The Nordic Swan Ecolabel: Hard to get. Easy to choose.
The Nordic Swan Ecolabel is one of the world’s toughest ecolabels, setting strict requirements from a holistic perspective throughout a product’s entire life cycle. It is also a very well recognized label in the Nordics, almost every northerner recognizes the Nordic Swan Ecolabel.
In this part of Nordic Ecolabelling’s contribution to the Sustainable Living programme communication is the focus. The goal is to position the Nordic Swan Ecolabel as a tool for sustainable consumption and a better choice for the climate.
The objective is to:
- Produce and communicate 5 climate cases and 5 customer cases.
- Develop a Nordic communication strategy.
- Carry out a Nordic communication campaign.
Unified Nordic Communication Strategy
To begin, we developed a common Nordic communication strategy to create a solid foundation—not just for what we communicate, but also how we communicate – with one voice across all Nordic countries. The strategy states, for example, that when we communicate the Nordic Swan Ecolabel as a brand, we focus on what sets us apart from other ecolabels. That is, our strengths as the official Nordic ecolabel and the holistic and life-cycle perspective in our criteria. This strategic alignment paved the way for the creation of a new communication concept and campaign to strengthen our message: The Nordic Swan Ecolabel is a tool for a sustainable lifestyle and a better choice for the climate.
The concept we created was “Hard to get. Easy to choose”. A new tagline and a campaign concept that both tells the story of the strict requirements we set, and of the wide range and large amount of products and services that has made it and managed to fulfil those strict requirements.
The Impact of a Unified Voice: Campaign success
Communicating as one brand with a single voice across the Nordic region has been effective. It has significantly boosted spontaneous awareness – 65 % of the Northerners mention the Nordic Swan Ecolabel when asked which ecolabels they know. The numbers for knowledge and preference has also increased across the target audience. This campaign has helped position our ecolabel as a trustworthy choice, with 81% of Northerners trusting Nordic Swan Ecolabelled products to be a good choice for the climate.
By utilizing the budget from the Nordic Council of Ministers, we have been able to communicate and promote our campaign and reach a broader audience than we should have without the additional budget.
As an extra bonus, the project has also enhanced collaboration across the Nordic Ecolabelling organizations, strengthening us for the future.
10 out of 10 cases
To further enhance The Nordic Swan Ecolabel as a better choice for the climate we have produced five climate cases, describing the reduced climate impact of ecolabelled products and services. The criteria which have been analyzed are Textile Services, Packaging for laundry detergents, Candles, Textiles and E-commerce logistics. In all five cases, a significant reduction in CO2-emissions can be measured. These cases have been used in content and PR material and spread across the Nordic countries.
It is also important to recognize the hard work it takes for producers to receive a Nordic Swan Ecolabel licence and the commercial benefits a licence can bring. Therefore, we have made five cases describing different ways licence holders and their products and services have benefitted from having a Nordic Swan Ecolabel licence. The companies that were choses were; Miild a cosmetic and beauty company, Jensen Beds, Scandic Hotels, Vestre with their outdoor furniture and Matas a large cosmetics and beauty chain – thereby also mirroring the wide range of products and services that the Nordic Swan Ecolabel covers. These cases have been used as basis for B2B content in the Nordic countries.