2007 year

• Search-led digital marketing agency Spannerworks

  Six years ago, you’d have been hard-pressed to find a public figure whose image was more tattered than that of former vice president Al Gore. Despite his long political career, the onetime Democratic front-runner seemed destined to go down in history as the luckless 2000 presidential candidate who won the popular vote, but lost the general election.
  Even before the defeat, his image wasn’t entirely positive; during the campaign, he was widely viewed as intelligent but bland, wooden and humorless. His occasional verbal stumbles didn’t help. Some statements were misquoted or stretched out of context. Most notably, Mr. Gore never claimed to have “invented the Internet.” He said he created funding for its development. But the divisive 2000 campaign left the impression — fairly or unfairly — that the candidate was given to exaggerating his achievements.

  When he went home to Tennessee after the election, he might well have settled into a relatively quiet life as a Democratic senior statesman. Instead, Mr. Gore — a longtime advocate of protecting the environment — hit the road, traveling worldwide to present his high-tech slide show on what he describes as an ongoing “planetary emergency” of global warming.

• In 2006, his book An Inconvenient Truth: The Planetary Emergency of Global Warming and What We Can Do About It, hit the best-seller lists. The companion film of the same title became one of the highest-grossing documentaries of all time and won an Academy Award. Mr. Gore was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for pushing policymakers everywhere to control climate change. (He’s also become a lightning rod for criticism from skeptics who question the science behind his slide show, but the opposition hasn’t derailed his crusade.) Today, the guy who, in his own self-deprecating description, “used to be the next president of the United States” has evolved into the world’s best-known environmental activist.

  Mr. Gore’s remarkable transformation from political afterthought to eco-celebrity is due largely to his cinematic performance. In contrast to his smart-but-uptight campaign image, he seems wise and well-informed in the film — as well as relaxed, funny, passionate and real. And this time, there’s no potential for misunderstanding his message: He believes global warming threatens the planet and must be stopped. That turnaround provides some valuable takeaway lessons for marketers who are serious about promoting their organizations’ own green efforts:

  Be sincere. “What’s made Al Gore successful is that people believe his concern is genuine, and he’s communicated it in a clear and consistent way,” says Lee Bodner, executive director of ecoAmerica, a Washington, D.C.–based nonprofit that focuses on marketing to raise public awareness about environmental issues. “People have a clear understanding of who he is and what he stands for.”

  Stay focused. Jacquelyn Ottman, a New York City–based consultant specializing in “eco-innovation and green marketing” praises Mr. Gore for honing in on a particular issue — global warming — rather than championing a broad range of environmental causes. “He’s stayed very focused,” she says. “And he was able to package that message in a clear, dramatic and interesting way.” She notes that Mr. Gore also continues coming up with new ways to promote his message, such as training 1,000 other presenters to travel the world delivering his slide show.

  Customize your message. Companies looking to emulate Mr. Gore’s marketing success must also follow the basic marketing tenet of tailoring their messages to the recipients’ interests. Rather than simply trumpeting their eco-friendly mindset, “they need to start from where their customers are and see how environmental concerns fit into their lives,” Bodner says. Ottman, who authored Green Marketing: Opportunity for Innovation, says that marketers must customize their messages for other audiences as well. “If they’re talking to Wall Street, they might show how the environmental technologies they’re investing in represent new business opportunities,” she says. “If they’re speaking to local officials, they might address how their efforts will benefit the community’s public health or generate new jobs.”

  Keep it real. Marketers need to be especially wary of exaggerating the extent or impact of their companies’ green initiatives. Says Bodner: “As they polish their images, any glaring inconsistencies between their statements and their practices are going to come to light.” The green marketing area is full of self-appointed watchdogs who will call a company out if it appears to be “greenwashing” — the labeling of products as environmentally friendly when they’re really not.

  Bottom line: the ongoing “perfect storm” of environmental concern and awareness offers businesses an unprecedented chance to do some good — and to look good while they’re doing it. “The media coverage of environmental issues isn’t diminishing, and that creates the opportunity for companies that have good environmental stories to communicate their messages,” notes Bodner. “And awareness is going to keep growing. People’s interest is only going to increase over time.”