CSR practitioners in business are doing some navel gazing right now. With the current economic uncertainty, investments in general and CSR budgets in particular are being scrutinized more deeply.

CSR is an easy budget to cut but when CSR is broken down into an organisation’s responsibility towards its people, the planet and making a profit for its shareholders, it all makes more sense to real businesses. I believe you need to continue investing in CSR through a downturn because this is when the social, or people aspects of CSR become even more valuable.

The dreaded “R” word. Right now, smart businesses I know are taking the opportunity to streamline their business models so they can survive and hopefully thrive through a recession and this inevitably involves making decisions about costs. AI Digital has been one of those businesses and our decision making has been influenced by our claim to be a “champion of responsible business”, as winner of the BITC Small Business of the Year award in 2007 and as holder of Communitymark.

I, like many others, have recently had to make decisions about overhead cost reduction and budget cuts as we “trim our sails” in anticipation of turbulence in our customers’ markets. It’s made more difficult when young businesses like AI Digital have never known “challenging times” and many of our employees have never worked in an environment of reduced business confidence and rising unemployment. So in many ways, this is uncharted territory from both an employee and management perspective.

Fortunately, I feel I am in familiar territory having personally been through two recessions. I got my first job as a management trainee at George Wimpey plc in 1991 when the building industry was fighting for survival and I survived and then later in 2002 at BuildOnline.com when the dotcom bubble burst and I was made redundant. So I am acutely aware of the responsibility Companies have towards their people, shareholders and other stakeholders.

Ensuring decision making is legal is a “given” but whilst there is plenty of advice available regarding the legal compliance aspects of employment law and decision making (we use the excellent RBS Mentor service), there is a distinct lack of guidance on how to make ethical decisions in difficult times. How does a business “explore all opportunities to avoid the potential for redundancy” in order to genuinely come up with some options that could save jobs, yet still achieve the necessary cost reduction?

Back in July when we were supposed to be having a summer, the Board at AI Digital downgraded its revenue forecasts for the year (to growth of 40% instead of 100%) which necessitated a reduction in our breakeven level by around 30%. We had to do that whilst continuing to invest in account management and our quality improvement programme because we wanted to get even closer to our customers. We knew this would be difficult but we were also well aware that it had to be done.

It is commonly accepted good advice in this situation to “Cut hard, deep and early” yet it is very easy for the heart to be swayed by the emotional arguments for saving someone’s job despite the head presenting a strong counter argument to make sacrifices so that the rest of the business can survive to invoice another day. And this is where a culture of openness and trust, often brought about through CSR, can help companies to make the right decisions in difficult times.

In our case we had a series of team meetings where the financial forecasts were discussed and the requirement to reduce costs was quantified and explained with the result that a combination of changes were implemented including:

• A hiring freeze so no new recruits were employed
• Some Directors took a short term paycut
• Some staff volunteered to work fewer days
• Some suppliers reduced prices and eased terms
• Some staff re-trained to fulfil other new roles in client services and SEO production
• Closer monitoring of overhead budgets and efficiencies

The net result of this has been a reduction in the number of redundancies required to achieve the cost savings, a stronger understanding of the business by all staff and a better shared sense of being part of a team which is pulling together to be successful.

It would be untrue to say that morale was not a serious issue throughout this process however I believe that by sharing and being realistic about the situation, people are better able to understand how they can contribute and this reduces stress and improves satisfaction which improves morale from the inside out.

Trust is critical; it takes a long time to develop and can be lost in a flash. I’ve spent several years building a culture of transparency and openness with staff, customers, partners, suppliers and more recently, with shareholders and I believe that we’ve benefitted from that past investment throughout this process. The goodwill and mutual respect between employees has crystallised in everyone, including those under threat of redundancy, pulling together to continue working, to resolve problems, to win new business and deliver their best for current customers in difficult circumstances.

I recently read an interesting article by Professor Khalid Aziz, Chairman of the renowned Aziz Corporation who said, “In having to deal with and communicate bad news, a downturn exposes leaders who are muddling through without a plan. In the absence of full information, markets will assume the worst. Companies which refuse to come clean risk a steady and persistent drip of bad news. Businesses in difficulty should disclose their position early and in full. That way they can often allay the worst fears of the market, while demonstrating that they are on top of the problem and have a plan to deal with it.”

I believe you could replace “markets” in the quote with “employees”. And whilst I can absolutely sympathise with those who delay the process in the hope that things will get better or who fear sharing bad news with their team, I have learned in practice that open, two way communication reinforces business ethics, improves trust and can enable better decision making in difficult times.

I know that AI Digital is now stronger in terms of both people and profit performance and although we still have a long way to go, in terms of achieving our business ambitions, we now have a much better chance of being around to do something about the planet.

Bookmark this post here

Hide Sites

“While the troubles facing the finance industry have picked up the headlines this week, the impact of the credit crunch continues to be felt elsewhere in the economy. One assumption people have made is that consumers will be less inclined to make more expensive ethical purchases as their disposable income falls. The recent fall in organic food sales reported by supermarkets seems to back this claim up.

At Hitwise we believe that search behaviour is a great way of tracking consumer behaviour. So, to test the ethical consumption hypothesis we created four search term portfolios: Carbon/Environment (e.g. ‘co2 emissions’, ‘hybrid cars’), Efficiency (e.g. ‘loft insulation’, ‘underfloor heating’), Fair Trade (e.g. ‘fair trade clothing’, ‘charity shops’) and Organic Terms (e.g. ‘organic vegetables’, ‘riverford organic’).The chart on their post illustrates how searches for these four portfolios of terms have fared over the last year.

As you can see, the graph highlights a number of interesting trends. Firstly, the only one of the four to have experienced a significant increase over the last year was the Efficiency portfolio, perhaps not surprising given the rising price of fuel. The others have all declined over the last year, although only slightly. There are also clear seasonal peaks: Fair Trade searches peak at Christmas as people look for ethical gifts; while Efficiency searches increase during autumn / winter.
The table below lists the top sites receiving traffic from Efficiency searches, and these are a combination Government-related sites (e.g. Energy Savings Trust, Government Grants), fuel sites (e.g. Oil Price Check, Fuel Oil Direct), price comparison engines (e.g. uSwitch, Money Supermarket), and retailers that are well optimized for the terms (e.g. BoilerJuice, Screwfix Direct). The appearance of The Pension Service highlights the importantance of this issue to older people.

Concern about energy prices has also led to more people visiting utilties websites, presumable to check prices and change suppliers. As the chart below illustrates, UK Internet traffic to a custom category of electricity and gas suppliers has doubled over the last year.

Bookmark this post here

Hide Sites

AI Digital Ltd incorporates SiteVisibility (the 34th largest Search Marketing Agency in the UK according to the NMA Marketing Services Guide 2008*), Academy Internet (which is one of the UK’s leading e-learning consultancies) and AI Digital which specialises in web, social media projects and campaigns for charities and brands which practice “responsible business”.

AI Digital Chief Executive Jason Woodford said, “We aim for AI Digital to develop long term digital relationships with its customers. The new name represents the genuine step change in our capabilities which are underpinned by a £100k company-wide quality improvement programme and new dedicated project management and account management teams.”

Woodford continued, “Our customers have voted with their feet; following the merger in January 2008 of AI Digital’s Search Marketing division with SiteVisibility ( www.sitevisibility.co.uk ), that business has successfully secured 15 new Search Engine Marketing customers including Check4Jobs, Stannah, AAP, Cardsave and The Share Centre. These prestigious contract wins reflect the improved service levels which SiteVisibility is now able to offer its larger customers.”

During the same time, AI Digital has completed Web and Social Media projects for http://www.grassrootsfootball.co.uk/ and www.damovo.com as well as digital marketing campaigns for Neilson Active Holidays, Damovo and The Pension Regulator.

And Academy Internet ( www.academyinternet.com ) has re-launched as a specialist e-learning design and development consultancy, winning new and repeat business from May Gurney, the Department of Health, National Trust and Fujitsu since the beginning of the year.

The three AI Digital divisions have a unique understanding of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR - Academy Internet won the prestigious Business in the Community Small Company of the Year award in 2007 on account of the excellence of its own CSR programme.) which gives them the insight to interpret the aims of Charities, Not for Profits and Brands with strong CSR commitments to implement high impact integrated digital CSR campaigns which use a combination of Digital, Search Engine Marketing and e-learning to maximise awareness, engagement and reach online.

As part of the re-launch of the business, Courvoisier (AI Digital Chief Executive Jason Woodford was nominated into the prestigious Courvoisier Future 500 (http://observer.guardian.co.uk/cvtf500/story/0,,2215276,00.html) in 2007) treated AI Digital employees, customers, partners and friends to a new Courvoisier cocktail called the “AI Digital”, created by expert  “mixologists” at the brand launch party in Brighton on the 11th June 2008.

The whole team will be moving to a new spacious office in central Brighton and an innovative range of employee benefits are being released to staff as part of the company’s mission to become the best place to work in digital media in Brighton.

* NMA Marketing Services Guide 2008 – note Site Visibility 2007 turnover excludes AI Digital’s own Search Engine Marketing 2007 turnover of approximately £325,000 and the combined business’ media spend in excess of £1m. Adding these 3 figures allows a meaningful comparison with other agencies on the NMA Marketing Services Guide 2008 listing.

Bookmark this post here

Hide Sites

Why is AI Digital talking about CSR you may wonder? The reason is that we’ve discovered that operating our business in a responsible way has created huge business benefits for us. It has allowed us to punch far above our weight as a small business, made us a more attractive employer and given us something in common with enterprise level businesses.

Last year we were awarded ‘Business in the Community - Small Company of the Year 2007’. (The “Big Company” was the mighty BT, you may have noticed the BITC logo on their envelopes). Its big deal and it has given us something to shout about and allowed us to rub shoulders with others who share our values.

Our top 10 CSR tips:

1. Audit what’s happening right now You’ll probably find you are already involved in some CSR activities even if you don’t call them that i.e. they have some element of responsible business practice covering the community, environment, workplace or market place.

2. Try to gain commitment from senior management to ensure things don’t happen in an ad hoc fashion, it’s important to get buy in from the top down – maybe name a few competitors and customers who are engaged!!

3. A great way to gain management attention is to measure your current spending – we found we were spending 50% of our net profits, which prompted immediate action…

4. See what your customers are involved in, if there are some shared interests, this could be a great way to build relationships with them and get your sales and marketing team onboard - research the CSR interests of your customers.

5. If you want to communicate your aims and how you’re going to get there, what it’s going to cost and who you need to help you, you’ll need to build a CSR Strategy.

6. Our time saving advice is to get help and work with someone who has done it before, like your local Business Community Partnership or BITC representative.

7. You need to ensure your team knows what you’re trying to achieve so they can figure out how they can participate and get involved, so don’t forget your internal communications plan

8. Build links with other businesses including customers and suppliers build your own local network of other businesses with similar aims. You might even call it networking and generate some business!

9. Involve employees and appoint a champion for each area of your CSR strategy- community, environment, workplace, market place. This will help steer the activities, keep you focussed on achieving your aims whilst maintaining momentum.

10. Build CSR into the every aspect of your business including the business plan, your budgeting process, personal development plans, marketing plan, PR plan, innovation plan, R&D, supply chain and so on. This will embed CSR deep into your company culture.

And lastly and most importantly, make sure you have lots of fun!!!

Bookmark this post here

Hide Sites

So what does AI Digital do?; we’re about building long term digital relationships and providing multiple award winning services for clients including the National Trust, Fujitsu, Stannah, Specsavers, Cancer Back Up, ECPAT, Home Office, UNICEF, Department of Health, Damovo and others who share our values.

Back in 2006, AI Digital’s e-learning division Academy Internet engaged with the Brighton and Hove Business Community Partnership (BCP) to help us achieve the Business in the Community (BITC) CommunityMark. We did an audit on what we were currently doing and found that we were spending 50% of our net profit on random donations, contra deals, discounts and pro bono working with no measurable benefit to the company whatsoever and with depressingly minimal impact on those we donated to. We identified an opportunity to have a more significant impact by being strategic about our CSR.

The Three Themes of Education, Environment and Employee interests
We decided to pull together a strategy which allowed us to focus our investment into three themes; Education, Environment and the personal interests of Employees through 4 CSR Partner organisations:
Education theme: University of Brighton – AI provide work placements, course sponsorship and other support in exchange for exposure to top digital media talent to fuel our growth
Education theme: Young Enterprise – AI provide tutors, presenters and support for Young Enterprise projects, particularly at the local Falmer High School; helping AI staff to build their confidence with public speaking and organizational skills
Environment theme: Sussex Wildlife Trust – AI provide internet marketing support including e-newsletter production in exchange for environmental and development opportunities for staff
Employee Interests theme: Action for Change – AI are working with this alcohol abuse advice charity to convert some of its intellectual property into e-learning with the potential for generating sustainable long term revenues

Building a better business through Trust. Leadership and People - As a Director and business owner, the drivers for paying attention to CSR lie beyond the moral arguments which are difficult to disagree with. In business today Trust is the most cherished prize we can earn from our customers yet it is hardest to win and incredibly easy to lose in a flash. Our CSR work helps to build trust with employees, potential employees, customers, prospects, suppliers, investors and other stakeholders. We have enjoyed, having won the BITC award, taking a leadership position amongst SMEs and the digital sector on CSR issues which has improved our reputation and opened up new opportunities. And lastly, being a People business, I know our current and future employees want us to be involved in CSR and that enthusiasm can be harnessed in the workplace to help build a better business.

Bookmark this post here

Hide Sites

• How is the product sourced, and what is its supply chain?
• Is it bought locally, or does it need to be imported? The further a vegetable travels to get from field to plate, the higher the cost to the environment in terms of congestion, accidents and pollution.
• How responsible are the employer credentials of the product’s manufacturers and suppliers? Can you be sure your clothes haven’t been stitched by children working in cottage industries across Asia?
• Distribution and logistics – How has the product been shipped to the end customer? If a courier company is used, does it have green credentials to offset its carbon footprint? Is there a single depot with airfreight going out everywhere, or are there multiple depots allowing for local distribution?
• What about the packaging used? We all know that plastic doesn’t biodegrade quickly and remains in the environment for a very long time. This presents a real danger to marine and birdlife. How much plastic wrapping, Styrofoam padding and staples are used? Is it far more than necessary, and does the consumer even want this?
• What guidelines do shippers give to end consumers about recycling the packaging, and is the cardboard used easy to recycle? If the cardboard is coated with wax for instance, it often cannot be recycled.
• How energy efficient is the ecommerce/ hosting set up? Check out RackSpace new Green Hosting product
• How efficient is the software and can processing requirements be reduced?
• Have they reduced their server and processing cooling requirements?
• Do they use a renewable energy supply?

Bookmark this post here

Hide Sites

7. Build a team – find out who amongst your work colleagues, suppliers and customers shares your interest and form a team to share the workload.

8. Make a Plan – work out what you want to achieve and how you plan to get there. Design a structured one year plan with objectives, timelines and people with designated responsibilities.
9. Green alternatives - Does your marketing encourage mass consumption? Think about how you might minimize the environmental impact of its production, distribution and disposal and / or produce a more durable “low carbon” or environmentally friendly alternative.
10. Packaging waste  – ask your suppliers to come up with some eco friendly alternatives which minimize wasteful and excessive packaging and eliminate oil based plastics and toxic inks.
11. Move your marketing and distribution online! Online marketing uses no paper, requires no road transport and in many instances provides a better return on investment (we would say that wouldn’t we!!) We’ve provided some innovative marketing ideas in Section XX “Internet tools for CSR Brands and Advertising Agencies” for your Ad Agency to consider in future campaigns.
12. Green your supply chain – ask all of your suppliers (from stationary and print to SEO and web design) what they are doing about Climate Change and give preference to those taking positive action. Their good work will reflect well on you.

13. PR and Communications campaign – be sure your CSR activities have substance and deliver tangible benefits; if they do, make the most of it, the media have an appetite for news like yours.

Bookmark this post here

Hide Sites

1. Cause related marketing using our unique Learn and Donate™ e-fundraising package where you can raise funds for your chosen cause online
2. Digital campaign management and production – a fully managed service applying AI Digital skills and CSR insight for the production of high impact digital campaigns on social, environmental and ethical issues for charities and CSR brands
3. CSR Reputation management - Use Search Engine Optimisation (also known as SEO) to ensure that it’s your website, blog or message which is found on Google for terms and issues which are important for your organisation.
4. Customer education – use websites, blogs, podcasts, social networks and e-learning to engage and educate your customers about your CSR issues
5. CSR Reporting and Communications using websites and social networks, blogs, video and podcasts, webcasting platforms
6. Employee and stakeholder training and engagement – share your objectives with stakeholders, engage your workforce and initiate behavioural change with award winning, bespoke e-learning on CSR issues including climate change training, carbon emissions, diversity and equality training, environmental training, health and safety training, sustainability training, waste management training
7. E-learning for CSR topics (like Environmental and sustainability communications) to educate and motivate your staff by Academy Internet www.academyinternet.com , AI Digital’s e-learning experts (see training)
8. Green Supply chain management - “green” your supply chain for internet, e-learning, marketing and media services by choosing AI Digital, national winner of the Business in the Community Small Company of the Year in 2007.
9. Stakeholder communications and reputation management using a blend of blog monitoring, search engine optimisation, podcasts, webcasting and email communications
10. Web and social media site design, build and promotion – Engage and communicate online with  search engine optimised websites,  online communities and social networks
11. Search Engine Marketing by award winning Search Marketing Agency and AI Digital group company Site Visibility www.sitevisibility.co.uk
12. Viral marketing campaigns on CSR issues including the creative input, digital production, seeding and reporting
13. Online charity auctions - where inventory is donated by your supporters, the auction process is managed for you and you receive the proceeds. Both the supporters and Charity benefit from recognition throughout the process which involves minimal administration or management.

Bookmark this post here

Hide Sites

Over the years, I’ve met many marketing people who would have me believe that marketing (as a professional discipline) is entirely value-free and entirely neutral… I have difficulty with this, from a sustainability perspective, in as much as it may be true, on a case by case basis, but the cumulative impact of billions of corporate dollars spent marketing their products, year after year after year, stimulating, reinforcing and exacerbating people’s consumerist fantasies, is almost wholly pernicious – especially when it’s directed at children.

Jonathon Porritt, Founder Director of Forum for the Future & Chairman of the UK Sustainable Development Commission

This is a strong opinion and certainly one which proves highly controversial amongst Marketers. That said, despite being a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM), a Chartered Marketer, member of the CIM Sussex Committee and CIM member for over 15 years, I agree with Mr Porritt.

Marketers will agree that Marketing is the greatest source of shareholder value of all professions (:)), however, as highlighted by Jonathan Porritt, Marketers drive consumption, and unnecessary consumption is causing the depletion of natural resources and the pollution of our natural environment. Marketers, given their powerful role as influencers of how we all spend our money, have the opportunity to provide a solution. The benefits available from numerous case studies provided on the www.bitc.org.uk website and elsewhere include increased sales and market share, strengthened brand positioning, enhanced corporate image and clout, increased ability to attract, motivate and retain employees, decreased operating costs and environmental / health and safety liabilities and increased appeal to investors and financial analysts.
According to Wikipedia, Marketing is..”concerned with anticipating the customers’ future needs and wants, which are often discovered through market research” . So, by adopting a “leading edge” approach to CSR including the research into customers needs and developing new ethically produced low carbon products and services, Marketers have the potential to uncover entirely new revenue streams for their organizations. If you’re struggling for ideas for your own business, email me at jason dot woodford AT ai-digital.com
Whilst admitting we have a long way to go and questions persist about the some of the green claims being made, major businesses are taking advantage of green and environmentally friendly propositions:

Green advertising by EDF Energy, Diesel, Tesco, Waitrose, McDonalds who are keen to communicate their green credentials,
Renewable energy company Ecotricity’s customer base is growing by 50% per annum
Grocery packaging manufacturers switching from oil based plastics to new cellulose based alternatives required by retailers
Dyson produced the “Air Blade” which is both more effective at drying your hands yet uses less than a quarter of the energy of its traditional “hot air” competitors
The unprecedented success of Toyota’s hybrid Prius has spawned hybrid versions of other Toyota and Lexus models and encouraged most of the competition to offer alternatives
AI Digital has listed below 13 simple ideas to help Marketers to engage with CSR in order to achieve their marketing and business goals.

Bookmark this post here

Hide Sites

• Choose the issue - identify the key issue (s) for your charity, say Prostate cancer advice and awareness amongst middle aged men and their partners
• Messaging - clarify the key message you want to get across, “be aware of symptoms namely waterworks problems if you’re male and 40+ and get yourself checked by your GP”
• SEO - work out the most popular keywords used on search engines for your key issue and engage a Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) consultant to ensure that your website ranks well for those keywords and terms.
• Audience profiling and Linkbuilding – ask your SEO consultant to establish links with other sites where your target audience congregate deploying useful copy, online adverts and news articles.
• Web Platform – ask your web designer to prepare your website for eCommerce and social networking functionality including movie and audio files, blogs, podcasts, forums and chatrooms
• E-learning development - uncover any materials you may have which can be turned into a short, informative and engaging e-learning course and engage an e-learning developer to design the course for you
• User Journey analysis – map out the user journey from searching on the web, finding your site, choosing your site over the competition, engaging with you via the social networking or e-learning functionality, starting and completing the e-learning course, understanding the issues better and warming from just being interested to becoming motivated about the issues, then as a result of that greater engagement, agreeing to donate or join your charity via the eCommerce facility. In the background you will be gathering the customer data for future marketing communications purposes. Ask your web designer to optimise the design in preparation for the development phase.
• Design, build and test Learn and Donate™ – Implement the e-learning course onto the e-commerce enabled web platform, undertake load testing and final user testing then ask your internet marketing consultant to launch the marketing campaign
• Viral marketing campaign – take a section of the e-learning course (maybe the movie element) and seed launch (to their seeding list as well as your membership) an online marketing campaign with the message, “pass this on to every man you know, it might save his life”
• Campaign analysis – your internet marketing consultant will evaluate the response to the marketing and adjust activities to do more of what’s working well and change or stop things which aren’t working. This will involve checking your web analytics system which was installed onto your web platform.
• Return on investment (RoI) calculation – calculate how much it costs to generate each £unit of value using Learn and Donate™ and compare to other fundraising techniques used
• Learn and Donate™ Maintenance – meet with your AI Digital account manager who regularly discusses and updates the campaign plan with you, working as a team to constantly improve the impact and results.

AI Digital is uniquely placed to manage the entire process using specialist skills from group companies Academy Internet www.academyinternet.com (e-learning and digital communications), Site Visibility www.sitevisibility.co.uk (SEO, PPC, Social Networking) and of course within AI Digital who provide the campaign planning and management, project co-ordination, account management, we design, build and internet marketing thinking. Charity clients get a single point of contact at AI Digital who manages the entire process and team of experts whilst acting as part of your internal marketing team.
The USP of Learn and Donate™ for charities is that their potential donors receive knowledge and support in exchange for their donation, which is significantly more impactful and engaging than a leaflet or newsletter. Furthermore, having learned about the issues, the potential donor is more inclined to donate and the average donation amount could be expected to increase as well.
In a further “value add”, Charities still deliver their marketing message as well as building their member database, generating revenue and reducing the cost of ongoing member communications which can now be done through the online community, via email, RSS etc.
AI Digital offers innovative financing options for Learn and Donate™ campaigns.

Bookmark this post here

Hide Sites