Meet Marcos Martín, Sustainable Development Manager at Havas Group
We are proud to say that Canussa has been selected by the highly recognised agency Havas, as one of the sustainable projects to join the SRC program Planta 7, an imaginary space where employees can help startups to achieve their own goals via professional volunteering by giving free advertising services, what they call “advershare”.
We had the pleasure of interviewing Marcos Martín , Sustainable Development Manager at Havas Group, finding out more about the story Planta 7.
1) What is Planta 7 all about?
Planta 7 (7th Floor) is not a physical space at any of our offices in Spain, but an imaginary "floor" that any employee can go up to and advershare, helping those who need it most by sharing what we do best: advertising.
It's essentially a voluntary professional corporate program with which we try to help promote both people and their projects. Our people are our main value, and thanks to their commitment we can offer training, coaching, mentoring, and free advertising services to important impact start-ups. At Planta 7 any of our employees can devote a 7 per cent of their work day to help others.
2) Of all the projects you’ve fostered, which three do you think have achieved the largest environmental and social impact, and why?
When it comes to direct help to people I'd say the coaching sessions we developed with Fundación Quiero Trabajo, helping unemployed women at risk tackle with courage and security one of the most critical stages of job searching: a job interview. In 2021 a total of 22 women joined the labour market thanks to the help of our volunteers.
Regarding our free advertising services for different projects, I'd highlight the challenge faced by social start-up Auara when trying to achieve media presence to raise awareness of the humanitarian crisis that comes with limited access to drinking water around the world. On World Water Day we launched a powerful concept with which we managed to appear on the main TV news shows, all with a limited budget.
Campaign: https://youtu.be/3azirj6po-I
Results: https://youtu.be/nDIgms7ttpU
Marcos Martín, Sustainable Development Manager at Havas Group
3) Why did you choose Canussa for Planta 7?
Canussa is exactly the type of project we want to promote at Planta 7. A project born from María Cano’s personal story and her idea of how to make a difference and create a better world. Her ambition came to life as an impact business model that’s already become a reality and has a huge potential growth. Additionally, we have a very precise brief with which we know we can add value and that we're already working on.
4) Which marketing and communication advice would you give businesses that want to become more sustainable and circular?
I think that honesty is key. In the world of advertising we often find projects or commercial messaging with no real commitment or sustainable goal. Fortunately, consumers keep evolving and demanding honesty and facts that back brands’ sustainability messaging, a trend that makes greenwashing or socialwashing quite obvious and easy to detect.
I would also advise against going directly to the list of Sustainable Development Goals and choosing one without before having asked yourself who you are and what impact you can have. In our case, as an advertising group we have the best professionals and the power to create and spread messages, and with this in mind we develop a sustainability strategy with clearly defined commitments.
5) What more can be done on a communication and marketing level to promote change towards a more sustainable consumption model?
For a long time advertising has been on the opposite side of sustainable consumption because, by definition, we create needs were there are none. But times are changing and brands and agencies no longer believe in that model, but in the power of communication to create better consumers and better human beings.
We must continue putting our faith in technology that allows us to achieve the maximum segmentation and personalization of what we offer, and to create more sustainable markets. We must continue bringing consumers and brands together, stimulating transparency and honesty, something that’s made easier by social media. We must continue measuring and reducing the environmental footprint and effects our campaigns have. And we must be critical and demanding with the power we have; we must identify any messaging that works against sustainable consumption, and use our ideas, creativity and the media to generate a positive change in the way we consume that helps to make this world of ours a better place.