Andy Last: Leveraging Authentic Communications for Social Impact
In this episode I had a chat with Andy Last who is the co-founder of Salt. Recently acquired by MullenLowe, and now known as MullenLowe Salt, the company is a strategic communications agency. As one of the first companies in the UK to be accredited as a B-Corporation, MullenLowe Salt advises organisations on they can use social issues to drive growth, and how communications can effect change to bring about better business results and social progress.
In this episode we chat about how communications can be used as a tool to drive positive social changed. As an example that we discuss in this episode, you’ve likely seen the Lifebuoy soap campaign which Andy has worked on for over a decade - it’s one of the award-winning social campaigns that he’s been behind and an exampled of how change can be effected through communications.
With over 25 years of experience in the industry, Andy has led the development of salt’s Social Mission model to create sustainable, progressive campaigns for brands and businesses, associations and not-for-profits. His book – ‘Business on a Mission: How to Build a Sustainable Brand’ - also goes into more depth about his journey and the use of communications to drive impact within businesses. Being a marketing & communications professional myself, you’ll know from previous episodes that I’m a bit of a skeptic when it comes to the use of marketing & communications to drive social impact because motivations are often not aligned and can result in solutions designed for PR, rather than what’s actually needed and sustainable. I had a really great chat with Andy about this so am keen to hear what you think about what he has to say.
“Building trust is incredibly important. And saying we’re a business and we’re doing this for business reasons is the first step in building trust” [06:41]
Find Andy on LinkedIn and Twitter or find out more information about Mullenlowe Salt.
SHOW NOTES
“Building trust is incredibly important. And saying we’re a business and we’re doing this for business reasons is the first step in building trust” [06:41]
How does Mullenlowe Salt measure impact? [13:40]
More about ‘Business on a Mission: How to Build a Sustainable Brand’ [18:19]
“The vast majority of people in the world work in businesses. Businesses affect all our lives.. I think the SDGs provide a framework for their inclusion [in doing social good]” [30:00]
Andy’s advice for getting started in making a business case for impact [37:00]
Three Things [41:20]
