Supporting Sustainable Rubber

Main Role

Content Creation

Scope of Work

Campaign Strategy, Content Creation, Video Production

Alex Yates

Creative Director

Ha Nguyen

Account Manager

Brett Wertz

Campaign Strategist

Giang Nguyen

Designer

Manh Nguyen

Videographer

Background

Rubber is an odd commodity—as integral to modern life as it is invisible, and overlooked. But if it were to suddenly disappear from our tires, our shoes, the plungers on our syringes and the gaskets on our pacemakers, we would surely notice.

Equally overlooked is the toll that rubber production and manufacture can take on our environment. Natural rubber comes from trees. Millions and millions of them, grown mainly on small plantations throughout Southeast Asia, and tended by smallholder farmers who struggle to make ends meet. Rubber is big business, and our appetite for the commodity is growing, but independent producers see only a fraction of the benefits. It is no wonder that their practices can often be unsustainable, and that many are forced to exploit adjacent forests to supplement their incomes.

The Programme for Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) reached out to Fourdozen to help launch their Supporting Sustainable Rubber campaign. Our job was to come up with a fresh approach that would help move the industry and its long supply chain toward more sustainable management of rubber plantations and value chains. A change that will benefit smallholder farmers, the economies they operate in, and the wild forests they are connected to.

While the campaign is global, the heart of the rubber industry is right here in Southeast Asia. Vietnam is one of the largest rubber producing countries in the world, and Fourdozen was a natural fit for the work given our deep roots here, and throughout the region.

Our Big Idea 

The campaign needed to achieve the twin goals of positioning PEFC as a leader in sustainable rubber, while at the same time drawing attention to the issue itself. Our campaign slogan, “PEFC is Here” accomplished this elegantly. The campaign would highlight the myriad essential uses of rubber in everyday life–many that people might not be aware of–and combine that with the tagline: PEFC is Here. 

Tires on an F1 car racing around the track: PEFC is Here. A syringe poised to deliver a COVID jab: PEFC is Here. A runner’s sneakers bounding down the asphalt: PEFC is Here. Each of these products–tires, syringes, shoes–all rely on rubber, and where there’s rubber, there is PEFC.

The campaign used beautiful editorial-style imagery to simultaneously deliver surprising information about the places sustainable rubber can be found, and spread brand awareness for PEFC. Our instinct being that when your goal is to shine a light on a poorly understood commodity, you had better embrace surprise. Did you know that vaccinations and yoga poses can help save forests? Well, now you do.

Results

The Supporting Sustainable Rubber campaign reached or exceeded all of its 2021 campaign goals. Multiple online events attracted an audience of hundreds of industry professionals, paid advertising spread brand awareness at a tiny fraction of the cost of industry benchmarks, campaign content consistently outperformed benchmarks across four social media channels, and campaign messages earned approximately 20 international media features each month.

Fourdozen helped PEFC reach hundreds of stakeholders throughout the rubber value chain, from smallholders to large rubber associations and manufacturers. Buy-in from these individuals and organizations is essential not only to hitting many of the campaign milestones, but also to meaningfully increasing the adoption of sustainable forest management and chain of custody certifications in the rubber sector. 

These outstanding results were carried on the back of hundreds of hours of hard work from Fourdozen and our inspiring and collaborative partners at PEFC. By the end of the year, Fourdozen had finalized the campaign strategy and created more than 1,000 unique pieces of organic content, published campaign materials across five platforms, produced original video and written a suite of press releases that drove earned media.

Part of our campaign is that “wherever sustainable rubber is harvested, processed, traded or used, PEFC is here.” Fourdozen is so proud that, in our capacity as storytellers and creators, Fourdozen is, too.


Alex Yates

Creative Director

Ha Nguyen

Account Manager

Brett Wertz

Campaign Strategist

Giang Nguyen

Designer

Manh Nguyen

Videographer

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