Health & Beauty
Ethical media
Iain Patton, director at Ethical Team, asks whether we can save ourselves by harnessing the power of global comms and advertising.
30 July 2019
This article first appeared in our World Environment Day 2026 issue of My Green Pod Magazine, published 05 June 2026. Click here to subscribe to our digital edition and get each issue delivered straight to your inbox
Good intentions don’t always change minds – but great creative can.
Earlier this year, StrategiQ entered into a strategic partnership with Four Acres, a groundbreaking new sustainability startup that has been designed to connect people with the Earth and their environmental responsibility.
The Four Acres proposition is powerfully simple: if you were to divide the Earth equally, every person would be responsible for roughly four acres of the planet.
Our role as the creative partner was to bring the brand to life through a new visual identity, website and launch film that debuted in Times Square on Earth Day (22 April) 2026. Our ongoing partnership will help build and promote the brand over the next 12 months, to help drive environmental awareness and action globally. It’s the kind of brief that reminds you why creative work can be extraordinary.
We’re also proud to be sponsoring this year’s P.E.A. Awards as creative partner; we’ll be producing the digital creative for the event and supporting the social media presence, and on the day our head of creative will deliver a talk on how to build brands with purpose – because we believe that’s a conversation worth having in public.
The P.E.A. Awards echo our belief that creativity is most powerful when it’s in service of something larger than itself. The awards sit alongside work from brands we deeply respect and campaigns that prove you don’t have to choose between commercial effectiveness and doing the right thing.
Our happy place is creating space for big ideas, defining culture and making brands unmissable in the moments that matter. It’s about always doing what’s right, not what’s easy.
From an AI-powered film told through the eyes of a pangolin for the David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation to a rebrand empowering young people to see a better future for themselves through Inspire Suffolk, we believe that the briefs that really break boundaries are the ones that lead to meaningful change in the real world.
While we’re proud of our award-winning work, what matters most is the environment we create for our people, the opportunities we open up for clients and future generations and our role in shaping a more sustainable, equitable world.
Something we never compromise on is our wellbeing, development and leadership programmes. We support our people at every stage of their career with annual performance reviews, motivation maps, 1-1s and a dedicated People Team, so we can maintain a safe and supportive culture.
We think that agencies who look after their people make better, braver, more empathetic work – and that in turn, that creates a better world.
Burnout produces mediocre thinking and fear leads to playing it safe – but belonging produces the kind of creative risk-taking that actually moves us forward. Our purpose is to transform lives beyond the day job. Our mantra? Attitude is everything.
People truly are the heart of our business – this is something we hold close and nurture wherever we can, and it’s where our ESG journey is at its strongest.
It’s entirely possible to run an agency at full capacity, with every person working at the edge of their bandwidth to produce decent work. But it’s also possible to build an agency where people can actually grow, where the best talent wants to stay and where the quality of the thinking reflects the quality of the environment.
In recent years we’ve been named Best Place to Work by the Sunday Times and our HR tool has won a UK Company Culture Award.
We’re dedicated to supporting young talent through work placements and internships, and recently hired three client execs early in their career. They are now training within our client services team.
At the beginning of last year we moved the StrategiQ HQ from Suffolk to London. It was a big move, so we had to get it right. Being a stone’s throw from Liverpool Street station was a priority to ensure people could easily travel into the office using public transport.
Our London office runs on 100% renewable electricity and we support hybrid working to reduce travel. Our building also has secure bike storage, which means we are able to make carbon-free commuting a reality for London-based workers. These aren’t exactly radical commitments, but every small decision ladders up to reducing our footprint.
We’re not claiming to be forerunners in ESG, but we’re a good bunch who want to achieve good things. We’re committed to running a better business and producing work that makes a positive contribution.
The brands we want to work with share that viewpoint; they might not necessarily be brands that have perfect sustainability credentials, but they are honest about where they are, clear about where they’re heading and willing to invest in the work that makes a purposeful position credible in the market.
We also work with youth charities like Inspire Suffolk, often sponsoring their annual ball and amplifying their support for young people from a wide range of backgrounds.
We’re always open to new ideas, initiatives and partnerships that will help us grow responsibly. If something here resonates, or if you have thoughts on where we could go further, we’d love to hear from you.
Iain Patton, director at Ethical Team, asks whether we can save ourselves by harnessing the power of global comms and advertising.
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