Creativity. Effectiveness. Consistency.

This project is about building up the UN Global Compact’s positioning in Brazil.

Work that led to the Brazilian network becoming the second largest in the world.

And which got the attention of business leaders, but also creativity festivals.

Across the world, the UN Global Compact, which is the largest corporate sustainability initiative on the planet, is dedicated to getting companies to align their operations with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.

And in Brazil, as the results have shown, it’s done just that.

BUSINESS LEADERS CONTEXT

Every business leader understands the importance of ESG.

But in the thick of so many demands, environmental concerns are often lost from sight.

According to a study from Accenture Brasil (2023), of the factors that most worry CEOs, climate change only came in fourth.

The ranking was as follows: inflation (58%), scarcity of talent (42%), threats to public health (41%), and only then came climate change (33%).

In the same study, 93% of CEOs reported that they struggled to prioritize sustainability goals with the urgency they call for.

The UN's Global Compact is the world's largest corporate sustainability initiative.

It's a global call for companies to align strategies and operations with the UN's long-term goals.

We needed to engage business leaders and encourage them to commit their companies to the UN's goals.

But their attention is pulled in dozens of different directions, mostly to strictly work-related issues. According to Harvard, they work 62.5 hours/week on average.

To make matters worse, environmental concerns are far down the list of their priorities.

How could we grab this target's attention if they're always laser-focused on business? How to make the issue urgent again?

The answer we hit on: to not seem like a company talking to another company. Instead, we’d be a creative brand presenting narratives and entertainment to business leaders.

"B2B: It's all of our business".

Over the past few years, we’ve changed the way the Global Compact communicates in Brazil.

Moving from a more corporate, company-to-company approach and adopting sweeping, compelling narratives.

We launched projects like “The Cast-Away,” in which an activist was sent to a desert island; the “Carl Sagan Message,” in which we uncovered a decades-old warning from a major environmentalist and brought it back to life in a cinematographic film; “EART4,” in which we held an IPO for the planet on the stock market – and much more.

This B2B stance has been built up steadily, year over year.

And it’ll only continue in years to come.

The strategy was to reimagine the way B2B is done.

Instead of adopting a corporate tone, as was the norm in Brazil, we opted for a more imaginative approach.

Within a single stance, we came up with a huge variety of activations that brought in millions upon millions in earned media.

Because we understood that, as much as we’re doing business to business, we’re still a brand talking to people.

Alphabet soup aside, CEOs, CMOs, and CFOs are people.

And they appreciate creative, engaging, thought-provoking communication.

That was the strategy that made the Global Compact in Brazil a global benchmark for B2B, and a success story for the UN Global Compact.

Today, Brazil is home to the second-largest Global Compact network in the world (of a total of 65).

In 2021 (December), we launched the first project in this new phase for the Global Compact in Brazil: "The Cast-Away".

To call attention to the drought crisis, we came up with the first environmental campaign to help make an island disappear.

In 2022 (April), we launched other playful, cinematic campaigns, such as “Move to Mars,” in which we suggested that companies that don’t take care of the Earth ought to move their operations one planet over.

After those initial months, we started putting together two more major communications initiatives, “EART4” and “Carl Sagan Message,” both launched in 2023.

“Carl Sagan Message” is a cinematic film of a visual installation powered by audio recordings of Carl Sagan’s speeches.

“EART4,” a partnership with B3 (the “Brazilian Nasdaq”), turned our planet into a company and launched its IPO on the stock exchange.

Beyond the numbers, the Global Compact has become a leading brand in B2B and ESG in Brazil.

Which helped to bring the institution even closer to business leaders and the press when it came to business, ESG, communications, and innovation.

In Brazil, it’s common to have Global Compact representatives at events, talks,or major media interviews. And all that is the result of the careful construction of this all-too-relevant brand.

• The Brazilian Global Compact network is the world’s second-largest.

• + 2229 participants

• +70% of Brazil’s top 100 companies signed the Global Compact

• +40% of Brazil’s top 1000 companies signed the Global Compact

• 7.5 billion media impressions ("The Cast-Away")

• +58MM in earned media ("EART4")

• +348% increase in Google hits ("The Cast-Away")

• ↑ 140% new signatories (over the previous year, for "EART4")

• Worldwide recognitions in creative festivals - free media from thought business leaders.