This week's latest in video communications sees a renewed focus on CSR, sustainability and the environment. For more from #CommunicateLens, follow @Communicatemag on Twitter.

Boots

Chemist chain Boots worked with Ogilvy and WPP to launch ‘What the World Needs Now,’ a Christmas campaign created in response to the pandemic and society’s changing needs, and centred on acts of kindness, care and great value. The one-minute video focuses around Boots’ pledge to provide hygiene essentials to some of the millions of people in the UK living in hygiene poverty, with a donation of £1m worth of products to the Hygiene Bank. While the video tackles a delicate and important subject, the lack of hygiene products many people face even in a first world country like the UK, it does so in a light and humorous way. It features different hygiene products in characterised, animated form. There is an orange soap with a wide-eyed, melancholic expression, a blue blob of toothpaste, and a razor that winks at the audience as it runs on a leg.

“We know it’s going to be a different Christmas for people on many levels so we wanted to invest in a Christmas campaign that harnessed the true spirit of this year and people’s desire for kindness and care.  As a business we want to offer our support to an important cause that’s been accelerated by the coronavirus pandemic,” says marketing director of Boots, Helen Normoyle.

GVC

Global sport-betting and gaming group GVC  launched a video celebrating the company’s new vision for the future, which pledges to undergo its next phase of growth under its two core pillars of sustainability and growth. The video is a means to communicate to the public the new range of targeted initiatives, including a fresh corporate identity, a commitment to operating in 100% regulated markets and a new technology-driven customer protection. The momentum-filled music and exciting clips of different sports, from horse-racing to basketball, are used as an analogy to create excitement for what comes next. The video not only reiterates GVC’s brand purpose and showcases the services it offers, but also attracts the audience to its corporate website, which includes the full report outlining the company’s growth plans.

“We are absolutely committed to pursuing the highest standards of corporate governance, to providing outstanding career development opportunities for our colleagues, and to supporting the communities in which we operate.  Our clear strategy of prioritising sustainability and growth will allow us to achieve these goals, thereby providing long-term value for all of our stakeholders,” says Shay Segev, GVC’s CEO.

Jacamo

Menswear brand Jacamo partnered with Sky Media to launch a campaign that celebrates ‘big’ in all its glory while also showcasing the brand’s 2020 autumn/winter range. The campaign, aimed at men between the ages of 25-44, seeks to shift the perceptions of ‘fat’ to ‘big.’ It does this through a cinematic 10 -minute branded content piece that embraces natural beauty and draws parallels between big mountains, big trees, big open spaces and big men. The ‘Force of Nature’ documents Jacamo’s challenge and shows that big isn’t a matter of size, rather, it’s the true measure of a man who embodies values of strength and determination. Leveraging Sky Media’s access to talent, Jacamo enlisted well-known outdoor experts- including former SAS elite forces Ollie Ollerton and Jary Morton, and physically imposing former athletes Paul Olima and James Haskell- to race each other  against the backdrop of the Lake District armed with a Jacamo pack. The long-form content captures the huge physical challenges, authentic moments and men’s reactions along the journey, culminating in a chat over a pint down at the Jacamo Arms.

“Capturing the zeitgeist, we are excited to step out into the beauty of the great outdoors, which has been so greatly appreciated in 2020. During this time of lockdown, we’ve found escapism in our televisions and rediscovered the powerful benefits of nature for our mental health and wellbeing,” says chief brand offier at Jacamo Kenyatte Nelson.

Unilever

FMCG giant Unilever launched a new video to celebrate its corporate social responsibility, focusing on the ways in which its brands are committed to help make sustainable living commonplace, The three-and-a-half-minute video showcases people all over the world use different Unilever products in environmentally-friendly ways, as soundbites of news presenters in the background create a soundtrack outlining some of the major global issues of 2020, from the Covid-19 pandemic, to climate change related fires raging across Australia. Besides sustainability, the video is also a pledge to enhance Unilever’s diversity, ‘to build a culture as diverse and as remarkable as the people we serve,’ as the narrator says while people from different countries and ethnicities are shown working in various sectors across the world. The video reflects the company’s efforts to support the climate change plight and communicates to its stakeholders that the environment is a top priority on their agenda and they plan on doing better.