The iFOLD Envelope
Issue 22 | March 2012
Agency
Ogilvy and Mather Mumbai
Creative Team
National Creative Director: Rajiv Rao, Abhijit Avasthi; Executive Creative Director: Sumanto Chattopadhyay; Creative Director: Mayur Varma, Louella Rebello; Art Director: Namrata Gosavi, Mandar Wairkar, Aswin Sridhar; Copywriter: Eugene Rebello, Karn Singh
Date
December 2010
Background
India, with a population of over 1.21 billion, 638 million telephone subscribers, 310 million bank account holders and an internet penetration of only 4.5%, still relies largely on paper for communication. This means millions and millions of letters being sent out every day. So how do you get a billion Indians to save paper?
Idea
By folding.
And so Ogilvy created the iFOLD envelope, half the size of the standard business envelope. It saves half the paper and a proportionate number of trees.
The iFOLD envelopes were sent as direct mail to companies that send countless letters to customers, asking them to change their envelope size. With all the millions of letters corporate India sends out every day, switching to iFOLD would mean a whole lot of paper and trees being saved.
Results
Vodafone, Cadbury, Coca-Cola, KFC, Asian Paints, Pidilite and Platinum Guild have already signed up to change their envelopes and save the forests. In fact, it is estimated that Vodafone India alone is saving 800 trees a month since it implemented the use of iFOLD.
More companies are signing up. More trees are being saved, one fold at a time.
Our Thoughts
Chris Arnold has written a book called “Ethical Marketing And The New Consumer”, which is worth reading. In a nutshell, he argues that for brands doing good is good business.
While agencies do talk about sustainability, I haven’t seen many actually do much about it. (DDB Berlin came up with a nice widget a couple of years ago.) I think this is magnificent idea, a real contribution to a balanced ecology. It is also a demonstration of how one person with an idea can make a huge difference. Someone somewhere in Ogilvy India did not think, ‘the problems are so huge, I am powerless’, but the exact opposite. ‘I am a person who has ideas, I have the power to get people to change their behaviour.’
Whoever you are, I salute you.