Active International and OVO Energy
When media spend grows trees
How we helped OVO turn media investment into environmental action people could see.
When OVO was founded, they set out to make energy fairer, greener and simpler.
So when they moved their media buying to Goodstuff, they wanted their investment to reflect that commitment. They asked us for proactive ideas. Not just to talk about sustainability, but to make it visible and real.
The Challenge
A purpose led energy brand needed media to do more than carry a message.
OVO did not want their media to simply talk about sustainability. They wanted it to actively contribute to it.
They needed a Corporate Trade partner creative enough to make that happen.
The Solution
Linking media spend to measurable environmental action.
We created a simple but powerful mechanism: for every £1,000 of media spend, we committed to planting one tree.
The initiative was delivered in partnership with The Conservation Volunteers, a charity that works with communities to restore and protect green spaces.
It was not a bolt-on. It was not a separate CSR initiative running alongside the media plan. It was built into the media investment itself, giving OVO’s sustainability message a tangible, visible form that people could see and take part in.
The Impact
The initiative helped turn media value into measurable environmental and community impact.
Why It Mattered
Most media spend is invisible. This was not.
It turned OVO’s sustainability commitments into something measurable and real. It connected their media investment directly to community action and gave them a more distinctive way to show what their brand stands for.
Make your media investment do more
The OVO story worked because all three sides of our model were aligned: a brand with a clear purpose, an agency in Goodstuff with the ambition to do something different, and a Corporate Trade model that could turn media value into visible impact.
When those relationships work together, media can do more than deliver a campaign. It can create value that is commercial, creative and tangible.
Whether you are a brand, an agency or a media owner, we would love to show you what this could look like for you.
