​Thomas Kolster on the business of doing better

Thomas Kolster is first and foremost a creative strategist, but he’s many other  things besides. He’s a pioneer of the ‘goodvertising’ movement – aka advertising delivering positive environmental or societal benefits – and the go-to expert on sustainable marketing and brand transformation.

He’s advised everyone from Fortune 500 companies to governments. He’s a bestselling author; a keynote speaker at the likes of TEDx and SXSW; a frequent Cannes Lions judge; and an entrepreneur. He sits on three industry councils – D&AD Impact, Act Responsible and the International Advertising Association’s Sustainability Council – and even hosts his own YouTube show, Climate Punk.

We keep forgetting. We’re having the same conversations around greenwashing I was having 15 years ago.

He also has a healthy (and ironic) sense of humour. Our interview takes place on an unseasonably warm morning in April, and while the icebergs are melting and microplastics are slowly embedding themselves in our brains, the brilliant sunshine streaming through the windows nonetheless brings an unassailable sense of joy. “Isn’t it horrible?” he says wryly. “The climate crisis is a hard sell on a day like this.”

The United Nations, Don’t Choose Extinction campaign was impactful but was preaching to the converted in Kolster’s view. 

After almost two decades working at the forefront of the sustainable marketing movement, as the founder of independent shop The Goodvertising Agency, it’s no surprise that Kolster sometimes opts to see the funny side of the fiery pit of hell that the world seems to be descending into. The alternative is frustration – a feeling he’s also struggling with. “I’ve been doing this for so long that it comes with a great responsibility, and in some ways I feel like I’ve failed,” he admits. 

We are goldfish swimming round a little bowl saying the same fucking thing, and very little has changed.

“I haven’t been good enough at selling this vision; there hasn’t been a good enough narrative out there for people to believe in it. And we keep forgetting. We’re having the same conversations around greenwashing I was having 15 years ago. We are goldfish swimming round a little bowl saying the same fucking thing, and very little has changed.”   

It was a similar sense of frustration that galvanised Kolster to quit traditional advertising and start on his current path. He got into the industry by chance after landing a copywriter role with an inventive job application (a “dumb gag” riffing on the missing kids milk cartons of the ‘80s), going on to work for two of Denmark’s leading agencies, Advance and DDB Copenhagen, before founding his own shop, Inkognito. 

What if brands stepped up to the challenge, instead of governments?

Over time, however, he became unhappy with the direction that advertising was taking. 2009’s failed COP15 climate summit in Copenhagen was a wake-up call.  “I asked myself: what the hell am I doing? What more could I do as a marketeer? What if brands stepped up to the challenge, instead of governments?” he remembers. “I’d always had a sort of social awareness with asking the ‘bigger’ questions – so perhaps I was in some ways destined to go down this route.” 

People don’t buy your “why” – but rather “who” you can help them become.

That revelation led Kolster to the nascent concept of goodvertising – which gave its name to Kolster’s new agency, as well as his first book. Published in 2012, Goodvertising extolled the importance of brand purpose and celebrated commercial creativity for good: namechecking advertisers and agencies who were trying to solve big social and environmental issues, instead of just selling the public “shit they didn’t need”. 

Crazy though it sounds, says Kolster, at the time it was tough to find enough ‘pure’ commercial case studies and he had to bolster the numbers with not-for-profit work.

By 2020, the opposite was true: every company, from healthcare insurers to hatmakers, was trumpeting its sustainability credentials, making climate pledges, and taking a stand on diversity. There was no longer a dearth of purpose-led work, brands and agencies, but a glut.

In this cluttered space arose an increasing disconnect between talk and action – particularly by big brands – leading to questions around authenticity and consumer distrust of sustainability initiatives as cheap marketing ploys. It was time for Kolster to rethink his earlier ideas.

The Hero Trap, Kolster's second book after Goodvertising looks into brands aiding 'customer transformation'. 

The result was The Hero Trap – named after the phenomenon of brands overstating their roles in trying to save the world. Instead of being the heroes themselves, Kolster believes, brands need to be more like coaches focused on customer transformation: enabling and empowering people to fulfil their dreams, change their own lives for the betterment of society and the planet – and become heroes themselves. “People don’t buy your “why” – but rather “who” you can help them become,” he explains. 

Just getting up and screaming, ‘We’re so diverse!’ For ordinary folks, like a farmer in the [US] Midwest, that sort of stuff has very little implication.

In this “post purpose” world, how can agencies help brands become more meaningful? The answer, says Kolster, is “transformational” advertising, which positions consumers as agents of change, spotlighting what they can – and do – accomplish. As a 2022 study by the Goodvertising Agency and Gfk showed, it’s more effective than what he calls the “value crusade”, or “traditional” purpose-driven advertising – aka “just getting up and screaming, ‘We’re so diverse!’ For ordinary folks, like a farmer in the [US] Midwest, that sort of stuff has very little implication.” 

That goes to the heart of what Kolster sees as genuinely transformational work: its ability to reach more mainstream audiences, not just the wokearati. Kolster himself grew up on a small island in the middle of the Baltic Sea –“where most folk were farmers, fishermen, priests or teachers” – and says it’s these people we need to convince to buy into the sustainability narrative, rather than vilifying them for holding different views to someone “who has the luxury of living in London and shopping at Planet Organic.”   

Hellman’s Super Bowl 2023 Who’s In The Fridge spot is an example of an ad that reaches new audiences and prompts behaviour change.

 “I always ask: did [this campaign] create awareness, or only in people who are already converted to the cause? There’s no point in preaching to the choir.” A case in point is UN’s Don’t Choose Extinction, which featured Frankie, a lifelike dinosaur rampaging around New York City. Kolster’s verdict? “Clickbait propaganda – it didn’t bring anyone new to the table.”

By contrast, he lauds Hellmann’s 2023 Super Bowl offering that continued its ‘Make Taste Not Waste’ initiative: “Hellmann’s have been getting a lot of shit [for attempting more purposeful advertising], because at the end of the day they sell mayonnaise, but we need more of those ‘big ads’ that reach new audiences and get people to question their behaviours.” 

Edelman’s Titanium Lion-winning campaign was an example of thinking outside the box.

 In the same vein, as a veteran judge and juror at industry awards shows like Cannes Lions and D&AD, Kolster admits he finds it difficult “celebrating stunts and shining a light on little campaigns that didn’t truly impact people’s lives.” One honourable exception from last year was Edelman’s Titanium-winning Move to -15, which united cold chain suppliers from across the industry in a pledge to raise the temperature of frozen food inside shipping containers by 3 degrees - a small change that didn’t affect the food but was transformative for the planet. “Is it classic advertising? Probably not… but it’s still thinking outside the box,” he says.

The campaign Ode to Mothers, for Lego, a brand that Kolster feels has stayed true to its ethos.

So, getting down to brass tacks - which brands are doing consistently transformative work? “For me, there’s very few that have hit the nail on the head in terms of focusing on that customer transformation – and that’s because it needs to be an ethos,” he says, citing Lego as an example of a company that has stayed true to its principles of child development through transformative play. 

Interestingly, he’s on the fence about “responsible” outdoor clothing label Patagonia, which is famous for its sustainability credentials. “I always joke they are one big hero trap – they say they’re in business to save the planet, but they sell T-shirts! And yet they ‘live’ the culture of the brand, so people buy into their eco-activism ethos.”

We fuck up all the time. The difference is, I speak about it openly...When I go on stage at a climate summit, I will admit I flew there.

Going back to Kolster’s earlier sense of frustration, what needs to start changing in the sustainable marketing space? First off, an understanding that perfection isn’t the goal – nor should it be. “We fuck up all the time. The difference is, I speak about it openly,” says Kolster. 

“When I go on stage at a climate summit, I will admit I flew there in business class. Could I have crammed into economy class? Yes, I could, but I didn’t – I’m a tall guy, and I wanted to get some sleep. That’s the honest conversation we need to have, instead of trying to pretend the world is perfect.” 

[networks] serve the same shareholders as the clients they’re working for – and thus there are a lot of conversations that are not being had.