Episode 96: Time for Marketers to Drive Meaning and Difference - Key Skills Required and Barriers to Overcome with Ozlem Senturk, Global Sustainability Transformation, Kantar

“90% of Marketers agree that sustainability agendas need to be more ambitious.”

We are back to 2025 with a bang and a full-on schedule of fantastic guests and riveting conversations. In our first episode of the year we’re joined by Ozlem Senturk, Senior Partner at Kantar’s Global Sustainable Transformation Practice. Ozlem shares so many interesting insights from Kantar and the World Federation of Advertisers study ‘Sustainable Marketing 2030’, where they identified what Marketers need to do to transform faster, the structural challenges and lack of internal resources that need to be overcome and the need for a P&L that factors in planet and profit.

We explore the need for new economic frameworks and how circularity plays a pivotal role in both driving and supporting that. Ozlem shares with us, that there is a clear skills gap when it comes to Marketers, she explains, “it’s a lot around the daily challenges and people having to understand the value chain and its impact”, and that, “there is a need to speed up the adoption of the circular economy, but Marketers are having a harder time in understanding it, plus they are still quite focused on traditional moments of consumption. We need to expand the understanding of the value chain for marketing.”

The need for Marketers to also focus internally and understand what is happening throughout the organisations they work for is becoming increasingly more important. In addition, Ozlem explains that “sustainability drives meaning and difference”, so Marketers should be considering sustainability KPIs as an integrated part of the communications process. “We need to think big when we communicate” … she tells us.

There is work to be done, and skills to be honed, but with that comes opportunity. Download the study to find out more!

Tune in and listen as we talk to Ozlem about:

• The range of findings from the study

• Why Marketers need to understand the circular economy

• How internal focus is a key requirement to understanding the opportunities

• Why we can’t shy away from talking about what we are doing

• Marketing’s brain print

• How from a creative brief perspective – sustainability remains at a low level

• Setting sustainability KPIs as an integrated part of the communications process

• The barriers to engagement with sustainability

This really is an inspiring but highly practical episode to start our 2025 conversations. Tune in, enjoy it, share it - and of course, share your comments.

Find out more information about the Sustainable Marketing 2030 report.

Connect with OzLem Senturk on LinkedIn.

We’ve got plenty more terrific conversations coming in 2025. Stay tuned… here’s to more.

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