#RBUSA Communications Keynote: Engaging Consumers and Stakeholders in Purpose

Key insights on engaging consumers and stakeholders in purposeful business communications, featuring Nestlé and Public Good.

Ask about this video. Answers come from its transcript only — with the timestamp, so you can check them.

Generated from the transcript and can be wrong — check the timestamp.

Key Takeaways

Consumers increasingly demand purposeful action and transparent communication from brands.
Purpose-driven initiatives can drive both social impact and business growth.
Effective stakeholder engagement requires authentic storytelling and collaboration with trusted partners.
COVID-19 highlighted the critical role of food security and the need for responsive corporate action.
Sustained commitment to social issues strengthens brand equity and consumer loyalty.

What the video covers

The video discusses the challenge and opportunity for businesses to engage stakeholders with a clear purpose.
Consumer expectations have shifted, with 84% wanting brands to communicate their positive impact, as per the Edelman Trust Study.
Melissa Anderson of Public Good highlights how brands can empower consumers to take action on social issues, enhancing impact and brand equity.
Nestlé's response to COVID-19 focused on food security, leveraging long-term partnerships with Feeding America and No Kid Hungry.
Nestlé communicated its efforts to consumers to encourage support for food accessibility during the pandemic.
The discussion emphasizes the importance of aligning business purpose with consumer values to build trust and market share.
The panel explores best practices and data-driven strategies for effective stakeholder engagement on issues like racial justice and sustainability.
The video includes reflections on adapting communications during crises and the role of digital engagement.
The importance of authentic, transparent communication and collaboration with credible partners is stressed.
The session encourages businesses to lead change and integrate purpose into their core operations for sustained impact.

Chapters

What is the main focus of the video?

The video focuses on how businesses can engage consumers and stakeholders effectively by communicating their purpose and social impact, especially in the context of changing consumer expectations.

How did Nestlé respond to the challenges posed by COVID-19?

Nestlé focused on food security by partnering with organizations like Feeding America and No Kid Hungry to support families and vulnerable populations, while communicating these efforts to consumers to encourage community support.

Why is communicating purpose important for businesses today?

Communicating purpose is crucial because consumers increasingly expect brands to lead on social issues and be transparent about their positive impact, which in turn builds trust, brand equity, and drives business growth.

Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown

Speaker A

Okay, so next up we're going to talk on a topic that's a big challenge but also a big opportunity for business: engaging key stakeholders on purpose. There's a plethora of studies that point to increasing numbers of society wanting businesses to act with a greater purpose, and they will vote with their wallets, as we actually have heard through a number of discussions earlier today. Our next panel will share new data, best practices, and ideas on how to effectively engage customers on this.

Speaker A

wanting businesses to act with a greater purpose and they will vote with their wallets as we actually have heard through a number of discussions earlier today and our next panel will share new data best practices and ideas on how to effectively engage

Speaker A

So joining us now, we have one of our lead event partners, Public Good, and their representative is Melissa Anderson, president and co-founder of Public Good. It's a 45-minute discussion, or 42-minute discussion, sorry, and they're here to answer some of your questions. So do get them in using the Q&A box to the side of the stream. But now it's my pleasure to hand over the virtual stage to you, Melissa.

Speaker A

questions so do get them in using the q a box to the side of the stream but now it's my pleasure to hand over the virtual stage to you melissa great thanks so much liam really appreciate it um i could not be more

Speaker A

Great, thanks so much, Liam. Really appreciate it. I could not be more excited to moderate this very important discussion today with a group of context on me. I'm an entrepreneur and, more importantly, like all of you here today, I believe in companies leading change. As a co-founder of Public Good, we are passionate about the opportunity for brands who are working on the public good to empower people to take action alongside them on things that they care about. This both creates more impact around the issue and drives brand equity, which, as we know, is very important in both creating and sustaining the business case.

Speaker A

are passionate about the opportunity for brands who are working on the public good to empower people to take action alongside them on things that they care about this both creates more impact around the issue and drives brand equity which as we know

Speaker A

So our discussion today is going to look at both change consumer expectations in this moment and business ROI. So look, it's been a heck of a year, but a couple things have become clear. One is consumer expectations have changed, and not just that they're expecting companies to lead, but also they're expecting companies to communicate with them and communicate the good that they're doing on pressing issues. Edelman Trust Study: 84 percent of people want brands to communicate what they're doing. Also, as we've heard on multiple panels throughout this event, customers are voting with their wallets.

Speaker A

year but a couple things have become clear um one is consumer expectations have changed and not just that they're expecting companies to lead but also they're expecting companies to communicate with them and communicate the good that they're doing

Speaker A

So our audience here today at the Responsible Business Summit is doing the good work, and I think this presents a massive opportunity for companies to elevate their initiatives and build market share by engaging their stakeholders. That said, these issues of racial justice and sustainability and climate change are not easy to navigate, so let's dig in with our panelists.

Speaker A

responsible business summit is is doing the good work and i think this presents a massive opportunity for companies to elevate their initiatives and build market share by engaging their stakeholders that said these issues of racial justice and sustainability

Speaker A

So Liz, you lead communications for Nestlé, the largest food company in the world, specifically digital communications. Digital communication, great. And when COVID-19 kind of first closed the country down, as we know it, many most consumer brands kind of froze for a bit with their ad spending, with their communications. Can you tell me a little bit about what you did at Nestlé in this kind of unprecedented moment?

Speaker A

kofi 19 kind of first closed the country down as we know it many most consumer brands kind of froze for a bit with their ad spending with their communications um can you tell me a little bit about what you did at nestle in this

Speaker A

Yeah, absolutely. So a lot of folks who are joining us might think of kind of the old candy bars when you think of Nestlé. You might not know Nestlé's actually in 97 percent of American homes. It's Stouffer's and DiGiorno and Tollhouse and Coffee-mate and Nescafé. It's a really wide range of products, and it's really core in the lives of our consumers. And I think especially for employees at that moment, remember what we were seeing at grocery stores in real time and the idea that you couldn't take for granted going to a grocery store and having everything you need on the shelf at the beginning of that lockdown.

Speaker A

it's stouffer's and digiorno and tolhouse and coffee chameleon nescafe it's a really wide range of products and it's really core in the lives of our consumers and i think especially for employees at that moment remember what we were seeing at grocery stores

Speaker A

And so it really brought, I think, a reminder of just how critical that purpose of food and food availability is to our employees, to our day-to-day work, and our community efforts. At the beginning of COVID, really mirrored that food is a huge part of public health. It's a huge part of the economy. All of these things that were kind of areas of fear and concern were something that we were really in a position to impact.

Speaker A

of just how critical that purpose of food and food availability is um to our employees to our day-to-day work and our community efforts at the beginning of covert really mirrored that food is is a huge part of public health

Speaker A

So we had a long-term partnership. We've been working with Feeding America for about 25 years in the U.S. around food donations and financial support and making good food accessible to families everywhere. And that was the real focus of our COVID response as well, with Feeding America, with No Kid Hungry, particularly with schools closing, and with Meals on Wheels, especially with the specific threat to seniors in being able to go out and get the meals that they need.

Speaker A

with feeding america for about 25 years in the u.s around food donations and financial support and making good food accessible uh to families everywhere and that was the real focus of our covent response as well um with feeding america with no kid

Speaker A

So around those partnerships was our real focus in kind of responding, not to the kind of public health and infectious disease part, but to the part of the crisis that we knew and understood the best, which is the role that food plays in our security, in our families, and in our health. So that was really the focus for Nestlé. And at the same time, that was something we wanted to bring to our consumers and our communities to ask them to really join us in supporting those organizations.

Speaker A

real focus in kind of responding um not to the kind of public health and infectious disease part but to the part of the crisis that we knew and understood the best um which is the role that that food

Speaker A

Wow, that sounds really powerful. And I love how you took kind of your core cause, which is food insecurity, and then really looked at what does this mean in today's moment with COVID. Can you tell me a little bit about, did you communicate that out? Did you let the public know what your work was and let them know about the partnerships? And if so, how did you do that?

Speaker A

join us in supporting those organizations wow that sounds really powerful um and love how you took kind of your core cause which is food insecurity and then really looked at what does this mean in today's moment with kovid

Speaker A

Yeah, and there certainly was kind of a continuing dynamic within our own teams of wanting to make sure that we weren't being self-promotional, that we weren't making a much bigger issue about us, but finding the right way to connect and share what we're doing. And really, what we found is that that's also what consumers wanted from us. They want to know what companies are doing, and they don't want to go looking for that information. They want us to tell them.

Speaker A

of a continuing dynamic within our own teams of of wanting to make sure that we weren't being self-promotional that we weren't making a much bigger issue about us but finding the right way to connect and share what we're doing

Speaker A

So one partnership, of course, as listening as well, was with Public Good that gave us the opportunity to not be talking just about ourselves and what is Nestlé doing, but what is the issue of hunger looking like in this moment? What does it look like for kids who may have previously relied on free breakfast or free lunch at school? What does it look like for families who don't have good grocery store access?

Speaker A

listening as well was with public good that gave us the opportunity to not be talking just about ourselves and what is nestle doing but what is the issue of hunger looking like in this moment what does it look like for kids who may

Speaker A

So it gave us a chance to really make the issue forefront and to invite consumers to participate rather than just getting to hear, "Here's what we did," and "This is about us," but really putting a spotlight in a larger context on what was going on and the opportunity to impact in the food space.

Speaker A

consumers to participate rather than just getting to hear here's what we did and this is about us but really putting a spotlight in a larger context on what was going on and the opportunity to impact in the food space

Speaker A

Wow, yeah, that's really interesting. And if you don't mind me kind of reflecting, I remember your public campaign last year was around food insecurity, was very much donate, like this is how we're helping to donate. And then the campaign we ran together in COVID was a meal finder, you know, because that was, you know, everyone was really struggling financially. So it was less about how can you give and it's like how can you get help. And so that was a really great action as part of that action campaign.

Speaker A

together and coveted was um a meal finder you know because that was you know everyone was really struggling financially so it was less about how can you give and it's like how can you get help and so that was a really great action as

Speaker A

And yeah, I could see, you know, you mentioned a fear of looking self-promotional, and that data was really helpful kind of internally, but I can imagine it must have been difficult internally to pull the trigger. And I know we've talked about this before. I mean, like ultimately, how do you make the decision to do this? I feel like, you know, no one had a playbook. Can you give us a little insight as to what that looked internally and how you were able to kind of get everybody over the fence to really being verbal about what you were doing?

Speaker A

and i know we've talked about this before i mean like ultimately how do you make the decision um to do this i feel like you know no one had a playbook can you give us a little insight as to

Speaker A

Yeah, absolutely. And in some ways, I think it was really valuable to start with the acknowledgement that this is unprecedented, and it's unprecedented for every company and every stakeholder. And there's no—it kind of stopped us from getting distracted being like, what are our competitors doing here or what are our peers doing here? Because none of us knew what we were doing.

Speaker A

acknowledgement that this is unprecedented and it's unprecedented for every company and every stakeholder and there's no it kind of stopped us from getting distracted being like what do our competitors doing here or what are our peers doing here

Speaker A

And so that was a chance to really take it back to who we are foundationally and say, what—

Speaker A

value let's not um kind of try to get involved uh in the most direct kind of public health space that's not necessarily our capability let's find where we're adding value in food and bring it there so there definitely

Speaker A

wasn't a playbook but the fact that that kind of gave us all alignment from the beginning that we knew there's no expert in covid response communications in april 2020. nobody has done it before nobody has that figured out um we don't

Speaker A

need to worry that we're aspiring to what someone else is doing and trying to crack their code we can go back to really what is work for us how do we make the right difference for us and and talk like ourselves and

Speaker A

connect with consumers like ourselves and um really go to the the purpose and foundation of the company there i think that's extremely helpful insight you know because i think it can become hard if you're a big corporation to

Speaker A

benchmark and look what everybody else is doing but you have to say hey what does always matter to us what are our values it doesn't it doesn't matter what the competitors are doing what are we doing well great thanks for that um and second

Speaker A

i'd like to introduce kim davis who leads dei and many other things at nhl um so thanks for joining us today super appreciate it um you know i think hockey like several industries here is really a traditionally a white

Speaker A

and male sport and and you lead to ei at nhl so i would love for you to speak to a little bit more of what that looks like within that context and what the role of data has played for

Speaker A

you yeah thank you uh melissa and thanks for for having me be part of this so i joined the national hockey league three years ago after a very long career in financial services and investment banking and people often ask like what's the

Speaker A

connection between that background and the sport of hockey and i often reply that uh the the connection is you know industries that have or are currently going through significant change a couple of years ago the sport of hockey celebrated

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its 100th anniversary and instead of looking back it began to look forward on what with the next 100 years have to mean for for the sport particularly as a sport thinks about the world of not only sport but

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entertainment and one of the things that the sport of hockey has become keenly focused on are changing demographics particularly across north america and what that's going to mean to not only our current fan base which is about 75 percent white and 25

Speaker A

non-white but more importantly our fans in waiting as i refer to them those fans particularly of the millennial and the gen z generation who are already majority minority how are we going to create an environment that's welcoming to those audiences and so the work that

Speaker A

i lead is really about how do we look at the work of hockey in the sport of hockey through the lens of growth and opportunity and not the lens of charity and just community understanding that community should be a

Speaker A

catalyst for our ability to build stronger more substantive and authentic relationships with both fans and fans in waiting but we have to think about that through the lens of growth um so the moment with george floyd and and the murder of george floyd was

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really just an acceleration point for work that we've been doing literally for the past two and a half years in readiness getting our culture ready for the kind of change that's going to be required at every role of the hockey ecosystem

Speaker A

and i think what's interesting about the nhl different than other sports is that it really influences every level of hockey from youth hockey all the way up through the major minors and to elite and professional hockey and so

Speaker A

we have a unique opportunity to be both bold and courageous leaders uh in this quest to make our sport more welcoming and to make our sport more diverse that's really helpful um and i love how you talked about it didn't change

Speaker A

anything but the murder of george floyd really became an acceleration point um and how do you think i know we've talked about this a lot in the past how do you think we can create sustained effort so that was a moment in time

Speaker A

it's been accelerated how can we uh together and how will nhl plan to keep that momentum so to speak yeah we we have been really going deep from the very top of our organization with our owners down through every single level of of

Speaker A

our clubs and the entire hockey ecosystem as i mentioned before influencing not just the league and the clubs but youth hockey our fans our influencers and we're doing that by you know helping people interrogate their own models of how they're operating in in this

Speaker A

world of of um anti-racism frankly uh and there are three things that uh that i've been focused on starting with our owners and the first is how do we become stronger and more courageous leaders by being more vulnerable

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you know if we can't build a level of vulnerability then we aren't going to be honest about where our blind spots are so we've been having these series of courageous conversations and uncomfortable conversations starting with our ownership that has really opened up a different

Speaker A

level of dialogue and really all rooted in people wanting to live their values but understanding what does that mean in terms of how you have to show up individually the second piece is around self-awareness it's like i believe that who you are is how you

Speaker A

lead and so you know i think one of the one of the greatest barriers to being a strong and courageous leader is not fear but it's how we respond to fear and so you know covet is a moment where we

Speaker A

could all sort of wrestle with fear and like what is that going to mean in terms of us being more innovative and creative and think out of the box postcode and so that self-awareness pieces is something that we've been

Speaker A

talking a lot about and then thirdly um you know what personal skin in the game are people willing to bring to the table um i think when we talk about being strong leaders uh in the quest at least for hockey for

Speaker A

us to make our sport stronger and more welcoming you have to be willing to put something on the line and and to have some personal skin in the game and so we've really been challenging uh leaders across the nhl

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to talk about you know how can we be more vigilant in creating a culture not only where people feel safe and respected and heard but what does that mean in terms of what you have to give up uh and that's really how we've been

Speaker A

leading this conversation up and down the hockey ecosystem wow that's that's incredible and it's interesting how this theme is emerging you know around fear fear of looking self-promotional you know how do you respond to fear um and i think that that's a really

Speaker A

poignant you know word for for 2020 and the multiple things that we've we've all been facing together both personally and as businesses yeah so i would like to introduce randy next before we return to group discussion grandeur co-founder and chief brand officer of

Speaker A

bombas high growth mission driven from day one uh stock and apparel company uh randy people love your product i'm wearing bomb socks now and i think i tell you that every time we talk so i love it i love hearing that always

Speaker A

yeah and chris adam on yesterday i'm not sure if you're in bombas again today i know you got your but anyway i bring that up because you've got a great product right but i have seen um you really put

Speaker A

your mission forward in your messaging and in your marketing and i was hoping you could talk a little bit about how you balance that kind of product message in your marketing as well as the mission message in your marketing and

Speaker A

are you measuring this are you justifying it with data um yeah i mean all of the above i think for us we talk about the product and we talked about the mission since day one really those have been

Speaker A

the two foundational elements of our business a commitment to give back to the community where we all work and live and a high quality product and for our business i i don't think we would have success with our mission

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if the product wasn't great and people didn't trust us and come back a second time and i don't think that uh the other side would work either so both things need to sort of be operating at a high level and we've sort

Speaker A

of built in some tension um on the team around what comes first the mission messaging or the product messaging and what works and making sure that if something is taking the lead and the product messaging is showing up without any sort of

Speaker A

mission messaging that we're checking ourselves and the creative team and the marketing team and the brand teams are having a conversation around this and making sure that we're having that conversation i think creates better creative and it strengthens our commitment to the way

Speaker A

in which we give back and the infrastructure of giving that we've built over the past seven years got it and can you tell me a bit about uh your response to covet 19 and the murder of george floyd how did this

Speaker A

impact that machine of mission versus product how did it affect your communications your marketing your messaging what changed sure yeah you know what changed i think was uh cadence and um like attention to tone but what i think we realized in the

Speaker A

early days of kobit was our mission wasn't going to change the way that we were giving back wasn't going to change the need for product in the homeless community certainly wasn't changing so our obligation was as strong as ever

Speaker A

maybe stronger than ever i mean often times in times of crisis those who have the least need help the most and that certainly was true during covet and certainly true with the homeless community so making sure that people who were still

Speaker A

operating organizations and shelters were getting products and that we were communicating around how those shelters organizations groups that are giving partners who are working and how we continue to support them in that moment was really important and it was

Speaker A

important not only to close the loop for our customers and make sure they knew where that work was going and what was happening at that time but also as sort of a rallying moment for our team i mean as you can imagine people who

Speaker A

come to work at a company like bombas are very interested in having an impact and having something stable in that moment that related to the purpose of our company and the original idea of why we existed and being able to pressure test that

Speaker A

infrastructure and realize that it was solid and that we didn't need to really change anything just maybe move up or over communicate a little bit around the mission at that moment that's what changed it wasn't the message that changed it was the

Speaker A

frequency of the message and the reliance or importance of it i guess and yes we do measure with data i mean we were looking at our messages so far this year just on our email channel around our community uh efforts and you know

Speaker A

at this point last year we had sent about eight or ten messages just on email around this and this year so far we're already at 35 plus emails around around our mission so it's not new subject matter it's just

Speaker A

the way and frequency in which we're communicating makes sense and that's definitely been a common theme that we've heard is that nothing has changed it just made it that much more important and i love the word you used about

Speaker A

over communicating that's great that this is a time for sort of over communication and that's what the data is showing us and i've also noted that this year um bamas has been given more opportunity for people to join you in helping

Speaker A

whether that be with your partners or people experiencing homelessness and that feels like a shift can you talk a little bit about what um what caused you to move into that kind of creating a movement space for sure i think in terms of

Speaker A

some of our peer companies this was an interesting opportunity for us when people wanted to donate product earlier this year or had excess product whether that was sheets or masks or other things outside of socks they came to us

Speaker A

companies that we had worked with in the past and said how do we donate product and you know what are some of the regulations around shipping to different places and you know how do we physically do this i

Speaker A

think that's a challenge and a hurdle for some companies and we were able to tap into our infrastructure of giving our network and donate products on behalf of companies who are interested in getting products to the organizations the giving partners that we work with so

Speaker A

being able to open up that network to other companies was a a bit of a shift as you said and like a nice moment for us earlier in the year to be leading not just for our employees and for our

Speaker A

supporters but for other companies and peers that we work with we did an event a few years back called 60k day and the idea of that event was to highlight the fact that on any given night 60 000 men women and

Speaker A

children experience homelessness in new york city we wanted to bring together companies who care in new york to help out with that partner them with different organizations and shelters on one night donate 60 000 pairs of socks and create

Speaker A

links between companies and that was at the beginning of those types of efforts for us and you know covid accelerated the work with peer companies to help tap into our infrastructure of giving that's great yeah i mean we're back to that word of accelerating

Speaker A

this has been a year that's been tough but it's accelerated a lot of a lot of good work um and that's a good transition to introduce chris miller from ben and jerry's uh a well-known born and activism brand

Speaker A

with a powerful hippie founded story um chris we understand that your activism and purpose work is all about the values of ben and jerry's um but i was wondering if you could also share any data or findings that

Speaker A

show an roi to that approach yeah well thanks melissa for hosting and i'm super pleased to join kim randy and liz today so as you know our company was founded 42 years ago by as you noted to sort of counter culture

Speaker A

hippies um who who were really sort of part of a first wave of rethinking the role of business and and i think you know fairly soon after ben and jerry started the company they they realized that the company

Speaker A

could be more than just sort of a quirky fun ice cream company but the company really could be a a tool to advance their values and this idea of progressive social change and so that started what has been a long history of really

Speaker A

using the brand and and our connection to our fans and consumers to engage them in being a part of these campaigns that we run that seek to address some of the root causes that our societies face and and i'm super fortunate so i sit on the

Speaker A

social mission team at ben jerry's my background is in policy and advocacy i don't have an mba i'm not a marketing guy i've spent my career in mostly civil society but i'm super fortunate to work with what i think is a

Speaker A

fairly enlightened marketing team who understands that investments in the kind of advocacy campaigns we run we've been working the last four or five years broadly on issues of racial justice and and more specifically in the last two or

Speaker A

three years on the need to reform the criminal justice system that that spending ben and jerry's marketing dollars against strategies to reform our nation's criminal justice system does not compete with our need to sell ice cream and so what we know

Speaker A

and i'll be perfectly frank with you melissa it i feel a little icky talking about this sometimes because i think no part of this work for us is about the kind of roi that we see on this work

Speaker A

but i can tell you um that it does in fact deliver several things typically a sizable media spend focused on getting our fans or consumers to take an action in part of one of our campaigns has an roi that typically betters the

Speaker A

benchmark for the brand so so that kind of content performs better than just an advertisement promoting chocolate chip cookie dough um we often see particularly when we are focused in in particular geographic regions we spent two years working in the city of

Speaker A

st louis around a campaign to close a particularly retrograde prison that kind of work we see delivers sales lifts in those communities again i i it feels icky to talk about it in that way but i think what what is key for this is

Speaker A

that when you design in our case anyway when you design these campaigns that are focused on driving impact you have the added benefit of delivering roi and lyft on brand equity i was just on a literally on a call before i joined you

Speaker A

today to see some of our latest numbers that have shown a a significant increase in the number of people over the last year that are connecting specifically with our work around racial justice and i think you know ben had this insight so many

Speaker A

years ago that the strongest bonds that you can create with your with your fans is around a shared set of values right i mean it's randy's story it's it's it's all of our stories that people want to be a part of something

Speaker A

more than just buying more stuff they want to be a part of connecting with with these things that they care about in the world yeah i really appreciate you especially bring up that kind of feeling of feeling icky and it's worth kind of saying out

Speaker A

loud that you know we can all look to a day when you did good for good sake and there's the foundation the foundation sits on the side and it's a long way from your marketing message and it's it's tacky it's in bad taste you don't

Speaker A

talk about that stuff and that was really kind of the heart of what i you know really wanted to push on today which is that ultimately that's changed customers consumers want to know what you're doing but then part two really is that if we

Speaker A

as kind of impact individuals and we're all working hard on our causes can't tie business benefit to what we're doing or said a different way when we tie business benefits what we're doing we can make we can create more good we

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can reward shareholders and all the stakeholders and and do more good um when we can articulate the business case behind that and so um i've been sort of you know evangelizing for the last couple years this idea of let's talk about the

Speaker A

business good that comes out of it so that we can do more good um and i think this this year has certainly been an accelerant of that and um what have you seen since the onset of kova 19 in terms of business

Speaker A

growth and in terms of customer expectations what's changed well as i'm sure liz knows um it turns out that people who are spending a lot of time stuck indoors are eating a lot of ice cream and i'm sure many other things so

Speaker A

you know the company is has seen [Music] dramatic growth and um you know that that's wonderful i think you know it's also true that we there's a lot of need out there there there are you know that this in

Speaker A

addition to the global pandemic we have seen you know the last six months have have in some ways been more tumultuous than we have seen in quite some time and and you know as we run up into this

Speaker A

election it feels like there's just a lot of work to do so you know we we have had probably our biggest year ever in terms of engagement within our advocacy work we've had more people take action with ourselves and our partners

Speaker A

around this issue of criminal justice reform in the last year than we've had during any other year and so you know i think i think people are both hungry for ice cream but i also think hungry to be engaged

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in addressing some of these you know real structural issues that our society is wrestling with and i think we see our role as as helping our fans become a part of these movements and and and be a part of

Speaker A

um you know uh addressing some of these these big problems and so it it has been an accelerated year on sort of all fronts that are continuing that theme wow yeah and thanks for for sharing that kind of hunger of people to sort of take

Speaker A

action i think a lot of companies are focused on the good that they're doing but i know you've historically put a lot of effort into empowering people around action and creating movements outside of your walls um with that kind of very much movement

Speaker A

focus can you tell us a little bit about uh why it's important not only because obviously it's benefiting the cause but um how it benefits the business as well and sorry i know for an activist i'm throwing a lot of

Speaker A

roi questions at you but no i think i i think look i think we could be approaching sort of a tipping point here you've talked about the edelman study we we we all are seeing across our businesses consumer expectations are shifting

Speaker A

people are thinking differently about the role of companies and organizations in this moment and and and and i think this is likely not a kind of fleeting phase i think this is you know for better for worse increasingly going to be the future of

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commerce and so on on some level while some of us are looking at roi and able to point back to the fact that not only does this kind of work not detract or or or hold the business back it's an accelerator

Speaker A

i think increasingly people you know that this tipping point is the companies that aren't engaging in this way are are going to be lacking that roi are going to are going to be left behind and so i think

Speaker A

i think we're getting to a place where perhaps the kinds of discussions we're having here today will be much more common and the exception will be those kind of companies that are are are less engaged consumers aren't are just

Speaker A

expecting a citizens are expecting it and and there is a real opportunity that our organizations and companies and brands have because of the connection that that we have with our consumers particularly at a time when these kind of traditional institutions that

Speaker A

that have have lost um both trust and confidence of citizens and people and for better for worse that's a vacuum in which companies and brands like ours can step into yeah great um i appreciate that chris and i

Speaker A

can see a bunch of questions coming in from the audience but before i start with those i would love to just kind of hear everyone's kind of thoughts on what advice they would give uh the audience who will leave this and

Speaker A

and be kind of back to their work um kim let's pop back to you what what advice would you give the audience in particular um in industry that tend to be um less diverse what advice would you give in terms of

Speaker A

of next steps around dei yeah i i think this is uh this is a moment to turn this into a movement uh particularly for uh for brands and for organizations like the nhl that haven't historically wrestled with a lot of the issues um

Speaker A

around social justice racial justice uh the vulnerability that i talked about earlier you know is an important step in that journey uh and and sort of coming clean as as i often say to our leadership about you know what we

Speaker A

need to do to move forward and to turn emotion into action right here here's the moment for us to do that and for it to become a movement and for it to be part of of of a sustainable way

Speaker A

in which our sport is going to operate for years to come so i i would challenge those that are in the same space as the nhl to interrogate your own models to really make sure that this isn't just

Speaker A

the moment uh and to look at every aspect of your ecosystem and to say where can we do better what can we do better how can we be better yeah i love that um how can we be better

Speaker A

that it's really about a journey i think a lot of brands sometimes will be afraid to speak out because they feel like uh there's that they they aren't perfect and so there's fear of criticism and that that's a great segue

Speaker A

to to you chris because i know we've talked about this quite a bit and i can imagine that some people in the audience might be saying well we're not like ben and jerry's we didn't have the hippie founder

Speaker A

um sorry hippie founders but um i know you and i have also kind of talked about how ben jerry's isn't where it wants or needs to be from a sustainability even from a diversity perspective but you still get out there and talk about

Speaker A

that a lot so tell us about um we've talked about fear a little bit today but tell us about how you think about fear of criticism and what advice would you give there you know i think we're pretty

Speaker A

comfortable with being uncomfortable i think inherent in the work that we do is that there are people who agree with us people who don't disagree with us and and to your point we're not perfect we we have been

Speaker A

strong and forceful advocates within society for the need to to address the structural and systemic nature of racism to reform the criminal justice system and our company is headquartered in vermont which i believe is the whitest state in

Speaker A

the nation and our company looks very much like the community around it there you know there there is uh a tension in those things but i think you know what we believe the role of corporations and companies are is to

Speaker A

reflect the values and things that they're committed to inside their company and advocate for societal level change outside their company so if you care about climate change and you're working in your supply chain to reduce your emissions you know we could shut this company down

Speaker A

tomorrow and the planet's still headed over the cliff right we have to be a part of advocating for these wider changes outside the company and and when you do that you open yourself up to criticism i mean and that's just true but what i will

Speaker A

tell you is all the work we've done over the years all the positions we've taken whether it's in support of you know one of the first companies in support of marriage equality our support of the black lives matter movement

Speaker A

dating back to 2016. our call for you know leaving fossil fuels on the ground this company has grown year over year for 42 years from a dilapidated gas station a mile from where i'm standing now to a global company operating in 40

Speaker A

countries around the world so none of us need every person in the world to love our companies and brands what we want to do is build strong loyal you know consumers that have affinity and connect with our brands in a deep

Speaker A

way really well said thank you for that um we've got a couple minutes here left for questions but first liz um advice you're you're a huge company with lots of internal stakeholders what advice would you give for kind of getting those stakeholders on on

Speaker A

board to be vocal about the good work that you're doing yeah i would say um i'll have a bit of pragmatic advice to go with that which is to say know what makes an effective and persuasive case at your

Speaker A

company if that is data use data um if that is you know where wherever you find those effective cases being made use the tools you have to not take a no and create instead of a mitigation opportunity if for instance what's a part of that

Speaker A

conversation is i don't know i'm worried about looking self-promotional don't take that as a no we're not stepping out on this issue look at how you can mitigate that and make the case around mitigating that let's not lead with ourselves let's

Speaker A

partner with a an organization with credibility let's lead with them let's penetrate with consumers in a way that empowers them and brings action to the audience um look for those steps that can mitigate those concerns rather than letting any

Speaker A

one of those concerns be the reason not to engage on purpose um because just like you've heard from from this whole group that is where your your audience and your consumers want you to be no matter their demographics and no

Speaker A

matter what issue might resonate with them the most they very much want their companies um to be there so whether you're you're big or small if you're big and you have your own data and insights on your consumers you can pull in

Speaker A

the partner that we work with on the data and inside side morning consult has unbelievable resources for free on their website around um what brands best kind of perform with consumers around action right now whether that was open

Speaker A

commercials or black lives matter statements use the resources you have for whatever is going to make that compelling case internally and and customize it to your your space and your leadership because the story that works to tell it nestle

Speaker A

won't be the same story that works to tell it bombas or ben jerry's or the nhl um really the same way we know our external audience and want to connect with them know your internal audience um don't be

Speaker A

afraid to take up the issue be opportunistic where you see actions from your company that can make a bigger difference to bring forward for us that's been climate equal pay and and where you have those opportunities bring them forward

Speaker A

and then lastly know what you do and know who you are so um a lot of those sustainability actions are are things we do what we do internally on you and i on pay equity on paid parental leave

Speaker A

are things we do that we're proud of and we're and are very important in times of crisis we go to that core of who we are um so when when you're not finding the the route through i think going back to

Speaker A

that core of to your foundation who you are is something that could be really helpful in those those internal dialogues as well kind of strip away everything um get down to the meat of what's going to make an argument to your internal

Speaker A

audiences um don't be afraid to use data that doesn't have to mean it's expensive and bring it back to that kind of beating heart of your core identity yeah that makes a ton of sense and and i heard a sense of

Speaker A

be tenacious there as well yeah there's a lot of that i think everybody on this channel has in common uh randy as as a as a co-founder is there anything you would add to that in terms of influencing the c suite

Speaker A

yeah i mean listen this stuff has to be real you have to believe it as a company and you i think thinking long term is is super important right we want to build we want our grandkids to be wearing bombas and to do that you

Speaker A

have to be thinking about what's going to be important to your customers and customers that you don't have and prospects 18 months in the future two years in the future if you if you have the luxury of being able to think ahead

Speaker A

you know create the company that you want to exist in the world that's what the swiss the c-suite is there for and their job is to you know build that leadership throughout the organization empower people within the organization to bring

Speaker A

ideas that surround the core values and enhance who you are as a company everything should be about the values of the company and how that interacts with the world at large and that's the c-suite's job is to foster those values within the

Speaker A

organization great well i'd love to jump to a quick audience question before we run out of time i know we started a few minutes late so maybe we'll get a few minutes here at the end um so one of the questions from the

Speaker A

audience is is great how do you ensure you look genuine when communicating on purpose who wants to jump in i mean listen i'll jump in and just say that if you're not genuine it will be very obvious to everyone that that people have a

Speaker A

strong filter for this today thankfully so you know i think with marketing messages or anything you're putting out into the world if it looks like marketing that's the first way to say maybe something is wrong here communicate like

Speaker A

you would to a friend or understand what your tone of voice is as a company and be on that level and be real with people and don't commit the things that you can't back up with action oh sorry please no let's go in um i'll

Speaker A

add that in in addition to kind of bringing that genuine through think about what the clear intended action of seeing that communication is if the clear intended action is oh it's very clear this communication wants me to think that like

Speaker A

nestle's a good guy or it's very clear that this communication intended action is to make me go buy stoker's mac and cheese then that's not purpose-based communication if the clear intended action is this has connected me to an issue i

Speaker A

maybe didn't even see in my own backyard this has connected me to a nonprofit or a partner that i can contribute and make a difference i think thinking about that action piece of it is a big part of

Speaker A

kind of putting your your money where your mouth is on being genuine and driving to an action that is truly purposeful and i just add to that being consistent even when you don't get it right because sometimes you're not going to

Speaker A

get it right and people aren't going to be happy with the way you communicate you're going to get criticized but i think consistency is where gen where you build that trust and then people believe what you're saying and i think a theme to add to that that

Speaker A

has come out of multiple conversations around creating a movement around and empowering people to take action you know to the extent that that communication isn't one way this is what we're doing for purpose and i'm tossing it over the

Speaker A

fence which does risk backlash the extent that it's a two-way relationship with consumers to say this is what we're doing we're on a journey we're not where we want to be yet we're getting there join us let's do this together that i

Speaker A

think adds a lot of authenticity from a best practices standpoint no question great um this is a similar question but i think it um is worth worth asking because it's different there's been a number of instances where companies find a voice

Speaker A

on an issue i.e lgbtq ads how can a company avoid this while still trying to step up i mean i would just say i think root whatever it is you're doing and it's sort of reinforcing i think what

Speaker A

everyone has said here root root root that communication in something real and something tangible about who you are as a company a brand or an organization and so i think again it's not about appropriating a value you think is your consumers or

Speaker A

your fans right it's about it it's about sort of being willing to to put yourself out on something that you believe and and i think you know what consumers and citizens are increasingly looking for this kind of less virtue signaling and

Speaker A

and something more meaningful and substantial so not you know we've been longtime supporters of lgbtq rights marriage equality etc but simply turning one's brand rainbow around pride is is probably in this day and age a little on the thin

Speaker A

side and so i think be willing to be a bit bold be brave and and be willing to to step out on something that is rooted in something real and that you you believe and and i think to kim's point be ready and be

Speaker A

okay with you know sometimes getting it wrong well said so i'm just going to take one final question for the audience and then i think we need to wrap but this uh final question is when developing purpose what external

Speaker A

stakeholders did you engage to get their input and i think this is this is a great question we've been talking a lot about consumers and people um this this is a session about stakeholders so um over to you guys yeah i'll kick that off

Speaker A

because we're this is sort of new for us uh and and really new for the culture of hockey to bring external voices into the decision-making process um we put an architecture in place about a year ago of councils and committees around three

Speaker A

important stakeholder groups our youth our fans and our players uh and we now have 70 voices very diverse voices from across our ecosystems feeding into leadership ideas and uh and points of view many very different than the way we do things

Speaker A

now and we're decisioning and setting metrics and creating accountability around those voices and so for us that's how we're bringing voices into the decision-making process within the nhl that's going to have i think long-lasting effects on how the sport is seen both by

Speaker A

current fans and future fans for the long term great perspective does anyone else want to add to that the stakeholder piece it's it's many companies are reluctant to bring outsiders in because they feel as though they're not perfect or they will they

Speaker A

will be criticized or exposed and i think what what kim and nhl is doing is exactly right we we you know we want to put our organization in service of those who have been marginalized who are on the front lines

Speaker A

of these issues and we want to put our unique set of tools to to work in service of of of those who are impacted by these issues and so that's the trick it's it's counter-intuitive i think in many c-suites

Speaker A

but it it it it is the most authentic incredible way to engage on these kinds of issues you know to add on to that i think there's also always somebody smarter than you are at the things that you're trying to be

Speaker A

great at and being humble and open-minded about this is important for us like our early research came from talking to members of the homeless community right and then our giving partners are a tremendous source of wealth for us and

Speaker A

how to communicate and advocate for a community that we're trying to serve so a lot of this starts with someone who seems like they're from the outside and eventually maybe those people or partners in your organization and they feel like the inside so now

Speaker A

we have a giving partner network and they're part of our company as much as our employees are or our customers or even prospects so i don't know if you start with the approach that you're going to learn something

Speaker A

you're probably going to learn something and it will make you a better company i love that well a great way to to sum up these last comments um before we leave the audience is don't let perfection be the enemy

Speaker A

of good i know i've heard that directly out of blizz's mouth and chris in the past so um uh thank you everyone um for for joining us in the audience uh kim liz chris randy thank you so much for

Speaker A

carving time out and really being vulnerable and sharing what worked and sometimes it didn't and where your struggles were um i think that is is so helpful to everybody here so thanks so much and we'll look forward to

Speaker A

the next panel thank you thank you melissa thank you thank you guys what an excellent discussion and yes um we're continuing on this theme on engaging consumers as we go into the next discussion and we'll now look at the opportunities

Speaker A

of ways to inspire sustainable consumer habits through purpose-driven partnerships joining us now we have ann fink president of the global food service pepsico and dan was talking to our very own terry slavin editor-in-chief sustainable business at reuters events

Speaker A

over to terry

Topics:stakeholder engagementpurpose-driven businessconsumer expectationscorporate social responsibilityfood securityCOVID-19 responsebrand equitysustainability communicationracial justicedigital communication

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