By Drew Barrand, Head of Commercial and Sales at Laureus, explores the challenges around purpose-led marketing and activity for businesses, but explains why actually it can be one of the greatest commercial assets.

Advertising legend Bill Bernbach is perhaps most famous for coining the phrase ‘a principle isn’t a principle until it costs you something’.

Purpose marketing is predominantly still viewed through this lens. That doing the right thing is an act of morality that goes against the commercial grain of running a business. Something that organisations are required to do by the outside world but internally is viewed with something akin to a professional weariness of ultimately only adding to the ‘L’ column of the company spreadsheet.

It is a stigma that needs to be challenged. The potential for purpose isn’t limited to a one-way investment designed to give corporate communications departments an evidential proof point when the business’ morality is challenged. When adopted correctly – and implemented business-wide in a credible way – it is a strong commercial asset. A unique selling point. A mechanism to drive profit.

Sport is the perfect tool for delivering ‘profitable purpose’. It speaks to a mass audience – both internal and external. It makes the purpose narrative interesting as opposed to dull and overly worthy. And perhaps most importantly, it enables tangible social impact in a way that no other vehicle can.

But the narrative around sporting purpose needs to change from being viewed as a moral obligation to a commercial driver. And we need to be ok with that.

When Laureus launched the Sport for Good Index of the best brands using sport to drive social and ecological impact it was with the aim of setting a template for best practice. Of showcasing the power of sport in delivering impact and kickstarting a conversation in every business around considering investment into sport for good.

Laureus has been delivering social impact through sport for over 20 years. It operates as an end-to-end purpose solution – at one end of the scale is its network of over 200 high-profile athletes from across the world who provide the advocacy of the Laureus purpose and the global marketing platform and storytelling narrative, while at the other end, its charitable foundation delivers the work on the ground. Through a framework built around direct contribution to the UN SDGs, Laureus has positively impacted the lives of over 6 million young people through a network of 230 sport for good programmes in more than 40 countries.

What Laureus has consistently found during the last 2 decades, and that the judging process for the Index re-emphasised, was that the best examples of brands utilising sport to deliver their purpose did so not just because it was the right thing to do for society but also because it was the right thing to do for their business.

An investment in community can strength supply chains, employee bases, and customer demographics. It can make products and services more attractive to the buyer. It can provide a point of difference against the market competition. And, when you use sport as the purpose vehicle, these crucial metrics are amplified across the board.

The most consistent criticism from the judging panel – and this applied to brands that both made the Index list and those that missed out – was that all organisations could be doing more. More impact on society and crucially, greater adoption of the purpose and its commercial benefits across the business.

Bridging the gap between the corporate communications and marketing teams into the broader operational and commercial departments remains purpose’s biggest challenge. It is also possibly why there is very little publicly available evidence tying investment in social causes to the commercial performance of the business.

Perhaps this is seen as too vulgar a story to tell – to talk on one hand of societal impact and on the other of business profits. For fear that motives are in some way perceived but not pure. It is a negative take we all need to get over.

Purpose can be both the right thing for society and for business. And it doesn’t detract from the proposition at either end to view it that way.

To download the full list of brands on the Laureus Sport for Good Index and the case studies of their activities visit Home – Laureus – Sport For Good Index (sportspromedia.com)