The world of creativity and innovation is constantly evolving. Businesses often turn to two prominent players in this field to keep up with the dynamics: creative agency and creative consultancy. While one can get them mixed up, both have different focuses and approaches! How? Read on.
Suppose a brand wants to reduce its carbon footprint and adopt more eco-friendly practices. A creative agency can help them increase brand awareness and drive sales while delivering innovative and impactful solutions to their clients through captivating visuals, persuasive messaging, engaging experiences, and handling marketing and advertising campaigns.
However, a creative consultancy can help them develop a comprehensive strategy. It can help them by identifying areas for improvement to implement sustainable initiatives. A consultancy uses its expertise to bring positive change by suggesting innovative solutions like optimising supply chains, creating eco-friendly packaging, or launching sensitisation, awareness or advocacy-focused marketing campaigns.
Yes, creative agencies and consultancies are forward-thinking entities redefining the traditional creative landscape by prioritising sustainability and purpose at the core of their work. While sustainable creative agencies are helping brands to minimise their environmental footprint, purpose-led creative consultancies go beyond conventional design and marketing by focusing on making a meaningful impact in areas such as social justice, equality and environmental sustainability. They create a ripple effect of change.
So, the next time you come across a captivating advertisement or witness a business embracing a unique sustainability approach, remember the minds behind the scenes who use their creative genius and strategic insights to shape a better, more sustainable future for all of us.
Consultancies in action!
Let’s look at a few consultancies that have empowered change through their creative expertise:
Enso: They call themselves a future design company, focussing on creating innovative solutions for a sustainable future. Their ‘Letters of Love’ initiative, which encouraged people to write letters to the Earth, expressing love and gratitude for nature, gained worldwide attention. The initiative serves as a reminder of how precious nature is and the importance of preserving its beauty for future generations. Their initiatives like ‘Green Schools’, which organised nature walks, recycling programs, and sustainable gardening projects to promote environmental education and ‘Nature-inspired Design’ to integrate nature into everyday products, speak volumes about their commitment to a greener future.
A popular name in the industry, Given  is a purpose-led creative consultancy that works with brands to develop creative strategies to inspire and innovate. Their initiative, ‘Peers of the Planet’, has garnered attention globally. The company collaborates with schools, organisations and youth through this program to develop sustainability projects and campaigns. They provide resources, mentorship and a platform for young change-makers to voice their ideas and initiatives. The programme covers everything from beach clean-ups to promoting sustainable fashion or advocating for renewable energy. It allows the next generation to harness the power of creativity and ideas in the right direction. For instance, Aarav, a 16-year-old student from India, participated in the programme with his school. To promote sustainability within their school community, Aarav and his team implemented waste segregation systems, organised tree-plantation drives and even conducted awareness campaigns on water conservation. His participation helped his school transform into a greener space and inspired other schools in the region to adopt similar practices.
An incredible platform combining art, storytelling and social impact, Conspiracy of Love is known for using its creative talents to spread love, harmony and positive change. The consultancy has been helping Adidas create more opportunities to make sports more accessible and inclusive for everyone. How? The team structured a strategic case for inclusivity built upon a societal theory of change and impact measurement framework. It focused on helping underserved communities, from women to people of colour to those with disabilities, get equal and equitable access to sports worldwide. Interestingly, in the five years of its existence, Conspiracy of Love has helped significant brands invest $5 million into causes like racial justice in education, food insecurity, childhood hunger, and arts education (till April 2023).
A pioneer in the field, Carol Cone, founder of Carol Cone On Purpose (CCOP), is another purpose-driven consulting firm that helps organisations create and amplify their social and environmental impact. CCOP worked with Action Against Hunger USA (AAH) to leverage key assets to engage major donors while laying the groundwork for the organisation’s growth. AAH’s Global Hunger Awareness campaign, launched in 2020, primarily focussed on two audiences: affluent markets, with a primary goal to raise awareness and funds, and vulnerable communities in low- and middle-income countries where the campaign promoted effective health measures against COVID-19. The CCOP team leveraged data, storytelling and creative activations to mobilise a new generation of donors, activists and potential partners. The campaign involved surveys which stated that affluent countries are unaware of the extent of global hunger and that 2 million children die from hunger every year. As a result, 70% of respondents expressed interest in supporting the organisation. From big-picture strategy to day-to-day activations that helped deliver real, on-the-ground social impact, the CCOP team successfully engaged the community in supporting a meaningful cause.
DrawHistory: A strategy and design consultancy using brand, design, communications, and research to design new futures in the Asia-Pacific; they believe that purpose finds progress when you refuse to play things safe. They collaborated with leading early parenting, health and family services across Australia to help launch the ForWhen helpline, a new and free parent mental health service to help expectant parents and new parents access critical mental health support.
They conducted surveys and interviews with parents, ran an online campaign, developed a brand narrative and name, and designed and implemented the launch of ForWhen alongside a creative studio. The DrawHistory team worked closely with ForWhen’s core team and 13 consortium partners to make sure that the story told was not only about parents’ experiences but could also encourage parents to reach out for help when needed, thereby addressing the cultural stigma around mental health.
If Not Now: Calling themselves digital activists, the team, together with Collectively and The Comms Lab, helped #SHEvotes return from its 2017 debut for a 2019 showdown against the status quo. The campaign was solely dedicated to encouraging women under 30 to vote. The campaign used a brandless platform to inspire and share creative acts, artwork and words of encouragement with young women all around the UK. With the help of the campaign that used various compelling posts, in less than two weeks, the 2019 General Election saw the highest number of female voters and the highest number of women MPs elected. The #SHEvotes hashtag received a staggering 77 million potential reach on Twitter (X) alone.
BBMG: A branding and social impact consultancy, BBMG collaborated with the Black Women’s Player Collective (BPWC) to transform soccer into a more equitable and inclusive sport for Black women and girls who want to play the game. With limited support and resources, BWPC needed to build brand awareness and attract funders and partners. BBMG then created a bold brand identity and campaign strategy to make the Collective’s new website, and the rebranded BWPC was featured in collaboration with Adidas in October 2021. For this campaign, BWPC received an Anthem Award gold honour for best Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion brand awareness campaign and a Core77 Design for Social Impact Award in 2022.
For better or for best
In a world where AI tools and ChatGPTs are taking over, creative consultancies are more significant than ever. They bring a fresh perspective, empathy and purpose-led approach that technology cannot replicate alone. Only a human touch, passion for looking at change as an opportunity and great minds with subject matter expertise, industry experts and experience at the grassroots can bring an idea to life. After all, it takes just an idea to spark change, inspire innovation and drive progress in the world.
Credits
Smriti is a certified digital content writer. She has a master’s in Mass Communication and Journalism, loves the mountains and the beach, lives out of suitcases/trunks (Fauji life)! Cold coffee fuels her creativity and helping out an animal in need makes her heart full.
The article was strategised by Deepa Sai