In 2010, Unilever CEO Paul Polman introduced the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan, declaring ‘embedding sustainability into our business is a top priority’.
One ambitious goal of the 10 year plan was ‘to improve the health and well-being of 1 billion people’.
This is a story about a unique global social experiment - succeeding where governments and health authorities have time and again failed – to change people’s behaviour and improve health and life expectancy.
High cholesterol is a key risk factor for the world’s number 1 killer - coronary heart disease - because cholesterol deposits lead to the narrowing of vital arteries.
Around 40% of adults across the globe suffer from high cholesterol.
Flora pro.activ launched in Australia in 1999, then rolled out to 20 countries round the world. Pro.activ contains plant sterols which, when eaten daily, can actively reduce cholesterol levels by up to 10% in 21 days. But human behaviour is very hard to change. Earlier pro.activ comms campaigns had failed to inspire people to change their behaviour and sales had stalled.
Starting in Spain, “It Takes A Village” is a real-life social experiment - take a village, help them to lower their cholesterol with the help of Flora pro.activ and then use their successes to create content for a multi-media campaign to inspire others to change their behaviour and lower their cholesterol too.
Flora pro.activ have created a perfect circle. Social success i.e. individuals making healthy lasting behaviour changes for themselves, translating into powerful business success for the Flora pro.activ brand.
Long-term sales and share declines have been halted and reversed in participating countries all round the world. Most importantly, thousands of people are being inspired through this initiative to improve their health and change their lives. Truly a brand that is spreading good.
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(Please note: parts of this case study may have been redacted for confidentiality purposes.)
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