Decade of Action (DOA) is the world’s newest social cause consultancy centre based in Richmond, Victoria.
Launched from Melbourne creative agency Thinkerbell, DOA is a company that presents itself as a reminder that if we don’t change the way we do business and brands soon, there’ll be no business model on a dead planet.
AdNews spoke to DOA co-founder's Ebony Gaylor and Adam Ferrier to discuss the role of creativity and his rationale behind the launch of the company.
Ferrier:“We saw that marketers are increasingly grappling with the big issues of ESG, purpose, and generally being a good corporate citizen.
"The other way DOA approaches things is with a sense of urgency, often missing in the sector. Our name and look and feel is attention getting, our logo is a clock (inspired by the Doomsday clock) and our proposition is 'What will you do? When Will you do it?"
"Everyone, and every company has good intentions but we need people to act now.”
When asked about why she started DOA, Gaylor said, " I started DOA because brands are the most important agents of change in the next decade. We have never so much knowledge and opportunity when it comes to social and environmental issues, yet so little action."
"And that’s because the system is failing us on all fronts - government drives policy for time limited periods, not for profits are limited because they are underfunded and bound by government policy and businesses are seen as finders only."
Brands are important cultural intermediaries, but they greatly impact our sense of connection, consumption and identity and have the power, influence and resources to create change in the world."
What is the difference between social cause work and more commercially orientated work?
“The processes for the two need to be quite different. Both have creativity at its core - however, the social because work is both much more regulated, with people holding much deeper and values based beliefs around what’s right and wrong.
"These things mean it's often harder to bust through traditional thinking and find new solutions and get them to take hold.
"Further, the complexity of the category and problems we face means that a strong understanding of a systems approach to change is needed as all the elements need to come together to create change. “Says Ferrier.
How does your creative background with Tinkerbell complement the work you do with DOA?
“Creativity solves everything. Creativity was used to come up with the new vaccines for covid, but it was also used in the advertising to communicate them.
:Having a creative background means that we can inject it into a world of complex, high stakes issues and shake things up a little.”
A key project DOA has worked on is The Waiting for Zuck campaign. The campaign boosted small independent publishers in Australia, having more than 30 news outlets turn off their news platforms for a day as they were 'waiting on Zuck' to cough up some money' sparking global attention and has bringing tech companies to the table almost immediately.
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