Our thinking

Scrolling in the Deep

24 March, 2023

Unsurprising that influencers… influence! But we like it when this influence becomes a helpful tool to deliver more sustainable societies. A new study by the BIT (Behavioural Insights team) and Unilever shows the critical role played by influencers in helping to make sustainable living commonplace.

The experiment measured the resulting behaviour change of 6,000 UK, US and Canadian consumers engaging with a simulated social platform that showed them various styles of social media content. Two key results were of great interest to us: the fact that the influencers had an impact on sustainable lifestyle choices for 78% of the participants, and the fact that branded content was viewed as just as engaging, authentic and informative as the unbranded content.

The study proves that brands that make good use of social media can do a great job introducing sustainable products or solutions to the consumer. And if you are wondering what type of content you may need, the study mentioned here gives you two winning content styles: the pragmatic and the optimistic. The pragmatic emphasises the scale and gravity of the climate crisis, with a heavy use of statistics. The optimistic, on the other hand, includes tips and tricks to live more sustainably, with a surprising, often humorous tone. The study showed that both work: of those who watched “pragmatic content,” 69% went on to try something new to reduce their plastic or food waste as a result, with 61% of those who watch “optimistic” content reporting action.

Meanwhile, if you’re not on TikTok yet, you must be on LinkedIn: make sure you’re on the impactful side of things and subscribe to our @GoodBusiness page!

By Flora Gicquel