VS Story: Storytelling for Sustainability

VS Story has been unable to consistently sustain their online brand presence, which can be enhanced. While their vision and mission is to showcase the good sustainability work they have done for their partners and clients; to promote their initiatives on creating visibility for social and environmental challenges around the world, VS Story must have a strong and impactful online presence. Currently, the company has experienced difficulties growing their online presence and rely on word-of-mouth to market and introduce their work to prospective clients.

Leow Sen Sze Megan

• Team Leader
• Main correspondences with Industry Partner and vice versa
• Research Methodology: Case Studies

Lin Sijia Natasha

• Editor
• Desk Research on Problem Statement, market analysis
• Copywriting (Captions for social media mockups)

Reno Erwinshah Bin Julaimi

• Overall Design
• Develop unique value proposition narratives for VS Story's sustainability storytelling services
• Derive 2 to 3 statements for VS Story’s UVP

1. Enhance VS Story’s online brand presence on social media to showcase the good work they have done for sustainability for their partners and clients.
2. Promote their initiatives on creating visibility for social and environmental challenges around the world.
3. Go beyond relying on word-of-mouth to market and introduce their work to wider and more prospective clients.

• Desk Research on Problem Statement, market analysis
• Email Jacqui and team for requested materials
• Draw up a framework for case studies
• Case study research
• Content partnership and creative design strategies
• Transitioning strategies and analysis into design
  • Creating mock ups
  • Captions for social media mockups
• Develop unique value proposition narratives for VS Story's sustainability storytelling services (at least 3 to 5)
  • Derive 2 to 3 sentences of what makes VS Story unique - credible and authentic
• Collate content on projects for sustainability that VS Story + Redhill has done - website and instagram

1. Asset Review
   1. Social Media listening
   2. Conversation with Industry Partner
2. Desk Research
   1. UVPs of VS Story
   2. B Corp Certification
3. Case Studies
   1. Carbon Trust (UK)
   2. Ogilvy (USA)
   3. Fatwombat (SG/ AU)

Asset Review (Social media listening)

• Redhill Instagram
  • Most posts averaged around 20 likes with mostly no comments. 
  • Posts that received more likes are company news, as opposed to content that are more generally informative (such as productivity tips, mental health notes) and feature other companies like announcing partnerships, etc
  • 526 followers 
• Redhill LinkedIn: 
  • 21k followers, but sporadic engagement rates for posts, with some with only 5 reactions and others 25
  • One post is actually an interview featuring Jacqui that was re-posted; it had 25 reactions which is pretty good overall considering the account 
  • Posts with good engagement rates are again are posts that feature other companies/organisations as well as interviews or new appointments to the company. 

• VS Story Instagram: 

  • Little posts, ranging from 4-7 likes

  • Information on the company and the services they provide; almost exactly like what they have on their website.

  • 226 followers

• VS Story LinkedIn

  • Has no posts of their own, only has one post re-posted from Redhill’s social media about their acquisition 
    560 followers

Asset Review (conversations with Industry Partner)

What is the end benefit of using VS Story:

• Networking of shared value, believes in that vision and cause for sustainability that can help scale and amplify business’ impact
• Change opinions, move people and ignite passion through storytelling to move people to action
• Takes complex stories and turn it into simple, digestible and grabs viewers attention

Who are VS Story’s target audience for this product or services?

• Purpose-driven organisations

What makes VS Story offering unique and different?

• Proactive company in sustainability cause in SG
• Network within authentic companies who believes in sustainability cause
  • Vast networking example: 
    • Acquired by Redhill who has Lancers Programme that provides 360-degree communications support for selected early-stage startups
    • Vast clientele above VS Story’s already many connections 

Credibility & Authenticity/ Trustworthiness:

• B Corp certified
  • Communication, transaction and interaction of a company as a whole

Expertise:

• Leadership: Jacqui Hocking (Credible in the sustainable community)
• Industry awards: B Corp
• Partnership: Reputable clients (DBS, Paypal, LinkedIn) and Redhill

Consistency:

• Customer experience: Positive reviews with recommendations (Jacqui’s Linkedin by DBS)
• Messaging and branding: Aligned with client’s needs and company’s mission and vision

Social proof:

• Showcase testimonials, case studies, success stories
• Sharing case studies can show the company’s proactiveness in the community
• Testimonials only in Jacqui’s LinkedIn, yet to include in company's account

Responsiveness:

• Accessible for feedbacks, working on them and proactively addressing customer issues

Desk Research B Corp Certification Process

1. B Impact Assessment. 
2. Legal Requirement Tool to determine how [the] company can integrate stakeholder consideration into governance structure, dependent on location and corporate structure
3. Risk Review and online B Impact Assessment online
4. Establish company profile — to wait in Evaluation Queue for B Corp analyst to review eligibility for certification 
5. Entering the Evaluation phase: analysts from B Lab Global will look at company structure, any controversial industries, as well as the primary assessment 
6. Verification Queue: provide information about employees and any suppliers, documentation provided to analysts 
7. If the verified 80-point threshold is met, enter the Post-Verification stage and sign the B Corp Agreement. 
8. Reached Certification
   1. In order to meet the transparency requirement for B Corp Certification, companies will need to publish public profile, company score and impact report in B Corp Directory. 
   2. Launch: ability to share B Corp status with all internal and external stakeholders
   3. Recertification will be need to be done every 3 years with the B Impact Assessment and the certification process as a reference for improvement. 

(simplified from B Corp website)

B Corp Areas of Focus

• Inclusive, Equatable, Regenerative Economic System for all people and the planet
• Address society’s most critical challenges
• Verified to meet rigorous standards of social and environmental performance, transparency, and accountability
  • Governance
    • Mission, Engagement around its social / environmental impact, ethics, and transparency
    • How the company protects their mission and formally consider stakeholders in decision making through their corporate structure or governing documents 
  • Workers
    • How the company contributes to its employees, financial security, health & safety, wellness, career development, and engagement & satisfaction
    • Recognises business models designed to benefit workers, worker-owned models & workforce development programmes
  • Customers
    • Quality of the company’s product, services, ethical marketing, data privacy, security and feedback channels 
    • Recognises products or services that are designed to address a particular social problem for or through the customers
  • Environment
    • Environmental management practices as well as its impact on the air, climate, water, land, and biodiversity 
    • Include the company's direct impact on its operations and supply chain & distribution channels.
    • Environmental innovative production processes and those that sell products or services that has positive environmental impact
  • Community
    • Engagement and impact on the communities in which it operates, hires and source from
    • Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Economic impact, Civic engagement, charitable giving and supply chain management
    • Specific community-oriented problems

Potential Areas for Unique Value Proposition for VS Story

Advantages of B Corp Certification

1. Commitment to social and environmental responsibility, with a responsibility for social impact
2. Transparency and accountability, with strict standards to be met as companies are required to publicly disclose information about their social and environmental performance, as well as their governance and ethics practices.
3. A focus on long-term sustainability: B Corp certified companies are committed to building long-term sustainable businesses.
4. Appeal to like-minded businesses: leverage on community of corporations (or potentially, Jacqui’s own network) that are B Corp certified or are seeking B Corp certification

As VS Story is a storytelling company that focuses heavily on sustainability, some UVPs as a point of differentiation for potential clients and/or business leads could include:
 

1. Attraction and Retention of clients
   Companies that would like to be perceived as sustainable would want their vendors/partners (VS Story) to share a similar reputation in terms of social and environmental responsibility, and would ease in establishing trust for clients
    
2. Networking Opportunities
   Leverage on the sustainability network of VS Story to connect potential clients/leads to a wider network of companies that could boost their sustainability efforts, or explore partnerships with
    
3. Improve client brand image and reputation
   With VS Story’s focus on sustainability, publicising work done with VS Story would be beneficial for clients who would want their brand image to improve in terms of making a positive social and environmental impact 

Potential ways of publicising these UVPs:

1. Highlight past and ongoing projects that focus on specific B Corp values 
2. Feature other sustainability leaders that VS Story has worked with for storytelling
3. Ensuring that the B Corp branding motifs are commonly featured on Instagram bio, stories, posts, etc, visually and written
4. Feature non-corporate sustainability content that would ‘break up’ corporate content and add an extra layer of credibility to VS Story’s mission towards sustainability 
5. Transparent updates on social media regarding VS Story’s efforts towards sustainability, and potentially clients’ efforts towards sustainability as well
6. Engagement with followers and partnerships with sustainability organisations to garner more trust from the public

1. VS Story’s online brand presence should be enhanced to showcase the good work they have done for sustainability for their partners and clients.
2. To promote their initiatives on creating visibility for social and environmental challenges around the world, VS Story must have a strong and impactful online presence.
3. The company has experienced difficulty growing their online presence and rely on word-of-mouth to market and introduce their work to prospective clients.

• To conduct a review to obtain insights on communications of sustainability initiatives
• Propose recommendations for VS Story’s social media campaigns centering around sustainability
• Create a social media calendar template