The Ethical Agency

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Communications Specialist of a food waste reduction nonprofit

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Our initiative aims to prevent and reduce food loss and waste by half by 2030. The initiative was launched on the 29th of September 2020, as an outcome of a series of dialogues that involved over 500 stakeholders in the South African food system.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire The Ethical Agency to accomplish?

• Run our first public facing awareness campaign
• Help build our social media presence outside of LinkedIn
• Build a campaign landing page that can be reused/reskinned as needed for future campaigns

SOLUTION

How did you find The Ethical Agency?

Referral

Why did you select The Ethical Agency over others?

• High ratings
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from The Ethical Agency were assigned to this project?

6-10 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

Building a Strong Organic Presence: Establish and nurture active profiles on key social media platforms relevant to your target demographics. Develop engaging and visually appealing content including informative posts, short videos, infographics, and interactive polls/quizzes.

Strategic Paid Social Media Campaigns: Implement targeted advertising campaigns across selected platforms to reach specific demographic segments based on factors like age, location, interests, and online behaviour. 

Influencer Marketing: Collaborate with relevant influencers who have an engaged audience to push the campaign goals. 

·        Identify influencers with a genuine interest in sustainability, food, or lifestyle topics. Influencers that are not food focused could arguably be better since they would be reaching the target audience with new messaging that isn’t present in their content. They may not be speaking to the converted.

·        Develop clear briefs outlining key messages and desired actions.

·        Explore various collaboration formats such as sponsored posts, stories, reviews, or participation in online events.

Website/Landing Page: Redirect people to the Food Loss and Waste microsite hosted on the Consumer Goods Council of South Africa’s website. This will serve as a central hub for information, resources, and our calls to action. 

Video Content: Produce engaging video content, which can be highly effective in conveying information and evoking emotion. It is critical to make use of subtitles and captions to ensure accessibility. The South African Food Loss and Waste Initiative also has an archive of b-roll and interviews that could be used in the creation of video content.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Awareness levels of food waste issues within the target audience (surveyed before and after the campaign launches). Targets were set based on baseline awareness levels.

Reach across the various platforms used. Metrics for targeted reach adapted as the project went on as initial targets were met way ahead of schedule.

Engagement with campaign content across all channels. Same as above, these metrics had to change to become more ambitious due to the initial success of the project.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

The team was professional and were excellent in their delivery.

We had a couple of major delays due to internal processes and The Ethical Agency worked to accomodate us, while still delivering quality work on time.

Regularly schedule check-ins help move the project along, and all our needs/specs were met by their team.

What was your primary form of communication with The Ethical Agency?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Their commitment to sustainability is one of the main reasons we picked them. They understand our industry very well and were up to date on best practice. They really walked the talk on this.

Their team was also very good at helping us problem solve and strategise. Turn around times were quick and very specific needs were always accomodated.

Are there any areas for improvement or something The Ethical Agency could have done differently?

None that I can think of post project.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Communications & Publications Manager of GreenCape

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

GreenCape is a not-for-profit company that drives the widespread adoption of economically viable green economy solutions in Africa. We work with businesses, investors, academia and government to help unlock the investment and employment potential of green technologies and services, and to support a transition to a resilient green economy.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire The Ethical Agency to accomplish?

• Graphic design of our publications including our flagship market intelligence reports
• Website hosting and maintenance

SOLUTION

How did you find The Ethical Agency?

LinkedIn

Why did you select The Ethical Agency over others?

• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost

How many teammates from The Ethical Agency were assigned to this project?

6-10 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

I have been fortunate enough to work with Brett and his team from the Ethical Agency. Aside from providing a really first-class design and website management service, Brett and his team also focus only on working on brands that promote an environmentally sustainable and socially inclusive present and future. I admire the morality of this approach, and I look forward to continue working with TEA in the years to come

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

All MIRs designed and published

Active, functioning websites reflecting upgrades

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

They have always delivered on time, often meeting challenging project timelines.

What was your primary form of communication with The Ethical Agency?

Virtual Meeting

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Brett and his team focus only on working on brands that promote an environmentally sustainable and socially inclusive present and future. 

Are there any areas for improvement or something The Ethical Agency could have done differently?

No

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Head of Marketing & Communications of GCX

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We guide and support some of the largest and most complex organisations, across a range of sectors, to drive sustainability throughout their value chains.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire The Ethical Agency to accomplish?

• Website Design
• SaaS Platform UI Design
• Expo stand artwork design

SOLUTION

How did you find The Ethical Agency?

Referral

Why did you select The Ethical Agency over others?

• Great culture fit
• Referred to me
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from The Ethical Agency were assigned to this project?

6-10 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

The Ethical Agency provide us with a range of services. Some have been once off projects such as brand design, website development and design. Others are on a retainer basis such as paid search management.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

There were a range of outcomes, these include -

Improved website functionality and design

User friendly UI design 

KPIs for paid search

KPIs for GA

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Yes the agency delivered all the projects in an effective manner.

What was your primary form of communication with The Ethical Agency?

Virtual Meeting

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

We like how they understand our industry and their willingness to stretch the scope boundaries to accommodate our requirements. 

Are there any areas for improvement or something The Ethical Agency could have done differently?

No we are satisfied with their work ethic and deliverables. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Communications manager of IPES-Food

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

A think-tank delivering research, reports and writing guiding action for sustainable food systems around the world.
 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire The Ethical Agency to accomplish?

• Beautiful and impactful design for our latest report

SOLUTION

How did you find The Ethical Agency?

Referral

Why did you select The Ethical Agency over others?

• High ratings
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from The Ethical Agency were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

Delivery of a high quality report design and layout, plus 10 infographics and social media banners

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Design delivered on time & meeting our specifications

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

They were excellent, communicative, clear and adaptable to our shifting timelines and needs

What was your primary form of communication with The Ethical Agency?

Email or Messaging App

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

The 'head in the cloud' report looks just absolutely fantastic - many of our partners have commented positively on the style and look - especially the front cover design; and the infographics. So thanks to Ethical Agency for the hard work and making it all run so smoothly. Also for their patience, as I know this was difficult to get right! 

Are there any areas for improvement or something The Ethical Agency could have done differently?

We'd love them to help us more with infographic conceptualisation