Industry’s Top Creative Agencies Unite to Take on Climate Change

NEW YORK (July 23, 2018) – Setting competition aside, 17 of New York’s top marketing, advertising and communications agencies partnered with leading climate scientists to apply consumer insights and creativity to motivate urgent and collective action to address climate change. The agency coalition, a 501(c)(3) organization formed under the name Potential Energy, now includes Barton F. Graf, CAA, Digitas, Droga5, Hill Holiday, Lippincott, Maslansky+Partners, MRM//McCann, m ss ng p eces, Oberland, One Hundred, POSSIBLE, Purpose, R/GA, WME, Work&Co and Zenith.

Potential Energy launched its first initiative in May 2018 with Donate:60, a student-organized nationwide campaign asking valedictorians and class leaders to donate sixty seconds of their commencement speech to the issues that matter most to their generation: action on climate change, safety from gun violence and equality across race, gender and sexual orientation. More than 250 students heeded the call to action spanning 136 cities in 24 states. The primarily digital campaign leveraged social media to amplify the message of #donate60seconds and reach hundreds of thousands of student voters across the United States.

“This effort is unique in the history of our industry,” explained John Marshall, President of Potential Energy and Chief Strategy Officer at Lippincott. “We’re mobilizing a previously untapped resource to take on what is arguably the greatest existential challenge we face as a society. From our vantage point as marketers, we believe America is close to a tipping point and we want to do whatever we can to get the right message out there.”

Working with other key non-profit partners such as the Alliance for Climate Education, The Brady Campaign and Women’s March Youth EMPOWER, Potential Energy agencies Barton F. Graf, Digitas, Droga5, m ss ng p eces, Lippincott and Zenith took their lead from 100 youth from across the country who created the call to action but needed help getting their message heard. The agencies provided pro-bono creative talent, brand design, web design, social media strategy, message development, video production, animation and more.

Potential Energy was incubated by the creative consultancy Lippincott and its Chief Strategy Officer, John Marshall in partnership with the Director of the Harvard Center for the Environment, Dan Schrag. Through a targeted portfolio of advocacy campaigns, Potential Energy aims to educate the public about climate change, simplify the language around what is needed to mitigate its long-term impact and mobilize action. The organization’s success over a five-year period will be measured by significantly expanding the size and power of the group of voting-age citizens viewing climate solutions as a number one voting priority, from 6 million today to over 10 million by 2023.

“Communicating the existential challenge of climate change has been an intractable problem for decades,” said Dan Schrag. “We are optimistic that bringing together the power of the very best skills on Madison Avenue can create the new approaches we need to motivate the public towards action.”

For more information on Potential Energy, please visit www.potentialenergycoalition.org.

Potential Energy Coalition, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) organization that harnesses the best marketing tools and most experienced marketers to motivate urgent, collective action on climate change. Through a targeted portfolio of advocacy campaigns, we aim to educate the U.S. public about climate change and mobilize people to act. Our mission is simple, and we’re putting the full force of the creative industry behind it: to rapidly accelerate active support for clean energy.

Monica Marshall
One  Hundred
646-935-3982
monica.marshall@onehundredagency.com