Now is your time to help marketers use their influence to empower consumers to live more sustainably
What do 603 million search data points tell us about sustainability?
Leveraging a vast amount of search data, which is a great indicator of interest and intent, Kantar’s Finding the Future 2022 report focused on identifying the most prevalent sustainability trends. We see that globally 1.2 million people a month are now searching for topics related to Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG), a staggering increase of 2,231% in the last 2 years.
Apart from surfacing expected themes such as carbon footprints, microplastics and greenwashing, it also pointed to several potentially more disruptive trends. Perhaps most notably, the data shows that the time has clearly come to bring renewable energy to the home. Average monthly interest in renewable energy has grown by 293% in the last 2 years.
Why is interest increasing so much?
We can tell from the data that there is increasing awareness and desire to want to take care of the environment, but many people are also driven by other benefits as well, such as reducing their utility bills, improving resilience during power outages, and elevating their home's value. There are many reasons why people are starting to get very interested in the benefits of having a greener home.
The value-action gap: how many follow through on their interest?
The Kantar Sustainability Sector Index 2022 found that while 97% of people are prepared to act and live a more sustainable lifestyle, only 13% are systematically changing their behaviour. The intent is real, consumers want to use their purchasing power for good; yet the barriers to change are complex and manifold, with various societal, business, and governmental factors limiting the action individuals can take.
This, the value-action gap, what the UN refers to as the Holy Grail, is the focus of Kantar iLab’s first Innovation Challenge. Partnering with Subak, this Innovation Challenge aims to identify ways of better understanding the gap between intentions and behaviours at scale in a way to empower marketers with new insights to help fuel the motivations and fix the frictions to effect positive behaviour change.
Marketers are uniquely placed to positively influence consumers - to encourage adoption of more sustainable solutions, to deepen understanding of their benefits, to create tangible visions of a zero-carbon future world.
"Given how important climate change is to their business and to our planet, CMOs should quickly become the new climate activists and lead the way in the Race to Zero.” – Nigel Topping, the UK High Level Climate Action champion.
People are also increasingly expecting companies to play more of a leading role. Today most people (67%) see companies’ greatest responsibility as fighting climate change, more so than any other sustainability or societal issue (Kantar’s Global Issues Barometer 2022). It is apparent that it is now imperative that companies and brands must use their influence for good.
How can you get involved?
Marketers need help to understand what matters to people and what can influence their sustainable behaviour. This requires an understanding of current behaviours, as well as factors that prevent people from acting differently.
What ideas, data, tools, platforms, or models do you have that could be leveraged to understand current behaviours better, as well as uncover those factors that prevent people from acting differently? Do you have a way to get closer to what happens in the moment of decision making? Do you have deep new insight into the cultural and societal norms at play that impact motivation?
Let's be ambitious together. This is your chance to pitch, win, scale, impact.
Kantar has launched this Innovation Challenge to leverage climate change data for good, to empower marketers to focus their efforts on where it will have the biggest impact. Let's help people to make the change the planet needs to see.
Click here to register, take part, and be rewarded for your passion, inspiration, and creativity. The submission period is open until 31 December 2022, and there are $140k USD in prizes available, with opportunities to work with Kantar to scale the best ideas.
More about the Kantar and iLab team
At Kantar, we are passionate about understanding people and inspiring growth. With a presence in 90 markets, we seek to drive innovation by harnessing diverse perspectives from both our employees and the ecosystems we flourish in. At Kantar’s iLab, growth means learning, experimenting, and scaling together with respect for ideas, individuals and the ecosystem.
Learn more about Kantar’s iLab
How to get in touch
For questions about the challenge: challenges.ilab@kantar.com
Other collaboration opportunities:
Cynthia Vega, Global Partnerships Lead: cynthia.vega@kantar.com
Laura Vanessa-Munoz, Global Program Manager: LauraVanessa.Munoz@kantar.com
Mariana Gamez, Public Relations Director: Mariana.Gamez@kantar.com