I was surfing on plastic, packaging, bio-based, chemical, etc. media websites looking for bioplastics related articles and something struck me: there was no bioplastics advertising at all. I mean … none at all.
In the contrary, when reading bioplastics articles, I saw non-relevant ads such as ‘comparing the price of your car insurance’, ‘how some celebrities were looking today’, etc. I call it junk ads.
However, there were some more relevant ads: ‘Anti-plastic ads’ by NGOs, chemical recycling ads and plastic recycling ads.
Even when you’re looking for bioplastics, the chances are hight that you will be confronted with ads that have nothing to do with bioplastics in the best case, or ads that will discourage, distract or suggest alternatives in the worse case.
I can speak from own experience: the bioplastics industry is not really a marketing savvy or marketing centric industry. I thought there were just greedy with me but they just don’t play the game with the other media outlets too.
Why?
There are a couple of reasons why bioplastics marketing went ‘south’.
- Technical backgound
Most marketeers working in bioplastics have a technical and engineering academic background. They ‘re technical marketeers, engineers that have been hired in the sales and marketing department.
Having spoken to many of them in the last 10 years, I can conclude the following: I don’t know what they’re saying, I mean … I don’t understand what they’re saying … after 10 to 15 seconds they lose my attention because I don’t understand what they’re saying.
- Public Relations
The bioplastics industry is also run by PR people and they’re also in charge of the marketing. PR people are not marketing people. Most PR people don’t know how to spend money; it’s just not in their genes. And marketing is about spending lots of money into something abstract called: media space. Let me re-phrase this: One of the most important occupation of marketeers is to spend money. Not like in: can we spend money? No, like in … you have to spend as much money as possible.
- Lobbyists and Politics
The bioplastics ‘marketing’ is also run by ‘political lobbyists’.
Having worked in public and government affairs in the past, I have never seen as much politics as in bioplastics and this was initiated by the bioplastics lobbyists (independent lobbyist or lobbyists working for association / federations).
Steve jobs said it well: ‘In weak companies politics win. In strong companies best ideas do’
Some lobbyists have it written in their contracts, in diplomatic wordings, that their goal is to push competing technologies off the edge.
One of the hard consequences of ‘politics’ in Bioplastics is that the definition of ‘Biodegradable vs Compostable’ has become so … let me use a hard word here … ‘toxic’ that is has become a ‘bucket of crabs’, a can of worms …that every normal person would want to keep away from …. an entanglement of political and individual interests that you hardly can make the difference between heads or tails. It has become a Rubix cube that is constantly shifting in all directions. You take it in your hands, and you’ll be burned.
- Germany
Bioplastics has a strong German accent…. German associations, German lobbyists, German PR people, German marketing … and the Germans think local and act local. OK, I admit, I’m a bit stereotyping here …. but you know what I mean. Germany is run by all those little rules that makes the German comfort zone as wide as my TV room.
- Digital Marketing
Bioplastics has been focussed on traditional marketing such as paper magazines and trade fairs. However, the last 10 years have seen a marketing revolution due to digitalisation and digital media. It’s all about digital now. And most of the important bioplastics gatekeepers didn’t get that; they still hang strong to that paper magazines that nobody reads. They still hang strong to those trade fairs and industry summits were we always see the same speakers talking about the same topics over and over again. You’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all. And I invite you to go to one of those conferences. It’s going to be boring ….
- Media
In the past, we were dealing with mainstream or official media outlets who hired people dressed in suits, who wore glasses and who were ‘intellectuals’. They knew the subject more than the client. You told them what you wanted and they told you how much it would cost.
Now, modern digital media is run by disruptors, rebels and influencers. They have no clue what you’re talking about but they want to know what is your budget, and they’ll tell you what you’ll get.
- Legislation
EU SUPD didn’t help much. It helped serving the political agenda of banning OXO but for the rest, I’m not really sure if it helped bioplastics in general.
Now, we have to consider the EU anti-greenwashing law as it may become illegal to advertise bioplastics in the future.
Can it change?
Well, it could have been done differently at the early beginnings of bioplastics. The million dollar question is: can it change? Can it be revolutionised? Can we make a U-turn?
In theory, yes.
In practice, it’s very hard due to the corporate culture of the bioplastics industry, the bioplastics politics, the egos and self-interest attitude of the gatekeepers.
Then again, it’s always easier to criticise as a bystander than to actually play on the pitch.
What I know is that I would have done it differently. Always trust newcomers, and the most junior people within the industry or company.
Jeff Bezzos once said: At amazon, it’s always the people with the lowest seniority who speak first, because the people with the highest seniority will always agree with what the CEO has to say and keep the status quo.
- Coca-cola
A classroom example of how it should be done would be: Coca-Cola. Coca-cola didn’t get its fame and notoriety because of technical engineers, PR people or political lobbyists…. it was because of marketing and advertising. Coca-cola understood like nobody else how the machinery worked and that they had to innovate and spend marketing dollars to remain on top of the consumer’s minds. Even if Coca-Cola is the world’s most recognisable brand, they keep spending more and more in marketing and advertising every year.
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