James Greet launches The Payback Project in Australia, pushes sustainable ad spend
UK-based business The Payback Project, which helps the media and marketing industry deliver sustainable and responsible media, will launch in Australia with former media agency CEO James Greet at the helm.
Greet has opened the doors to the business locally which was founded by former Nestlé head of media communications, Steve Pollack.
Greet
According to the website, while many businesses are working on becoming more sustainable, the focus is on the supply chain and operations with “little or no thought” given to ad spend and how “one of the biggest areas of spend” could be invested in a more sustainable way.
Greet, former CEO of multiple large media agencies including Mindshare across JAPAC and OMD, told Mumbrella: “There is now acknowledgement that we have an issue, namely global warming… No one really denies it now. They are mainly saying, ‘So, what are we going to do to get started? How do I start?’ That’s where the majority of people are. So, it’s really quite simple to pick up what Steve’s done with his partners in the UK, bring it over here, and build on it.
“And the more of us that are doing this, I think probably in different places around the world, the faster the momentum that we can pick up is.”
Speaking from the UK, Pollack added, “What’s really important to understand is [we’re] not management consultants. We don’t come in and say, ‘You must do this, this, or this.’ That’s not what we do. What we do is we inspire them, we educate them, we influence them, and we lead them through.
Pollack
“We’ll probably come on and talk about our workshops, ‘the lab’, as we call it. But it’s very much about the individuals in the organisation thinking it through for themselves. And my experience in the UK is that you get much more positive long-term outcomes as opposed to someone who doesn’t understand the business as well as the employees coming in and saying, ‘You should do this, this, and this.’ So, it’s very much inspiring, educating, and leading them through a process.”
Greet has already soft launched The Payback Project in Australia, having had a number of conversations in the industry to see what the interest is.
“The last three or four weeks so far I’ve spoken to about 25 to 30 people,” he said. “The general consensus is we need to do something, but we’re not quite sure where to get started or we are doing something, but it’s limited to a silo within the business, and we’re really only addressing this or putting an action into place in one part of our business.”
For Greet and Pollack, it’s about pulling it out of the silos, making it a company-wide issue and even using strategies media and marketing professionals will be familiar with using externally, such as the use of influencers, on the company internally.
“One of the first things we do is help them understand that and recognise that it’s about building a team of motivated influencers within the business,” Greet said. “Which is why we usually end up helping a business define 20 to 25 individuals from across the company. So, every aspect and flavour of the business is represented.”
While the business will focus on the whole of the media and marketing industry, in the UK, Pollack has seen significant interest from media owners specifically since starting the business in January 2022.
Greet (second from right) will return to the Mumbrella360 stage with Pollack
“I’ll tell you the one thing that surprised me was, given my agency and then a big client background, I thought when I set the business up that advertisers would be queuing up for my pearls of wisdom,” he told Mumbrella. “As it happens, I’ve found most interest from media owners, particularly digital media owners. I realise what’s going on.
“What’s happening is big advertisers, big companies and smaller ones as well, are under a huge amount of pressure to reduce their carbon… They’re getting pressure from their shareholders, from their staff, from non-governmental organisations like Greenpeace, etcetera, and various other organisations.
“So, they’re going to their agencies. The agencies are rapidly getting into a place where they can help. But I’ll be a little bit provocative here. I think agencies were a little bit slow off the mark, my personal opinion. So, they’re going to media owners and saying, ‘Ah, help us. We need to reduce our clients’ emissions.’”
To further explain what The Payback Project is and provide more context around the current challenges and potential solutions, Greet and Pollack, who will fly in from the UK, will present a session at Mumbrella360.
Greet is contactable on JamesGreet@thepaybackproject.com.au.
Have your say