It’s How We Live | BBMG | Brand Innovation for the New Consumer | New York

Getting Beyond Data Points to the Heart of the Story

May 17th, 2012
by Jess Oswald

We humans are emotional creatures. That’s why we love a good yarn. And why narratives follow a typical arc (beginning-middle-end) that pits heroes against villains and keeps us in suspense until there’s tidy resolution.

CSR stories are not so neat, oh no. But they are emotional. And many feature ordinary people doing extraordinary things. At BBMG, we believe in moving beyond data points and pull quotes. Our research shows that only 4% of New Consumers turn to CSR reports, after all.

That’s why we’ve developed a new set of strategies to tell more meaningful stories and to involve leadership teams in living those stories.

Want to learn more about creating immersive, memorable and game-changing CSR stories? Join Senior Strategist Devon Douglas on May 17 at the 2012 VolunteerMatch Client Summit in San Francisco.

Chances are, you have a greater story to tell.

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NBCUniversal Teams with BBMG on CSR Strategy

May 16th, 2012
by Jess Oswald

NBCUniversal (NBCU) has tapped brand innovation firm BBMG to help elevate its corporate social responsibility efforts. NBCU—one of the largest media and entertainment companies in the world—will leverage BBMG’s sustainability expertise and extensive consumer research capabilities to explore ways its newly expanded CSR team can achieve an even greater positive impact. To help boost the organization’s CSR efforts, BBMG will survey its proprietary community of New Consumers, The Collective, to analyze media habits, attitudes and the issues they care about most.

NBCU owns and operates several news and entertainment networks, including NBC
Entertainment, Bravo and CNBC; a major motion picture company; television production operations and theme parks. The company is seeking to expand its Green is Universal initiative, which identifies ways NBCU can “walk the talk” by integrating sustainability and environmental responsibility into every aspect of its operations.

“In many ways, Green is Universal is already a shining example of corporate
responsibility: It has multimedia, cross-platform programming; ongoing education
components; and robust employee buy-in,” said BBMG founding partner Mitch
Baranowski. “We’re so excited to bring passionate, savvy, idea-filled New Consumers
into the conversation, and help NBCU bring their Green is Universal to the next level.”

BBMG has identified New Consumers—those who consider both practicality and
purpose while shopping—as an essential bridge for green brands looking to go
mainstream, and for large brands hoping to incorporate sustainability in an authentic
way.

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From the Souls of Our Feet

April 17th, 2012
by Molly Conley

Dannae and Molly going barefoot in Brooklyn.

Last Tuesday, April 10, my colleague Dannae and I took the Tom’s “One Day Without Shoes” challenge. And while neither of us was explicitly advocating for Tom’s, we did think it was an intriguing opportunity to experience something new and learn a thing or two in the process. As it turns out, empathy is a great teacher.

Dannae, a daily bike commuter, fearlessly chose to ride barefoot to and from the office. Her experience, like mine was both physically challenging and full of surprises. She writes, “The air on my feet was liberating, but my bike pedals weren’t designed for going shoeless. On each small hill the pedals dug into my bare feet. I also was waiting for someone to say something to me. I didn’t see anyone else without shoes and no one asked me where mine were. (This is NYC, so people have seen everything!)”

While Dannae biked, I chose to walk—from my apartment in Jersey City across the Brooklyn Bridge to our DUMBO studio. I wanted to use this walk as an opportunity to reflect on the issue of poverty, recalling many of the people I’ve met in my travels, and to look inside myself for the compassion to be of service. But the sidewalks are stony and rough, cold from the early spring air, and littered with broken glass and other debris that required my constant attention. How difficult it is to focus on others when our own personal demands are absorbing so much attention. The reality of life is that there is always a more immediate need to distract us, and so the journey to compassion must be mindful and deliberate.

I also discovered along my journey that going barefoot allowed me to experience my city in an entirely fresh way. To feel these familiar textures and temperatures in an unfamiliar way (my bare feet) was sort of exhilarating. In life we’re so overloaded with information that while we always touch, we rarely take notice to “feel.”

And while your awareness can determine what you feel physically, it also determines how you feel emotionally. Going barefoot naturally attracts attention. And as I took that first step out of my door, I immediately felt my neighbors’ curious eyes on me. But as I kept walking, my self-consciousness of the situation subsided and being barefoot actually felt quite natural. Good to remember that the way you feel about a situation—any situation—is entirely up to you.

Below: Molly’s footpath in photos: