Brands have the power to do good in the world and this is exactly what consumers expect. The last decade saw the rise of the conscious consumer, whose expectations extend past quality products and good value. It’s not enough to voice an opinion, set up one-off initiatives and partnerships, or create a compelling campaign: brands need to act. After all, actions speak louder than words.

Sustainability covers a broad range of interconnected domains; the environment, economy and social arena. It’s crucial brands understand how sustainability truly drives consumer purchasing behaviour. A comprehensive picture provides the foundation to build communication that effectively resonates and drives sustainable consumption.

We work with our clients to help them understand what their customers expect and what they place greatest value on, identifying the importance of different sustainability goals in driving behaviour and nuances by sector and the most effective way to communicate a consistent message that is transparent and based in actions and actual behaviour. This support and guidance is underpinned by our proprietary research with UK consumers to explore perceptions around 10 areas, based on the United Nations’ 17 sustainable development goals.

We take these learnings and apply them to how we operate too. Watermelon is committed to achieving a high level of environmental performance, with compliance with all applicable legislative and other requirements. We ensure intelligent use of energy throughout our business facilities and reduce unnecessary consumption and energy wastage. We have developed and documented sustainability objectives and targets for the business against which our performance is measured and reviewed.

Watermelon is part of the VCCP partnership, where the challenger attitude runs through everything we do. VCCP was created from a desire to challenge the bad habits of big global agencies and that includes our approach to Diversity & Inclusion.

We strongly believe that D&I isn’t just about ticking boxes to hit benchmarks in recruitment, we want the agency to live and breathe D&I into everything we do. We’re on a mission to challenge the stereotypes and legacies which exist in our industry in order to make this happen.

It means recognising diversity in all the ways humans differ, from the visible to the invisible. Diversity isn’t just about gender or race, it’s also about disability, neurodiversity, religion, age, sexuality and socio-economic diversity.

It is also about ensuring equal opportunity to all, in our search for talent & diverse suppliers. This ensures that our workforce and partners reflect both our values of inclusion. Within the agency, we have many initiatives in place and areas where we’re looking to make even more progress.