer.

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