Our thinking

How do we market (social) marketing?

5 May, 2023

We’ve just returned from the first African Social Marketing Association Conference, held in Johannesburg last week, where SKY Girls, our multimedia social marketing programme addressing social and health issues across Africa, picked up the award for Best Intervention. In social marketing circles, we like to think of it as the Best Film award at the Oscars (with less controversy and no on-stage fighting).

The Conference brought together academics, practitioners, and social policy makers to consider how social marketing, social enterprise, innovation and behaviour change can help solve the big social, health, economic, security and environmental challenges we all face.

We’ve talked a lot at Good Business about how purpose and profit go hand in hand, and we were founded on the belief that if you want to change the world, you need to change your business and that by changing your business, you can change the world. Social marketing was where we started, and while we now spend a lot of our time figuring out how to rewire the corporation to deliver better sustainability outcomes, we’ve never lost sight of the power of brands to create social change.

So, as we polish our trophy ready to take pride of place in the Good Business awards cabinet, we’ll be reflecting on how we can revitalise the conversation, and get brands excited about the possibility of changing hearts and minds for good, as well as for profit.

By Alice Railton