Sky announces that Serious Tissues has won Sky Zero Footprint Fund’s 2022 Grand Prix £1m prize
The award-winning fund is a £2m advertising initiative, which uses TV’s voice to inspire behavioural change for a more sustainable future
The other four finalists Ecosia, Homethings, Royal Mail, and WUKA have already secured a £250k media value, which will be used to support their sustainable initiatives. The brands all presented their advertisements during the showcase. All ads will be unveiled in early 2023
Sky has revealed Serious Tissues as the Grand Prix winner of its 2022 Sky Zero Footprint Fund initiative – a £2m advertising fund which supports and aims to inspire others to join the journey to Net Zero Carbon. The fund was established in 2021 to aid the acceleration and amplification of initiatives to drive behavioural change and tangible impact towards a more sustainable future.
Serious Tissues, which produces 100% recycled toilet roll, was selected as the winner of the Grand Prix £1m media value prize ahead of Sky’s other four finalists – Ecosia, Homethings, Royal Mail, and WUKA – at a showcase held yesterday. All five shortlisted businesses have already secured £250,000 as part of the scheme with Serious Tissues receiving an extra £750k in media value.
“Winning this prize is absolutely game-changing for us,” said Chris Baker, Co-founder of Serious Tissues. “It’s tough starting a business, going up against huge players. So many brands are looking to disrupt and would benefit from the power of TV to reach mass audiences. We are so grateful to have been given this opportunity by Sky to access TV advertising in such an early stage of our business, something we never thought was possible.”
Martin McAllister, Co-founder of Serious Tissues added, “We want to congratulate all of the finalists for not only their brilliant ads but also their efforts towards a sustainable future. It has been an absolute blast getting to know everyone through the process and are already excited about making the most of the prize.”
The decision was made yesterday (Wednesday 7th December) at the Curzon Soho in London following presentations from each brand, where they unveiled their sustainable ads. The winning campaign was selected by a panel of expert judges with extensive experience in advertising, creativity and sustainability. Judges included advertising legend Sir John Hegarty, Su-Mei Thompson (CEO of the Media Trust), Stephen Woodford (Chair of the Advertising Association), Fiona Ball (Group Director of Bigger Picture at Sky), Gideon Spanier (UK Editor in Chief of Campaign), Juliet Davenport (Founder of Good Energy and Author of The Green Start-up), Bruce Crouch (Executive Creative Director of Hatch London), and Tara Chandra (Co-Founder and CEO of Here We Flo).
Judges were extremely impressed with all the final creatives presented, but after a tough deliberation, Serious Tissues secured the Grand Prix million-pound prize because of its “category-changing product” and the compelling way their mission was displayed throughout their advert, written and produced by Wonderhood Studios, with Brilliant Artists and Oh Studio.
Sarah Jones Director of Planning at Sky Media commented, “We’re thrilled that we were able to bring back the Sky Zero Footprint Fund for a second year. This takes our total investment to £4m of advertising value that’s helping drive sustainable behaviour change.
All five of our winners will play a key role in encouraging the nation to make changes to help the planet, using the power of TV. I want to issue a huge congratulations to Serious Tissues for winning the £1m Grand Prix, against a group of outstanding pitches.”
The five winning ads were all produced following best practice advice and recommendations from the Advertising Association’s AdGreen programme. The ad campaigns will roll out in early 2023.
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