“Striking for Good”, a campaign run by SodaStream in collaboration with Maarc, was named best public relations campaign in France and won a SABRE Award 2020 at the EMEA virtual prize-giving ceremony held on 30 June.
SodaStream on strike for the climate
When the youth-led global Strike for Climate emerged, the company decided it too would strike for the climate. The brand shut down its global online retail activities for a day. It took just a few hours for SodaStream France to take the decision to ratchet up its support for the movement and to halt all its activities in France for a day: premises closed, meetings cancelled, telephones silent, and so on. Staff were given paid leave so that, should they choose, they could join the demonstration in Nantes.
Striking for Good perfectly illustrates the capacity for responsiveness and adaptability that is equally a feature of the SodaStream brand and the Maarc agency.
“We’re thrilled to win a SABRE Award, a first for our brand,” commented Antoine Dedobbeler, managing director of SodaStream France. “The trophy honours the sincerity of SodaStream’s commitment to educating French people about the importance of cutting down on single-use plastic, and it also celebrates our creativity and daring, values that are part of our DNA.”
“We very much value the faith SodaStream has shown in us,” adds Émilie Molinier-Ravage, associate partner at Maarc. “It allows us to tackle fascinating challenges every day, such as the Striking for Good campaign that was put together in no time at all thanks to the outstanding responsiveness of our two teams.”
Concrete results for brand image and activity
The Striking for Good campaign raised the profile of SodaStream’s fight against plastic waste caused by single-use items: 52% of French people believe that the SodaStream brand works for the environment, compared to 45% a year earlier.
SodaStream’s participation in the climate strike was noted by mainstream national media such as AFP, Le Parisien, France Inter and L’Obs. Coverage in all trade media from SodaStream’s industry also helped boost the brand’s image among its clients and key accounts, who all congratulated it for its stance.
The Striking for Good campaign and the spotlight it shone on SodaStream and its battle against single-use plastic led to a doubling of Google searches for the brand name the following day.
In-house results are equally positive: 98% of SodaStream staff in France believe that they work for a socially and environmentally responsible business.
