Vancouver Brand Battle for Good: A Zero-Waste Challenge

The Brand Battle for Good is a two-day virtual conference and competition, pitting twenty of Vancouver’s leading brands against one another to develop innovative and implementable solutions to the city’s waste problems. The competition is the first of its kind in Canada.

Brand Battle for Good

When: April 28 and May 5, 2021
Register: Online by April 14th.

On Day One teams will have an educational and inspiring day of workshops aimed at arming teams with everything they need to know about why we should go zero waste. Featured speakers include:

• Dr. Love-Ese Chile, PhD, principle consultant at Grey to Green Sustainable Solutions, has eight years of experience researching the creation and degradation of biodegradable plastics.
• Adam Corneil, Unbuilders founder, is a builder and entrepreneur whose salvaging company practices deconstruction and remanufacturing instead of demolition and disposal.
• Tesicca Truong, CityHive co-founder, is an activist at the vanguard of BC sustainability who is passionate about youth empowerment in civic processes.

They’ll regroup on Day Two to devise new solutions in hopes of winning the collateral support to launch their campaign. The diverse gathering of businesses participating in the event include Arc’teryx, LUSH, SOLE Footwear, ReCORK, Keela, Earth’s Own, Happy Planet Foods, Hootsuite, Deloitte and architectural firm HCMA.

“Local brands have stepped up to fight for the city where they live and work, and help Vancouver reach its goal of being a zero waste community by 2040,” said Karla Peckett, Creative Director at SOLE/ReCORK and founder of Brands for Better Foundation.

“Brands have power, they have influence, and audiences who are connected to them, not to mention, internal teams with existing synergy that can make great things happen.” She expects hosting this inaugural meeting of creative powerhouses will inspire fresh approaches to sustainability and inspirational campaigns to make them publicly viable.”

Each brand team will pitch their idea to a panel of judges and the top three ideas will move forward to the Brand Battle Award Night at the end of Day Two. The best proposal will then be crowd-voted by all participants and awarded an upcycled chopstick trophy, a digital marketing package and campaign support from local ad agency PS DDB to bring their winning concept to life.

Brands for Better Foundation is a volunteer-driven not-for-profit organization, based in Vancouver, that channels the power of brands to do good on a local level. The founding companies, eco-brands SOLE and ReCORK, digital marketing firms Digital Hot Sauce and Unbounce and franchiser O2E Brands, have also committed teams to the competition and volunteering in the event production.

More than a hundred people from local companies are working behind the scenes, and more than forty subject matter experts are speaking or presenting workshops, to power this event with 100% volunteer energy.

How to Get Involved

This Hack-a-thon is for anyone with an innovative mind: CEOs, business leaders, marketers, entrepreneurs and creative problem solvers. Each brand, company, agency or network has sent a team of 8-10 people.

Participate as a team, or apply as an individual
$1,500 per full team (seats 10)
$850 per 1/2 team (seats 5)
$200 per Individual Seat

Each table will also be injected with the recruitable talent of local masters (MBA and MDes) and Undergrad students, giving up and coming students the exposure to team-build alongside Vancouver’s best brands, and give the brands exposure to some of Vancouver’s top recruitable talent.

Support students to battle it out with top brand teams
$750 Support Package + $100/Student
$1,500 Support Package/10 Students
Individual Student Seats – $200/head

Teams, individuals, students and supporters can sign up here.

Although the winning idea will be expected to be both creative and original, and provide a compelling story for the launch and marketing takeover, it will primarily be chosen based on feasibility, impact and degree of behavioural change. Organizers assure that this is not an advertising contest. They are looking to spark real and measurable change in support of the City of Vancouver’s Zero Waste initiatives.