Andy Last: Leveraging Authentic Communications for Social Impact

Doing Good Podcast by Amra Naidoo

In this episode I had a chat with Andy Last who is the co-founder of Salt. Recently acquired by MullenLowe, and now known as MullenLowe Salt, the company is a strategic communications agency. As one of the first companies in the UK to be accredited as a B-Corporation, MullenLowe Salt advises organisations on they can use social issues to drive growth, and how communications can effect change to bring about better business results and social progress.

In this episode we chat about how communications can be used as a tool to drive positive social changed. As an example that we discuss in this episode, you’ve likely seen the Lifebuoy soap campaign which Andy has worked on for over a decade - it’s one of the award-winning social campaigns that he’s been behind and an exampled of how change can be effected through communications.

With over 25 years of experience in the industry, Andy has led the development of salt’s Social Mission model to create sustainable, progressive campaigns for brands and businesses, associations and not-for-profits. His book – ‘Business on a Mission: How to Build a Sustainable Brand’ - also goes into more depth about his journey and the use of communications to drive impact within businesses. Being a marketing & communications professional myself, you’ll know from previous episodes that I’m a bit of a skeptic when it comes to the use of marketing & communications to drive social impact because motivations are often not aligned and can result in solutions designed for PR, rather than what’s actually needed and sustainable. I had a really great chat with Andy about this so am keen to hear what you think about what he has to say.