Nature Designs Indian Food Giant Britannia's Sustainability Initiative

Britannia - one of India’s oldest and largest FMCG advertisers, and a long-standing client of the outdoor advertising business flipped the script on outdoor advertising. To spotlight Britannia’s continued commitment to its sustainable practices, the brand let nature take the lead in its latest campaign, to highlight its ESG commitments over years. Literally.

‘Nature Shapes Britannia’ is an OOH series that stands-out for a simple reason: these billboards literally take the shape of trees around them, establishing both metaphorically and visually, how one of India's biggest organisations adapts to nature and not the other way around. Each billboard comes accompanied with a message about Britannia’s progress in sustainability across various facets: from plastic neutrality, to waste management and harnessing a circular economy; to water stewardship and energy management.

The trees decide the art direction and typography of the billboards next to them: they decide how to ‘shape’ Britannia. Making the brand name sometimes curve down, sometimes up, sometimes cramping it, sometimes making it bounce. Reflecting the co-operative, adaptive mindset large brands need to have on-ground to make progress in sustainability.

The campaign’s creative agency, Talented worked with multiple media partners to bring alive a unique media strategy that’s counterintuitive to conventional billboard selection process. Since media agencies don’t keep active data of billboards ‘blocked by trees’ in top Indian cities, the selection process involved boots on the ground.

Amit Doshi, chief marketing officer, Britannia said, “Britannia has been committed to being a sustainable organisation with a deep commitment towards its strategic ESG pillars. Through years, we’ve learnt that sustainability needs a conscious, adaptive, flexible approach. This initiative is an embodiment of this flexible approach with nature shaping ‘Britannia’, quite literally. The team ensured even the material used for the hoardings was 100% cotton biodegradable, ensuring we stay committed to the cause we are delivering.”

Aabhaas Shreshtha, founding member and creative, Talented said, “Nature shapes Britannia and so it was natural for us to want nature to shape its advertising as well. And so began our mission to find ‘rare trees with billboards right next to them’. After a long and rigorous recce-ing with our media partners, we studied the contours of each tree, understood its growth and coverage, and designed around them. Large-scale sustainability charters are extremely consequential in the bigger picture, but can feel distant. By partnering with nature around us to tell the story, Britannia is bridging that gap.”

Sonia Lal, partner Coral Media said, “We were pleasantly surprised when we were briefed on the current campaign ask and honestly feel incredibly proud to support Britannia’s initiative - which is not just a wonderful way to show the impact of the brand’s sustainability initiatives - but a signal from one of the country’s long-standing advertisers to other advertisers and media owners to think differently. Not everything great must come at the cost of nature.”

The ‘Nature Shapes Britannia’ OOH went live in four cities including Hyderabad, Kolkata, Meerut and Pune, in partnership with a range of trees including Nag Kesar, Aam, Neem & Peepal.

Read Britannia’s annual sustainability report for FY 23-24 here.