Shortlisted 2022
Corporate Influencer, Brand & Media Owner Partnership, Social Good
Brand
Infosys
Entered by:
Economist Impact
Credits:
Wongdoody
The Sustainability Project
The Challenge
With Sustainability an increasingly critical global challenge, there is a growing need among influential audiences for relevant, timely content and insights to help them navigate the rapidly changing sustainability landscape.
As an organisation committed to creating thought-provoking research and insights to help inform policy and thought leadership, we launched a new business within The Economist Group to do just this. Economist Impact brings together the rigour of a think tank with the creativity of a media organisation to reach global, influential audiences.
Following the launch, we turned our attention to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. With less than 10 years to deliver on these goals, there is a renewed urgency to examine global systems and balance human aspirations with the planet’s ability to sustain them.
That’s why Economist Impact has launched The Sustainability Project, combining insights, innovation and influence to actively engage global stakeholders to propel progress and create a sustainable future for all.
The Content Solution
The vision for The Sustainability Project is to build a forum designed to ffect change.
With Infosys as Digital Innovation Partner, we have developed a dynamic framework that customises, organises, and prioritises the content that matters most to our audience and their business. This, combined with intelligent integration of topics, formats and events ensure users can seamlessly access and understand the most critical trends and analysis.
We take great care to provide original content that spotlights the latest research and insights using reports, charts, infographics,data points, workbooks (and more) —all designed to educate in a visually engaging and immersive way.
Covering 5 key topic areas (Net Zero & Energy, Resilience & Adaptation, Circular Economies, Ecosystems & Resources, Social Sustainability) The Sustainability Project hosts both editorially-independent sponsored and non-sponsored content.
- Original interviews with key voices from the Sustainability community: Bill Gates, Patricia Espinosa, Christiana Figueres and Cat Tully.
- Articles: Unique to The Sustainability Project, our Dispatch format is attached to global moments and provides commentary on the latest issues The Dispatch: five key takeaways from the 7th annual Sustainability Week
- Videos: Antonio Guterres, United Nations Secretary General, Keeping 1.5 Alive, Rebecca Marmot, Unilever’s CSO, why we need to invest in living wages,
- The Economist Films: Editorially-led content surrounding key issues (supported by Infosys) Green Energy – Which Sources are most sustainable?
- Data points: It’s a barren world without bees, Is philanthropy failing the fight against climate change?
- Data Insights: On sizing the energy transition or How investors and companies can find common purpose in ESG
- Whitepapers: The business costs of supply chain disruption, Climate change and its impact on lung health: a focus on Europe
- Indexes: Food Sustainability Index and the rEV Index
- Long reads: Global Water Agenda: What to expect in 2022
The Media/Content Amplification Solution
Our content amplification strategy has reflected the importance of The Sustainability Project to Economist Impact.
As an organisation that places informed insight at the heart of what we do, our team defined 4 key audience personas and used proprietary research to identify which topics mattered most to these four distinct target audiences. This insight was used to inform our content as well as develop tailored amplification strategies. For example, data showed that our Sustainability target audience craved insights and opinion-lead pieces in interactive or video formats, whilst attendees to our events wanted contextual insights. As a result, we utilised different amplification strategies to ensure the right audience were being served the most relevant content, in the right format and across the right channel.
We used a combination of owned, paid and earned channels to maximise content reach, including:
- Targeted display media
- Contextually aligned placements in print and digital for the week of COP26
- Live Events
- Newsletters
- Social promotion
As well as Infosys, we have run campaigns with KPMG, Ellen McArthur Foundation, SAP, Santander and Baillie Gifford, all building a shared community of Sustainability-engaged professionals.
The Result
The Sustainability Project is the first major initiative of Economist Impact and a clear demonstration of our commitment to driving long-term sustainable practices to deliver global progress.
The quality and impact of the content and platform is clear, and it continues to deliver exceptional results across the board including session duration of +40% over our Economist Impact benchmark, organic users’ return rates of +30% and being recognised as a 2022 Webby Awards Honoree for the Websites and Mobile Sites, Best Writing (Editorial) category and listed in the top 10 out 14,300+ projects.
Beyond traditional media metrics, The Sustainability Project is playing an active and real role in leading change at key global moments and events established by leading international organisations such as the United Nations General Assembly, COP2022 UN Oceans Day and the World Water Week.