At Interbrand, we think very highly of those that organize around a cause – FEED, water.org, (RED), Heifer International, and others. We applaud corporations that find a voice in support of important causes – GE, Starbucks and others. Then, every once in a while, we are in awe of a situation where the incredible happens, and companies put aside the day-to-day course of competitive business in support of a commitment to a particular issue.

AT&T is a great example of a company that is putting a good cause ahead of day-to-day business practices. AT&T believes that no text is worth dying for and for years has been using its scale to bring attention to the issue.

The facts are clear: people who are texting while driving are 23 times more likely to be in an accident and every year there are more than 100,000 texting-related auto accidents. AT&T has been creating awareness and commitment through advertising, events and, more recently, by securing advocacy from many other brands.

Now, AT&T has inspired its staunchest competitors to get on board with the It Can Wait movement.

AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile Unite

Today, AT&T announced that its biggest competitors – Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile – are all joining the movement to save lives.

The US telecom industry is one of the most head-to-head competitive landscapes that exist in marketing. These four companies are locked in a very public, years-long battle to demonstrate their superiority and with billions of dollars spent to lure customers from one carrier to another.

Each of the four companies has supported no texting and driving messaging and activities, but by coming together, the US telecom industry has done something remarkable and unprecedented to change human behavior and put an end to texting and driving. It’s another great milestone for the initiative that AT&T started back in 2010, for the industry as a whole, and, most importantly, for the cause itself.

In addition to these telecom industry leaders, more than 200 organizations have joined the cause including companies like USAA, Walmart, RadioShack, Goodyear, Best Buy; non-profits like The National Organizations for Youth Safety; and government departments like the US Department of Transportation, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board. Each will bring to life advocacy in ways that are unique and relevant to their core constituents. USAA and AT&T, for example, will bring a texting-while-driving simulator to over 400 local events, including military audiences through a 15-stop tour to military installations, whereas Goodyear will support the message at events overhead on its blimps.

AT&T’s Movement Against Texting & Driving

In 2010, with a significant advertising investment, AT&T launched a series of true story ads showing the last text message that was sent or received before someone’s life was altered, or even ended, because of texting and driving. Timed to impact people’s behavior around New Years Eve 2010, AT&T launched The Last Text, a 10-minute Documentary featuring deeper stories about real people texting and driving has deeply impacted. AT&T achieved its goal, making it available as widely as possible. The Last Text was viewed 100k times on day one, 1M+ views within week three and 3.5M+ to date.

In 2011, AT&T launched AT&T Drive Mode, an app available on Blackberry and Android devices that can turn off texting capability while driving. Most recent versions can do so automatically through GPS technology that detects the vehicle’s movement. More than 300,000 apps have been downloaded to date.

In 2012, AT&T intensified its efforts, calling on all Americans to pledge to never text and drive. AT&T launched www.itcanwait.com to aggregate content about the issue, and to feature an online pledge that people can sign.

AT&T also declared September 19, 2012 No Text on Board Pledge Day. With more than 70 local events, 27 states running don’t-text-and-drive messages on their LED highway signs and a national event in DC with AT&T Chairman Randall Stephenson, FCC Commissioner Julius Genachowski and US Sec. of Transportation Ray LaHood, the day dramatically amplified the message.

Going into the pledge day, only 200,000 pledges were logged and within days after 9/19/12, AT&T obtained more than 1 million pledges. To date, there are more than 1.4 million pledges. September 19, 2013 will be another day of action for advocates to rally awareness and commitment, in addition to year-round activities.

AT&T recognized that it was beginning to have a real impact on this important issue. Research results demonstrated greater awareness about the danger of texting and driving and peoples’ intent to change behavior.

Instead of declaring victory, AT&T decided it was just getting started, and that with the help and support of others, it could accomplish so much more. Heading into 2013, AT&T began to seek the support of other organizations to become advocates of the cause. To date, hundreds of corporations and non-profits have become advocates and are in discussions about offering varying levels of support – from evangelizing among their employees, to being a public endorser of AT&T’s efforts, to putting significant investment behind incremental efforts – all in support of the It Can Wait movement.

How You Can Join AT&T to Save Lives

Anyone can become an advocate for this movement. This first, most important, step is to make a personal commitment to not text and drive. At www.itcanwait.com you, your family and your friends can take the pledge.

Also, any organization – corporate, community, government, non-profit – has a range of options to get involved. At the most basic level, they can evangelize the cause among employees. AT&T has also made it easy for organizations to take a stand among external audiences with easy-to-replicate messaging and communications templates.

AT&T is also inviting organizations to champion the movement in a big way with a financial commitment and a customized communication effort. All of the details on how to get involved can be found at www.att.com/itcanwait.

No matter what you choose to do after reading this, please don’t text and drive.

Kevin Perlmutter is a Senior Director of Brand Strategy in Interbrand’s New York office, and Interbrand’s global telecom sector leader.

Strategy director Dominik Prinz recently shared his passion project, Haitian Heroes, during a learning session at Interbrand New York. Interbrand is not only committed to helping brands be world changing, but to being a world changing consultancy and inspiring and supporting everyone at Interbrand to be world changing individuals. From client work to personal endeavors, employees are committed to making an impact on the future. Progress truly begins from the effort and creativity of an inspired individual.

The idea for Haitian Heroes came to Prinz after watching a documentary about Haiti. Already having worked in a similar situation in Brazil, he was eager to help in any way possible. Through networking and connections Prinz was able to make contact with a school in Port-au-Prince, marking the beginning of his journey.

Prinz first visited Haiti in 2011 and the general view that the children are victims surprised him. Hoping to change this perception, he wanted Haitian Heroes to stand for empowerment and hope. Founded on “The Power of Potential,” the organization is dedicated to rebuilding and maintaining a school that was damaged in the 2010 earthquake. Haitian Heroes believes the children hold the key to their own future as well as the country’s.

“Haitian Heroes” is also the title of an exhibit that will be held in May 2013, in New York City. The show will feature stories and photographs Prinz and his friend Robert Felgentreu have taken and curated of Haitian children.

While in Haiti, Prinz and Felgentreu spent a half a day with each child learning about them, their environment and their struggles. The goal of the exhibit is to have visitors walk away with an understanding that the children of Haiti are the symbols of the future, the everyday heroes. All of proceeds from “Haitian Heroes” will be used to fund educational efforts in Haiti.

Prinz is also the founder of the Red Line Children Charity, an NGO that includes Haitian Heroes. Both organizations are dedicated to improving the lives of children. For more information please visit: www.HaitianHeroes.org and Haitian Heroes on Facebook.

Heifer International is a global development organization that exists to help end poverty and hunger through creating sustainable programs in agriculture and livestock. This Valentine’s Day Heifer suggests alternatives gifts, such as “Give a flock of chicks to the sweetest chick you know” or “Give a dairy goat to the one that always gets your goat.”

Gift givers can click on an animal icon on Heifer’s website and learn more about how that gift represents, as the site says, “a lasting, meaningful way for you to help.” Year round Heifer International provides individuals and families the ability to “pass on the gift” through the purchase of livestock given to those in developing countries. A growing portion of Heifer’s business celebrates the idea of ‘shared value’ and is increasingly driven by their corporate relationships.

While we at Interbrand are committed to our core belief that “Brands have the power to change the world,” it's not every day that we get to see this mantra truly come to life. I recently had the fortunate opportunity to sit down with Heifer International, Danone and Green Mountain Coffee Roasters to discuss how partnerships between organizations directly benefit their business goals and supply chains, featured in our Better Together video series. I also had the amazing opportunity to visit the Heifer International headquarters for the Corporate Partnership Summit, “Beyond the Bottom Line: Creating Shared Value Through Partnership.” It was a motivating, enlightened day to say the least.

It’s no secret that consumers believe corporations have a direct responsibility in solving our world’s economic, social and environmental issues. What was astounding to me is the level of strategic thought, intention and commitment from corporations and partners like Heifer that’s being dedicated towards solving this shared value equation – that what’s good for business is also good for the world.

A pioneer in the field of creating shared value ecosystems, Danone was present at the conference to share the success of their Direct Supply-Chain partnership with Heifer. Through this program, Danone is able to access and stabilize their needed milk production by creating cooperative farms, self help groups and other types of cooperative organizations that ultimately significantly improve the income and living conditions of smallholder farmers – 80% of Danone’s milk suppliers.

The results are all that’s needed to know this is a model with lasting, transformative impact: nearly 2,400 farming families have participated in the cooperatives, with each family experiencing substantial gains in income, stability, food consumption, and overall well being. And this is just one of the many Heifer programs around the world.

The day left me excited to be a part of this new frontier of enlightened thinking, and to know that corporations around the world are co-creating innovative solutions, along side organizations like Heifer, that use business strategy to end hunger and poverty. While the road ahead is an arduous one, the choice between profitability or social impact is diminishing, and we’re entering a world where simply synchronizing for sustainability creates transformative change.

Emily Grant is an Associate Director, Brand Strategy for Interbrand.

On 27 and 28 of November, London hosted the Sustainable Brands Conference. As the name suggests, brand and sustainability professionals were gathered in the Mermaid Theatre to discuss how brands can change the future towards a more sustainable one. The response? Through unified vision, collaboration and simplicity.

Unified vision

It's long gone the time when companies had a sustainability strategy in parallel to a business strategy. In the eyes of businesses such as Unilever, Sainsbury's, Nestlé, Kingfisher, M&S and others, a company should consider its citizenship "duties" from the start and have it embedded in its business strategy. Similarly, for consumer facing businesses, one cannot isolate the importance of the corporate and product brands, as each play an essential role: a corporate brand engages with employees, experts, policy makers, supply chain, competitors and, in times of social media, consumers; the product brand unlocks behavioural change. "This is the power of ‘AND,'’’ says Lori Zoppel, Global Director of Marketing, Unilever.

Modern companies recognise the interdependencies of the world in which they operate, such as the need for natural or human resources to develop their products and services, and an empowered and healthy community to consume them. For that, they assume the responsibility for helping to solve some of the world's most serious problems. Not only because they are sensitive to those issues and want some easy PR, but because they understand that if they don't do it, there won't be a market for them anymore. Without water, Nestlé cannot produce food – hence water is ones the pillars of its shared value vision. Without consumers educated on principles of health and hygiene, Unilever cannot sell their soaps – hence campaigns such as "Global hand washing day" that have been engaging employees and communities around the world for 5 years.

Collaboration and sharing

Words such as collaboration, sharing, community and together were almost overused by the speakers. All of them defended the idea that designing and making a more sustainable future cannot be done by a single constituency. Governments, companies, charities and communities should work together. "We need to move from isolated business approaches to systems; from individualism to communities," said one of the event organisers.

Dialogue should be transparent; ideas and solutions shared; successful examples expanded into new industries and geographies: "many sustainability leaders don't speak about what they do, claiming humbleness. It's time for organisations to be braver," says Tom Zara, Global Head of Corporate Citizenship at Interbrand.

This thinking has been at the heart of organisations such as Zipcar, a car sharing business, The People Who Share, a movement that is making sharing mainstream and DoNation, an online sponsorship tools in which no money is involved and people donate by doing something good. Traditional businesses are making fundamental cultural and operational changes, such as B&Q, a home improvement retailer that "rent" some tools less frequently used such as carpets & upholstery machines; and M&S, a UK retailer, that pioneered ideas such as "bag for life" and is changing consumer habits.

Simplicity

Here is where marketers and brand professionals can make the biggest difference. We need to eliminate the jargon and be straighter. We also need to stop seeing the consumer as a "foreign entity" and recognise that a consumer is us, our families, our friends and communicate accordingly.

Different segmentations presented during the two days showed that only around 11% of consumers are attracted to propositions linked to sustainability. The vast majority wants high quality products and services, at a fair price. They (or we) are too busy, worried about their own issues, such as mortgages, rising fuel and utilities prices, health and nutrition of their own families. If small steps do matter, we need to remove the burden of saving the world from their shoulders and making their decisions easier for them. Through vision, collaboration and simplicity, we can really help consumers and ourselves to actually change the world.

Paula Oliveira is a Director, Valuation and Analytics, at Interbrand London.

With hybrids and electrics receiving all the attention in the automotive efficiency wars most consumers are unaware of the onslaught of diesel-powered cars that will soon be arriving on this side of pond. Clean diesel sales were up 35% in the first quarter of 2012 over Q1 2011, so automotive manufacturers aren’t about to slow the diesel production pace just because “hybrid” and “plug-in” are the buzzwords in the US.

While diesel models might be old news in Europe, it’s still uncharted territory to most shoppers in the States. What is loud and clear to consumers here is that the “Big Three” are primarily focused on hybrid and full-time/plug-in electric technology when it comes to the on-going fuel efficiency war.

What you don’t see are the European manufacturers lurking right around the corner anxiously waiting to gobble up our diesel market share. BMW is expecting to deliver its diesel offerings to the U.S. for almost its full line of passenger cars and SUVs. BMW first introduced diesels back in 1983 and is back in the game knowing that fuel economy sells. Expect to see BMW expand diesel offerings for everything from the X1 through the 7 series sedan beginning in 2014.

Volkswagen, the most recognized name in diesel vehicles here, has also been expanding its TDI line adding the Passat and Toureg to their aready familiar and well-selling Golf and Jetta TDI line. Expect the Tiguan to available with a diesel option in approximately 2015.

Mercedes-Benz now offers its BlueTEC Clean Diesel not just for the M and GL series SUVs, but now customers can fill passenger cars with diesel fuel in the full size E and S series sedans. Expect a GLK diesel in the near future.

Not waiting around to see how the competition does before making a move in the US, Audi too plans on expanding its line of diesels to the Q5 in 2014. Right now Audi only offers a diesel option on the entry level A3 and its largest SUV, the Q7.

Should you be a Japanese car loyalist, Mazda recently announced 2014 iterations of the Mazda 6 sedan and the new CX-5 crossover. Getting diesel dizzy yet?

So are US auto manufacturers missing the fuel efficiency boat like they did two decades ago? Well fortunately the Big Three aren’t exactly sleeping at the wheel, but they have yet to fully jump into the diesel pool with both feet for anything with four wheels other than truck lines. That certainly doesn’t mean they are not grabbing their piece of the fuel efficiency pie.

Expect the Chevy Cruze diesel in 2014 and a Cadillac ATS diesel after that. Chrysler will also offer the Jeep Grand Cherokee with a diesel engine as a 2014 model.

Even though Ford may not have any immediate plans to offer a diesel option in passenger cars, expect the Fusion Hybrid and C-Max to attract a lot of attention and if hybrids, plug-ins and diesels gets you confused go for Ford’s new 1 liter EcoBoost engine, Ford’s answer to the small diesel.

Alex Leopold is Interbrand's Brand Presentation Manager.