‘Wear Wool, Not Fossil Fuel’ – Successful Woolmark’s Eco-Campaign
During the past two years, AWI’s marketing arm The Woolmark Company has run a powerful and successful eco-campaign to reinforce to consumers the message that synthetic fibres are made from oil, and that consumers should instead choose wool because it is a natural, renewable and biodegradable fibre.
The ‘Wear Wool, Not Fossil Fuel’ campaign reached 131 million video views 850 million impressions. 75% of viewers expressed intent to purchase wool.
The Woolmark Company’s eco-focused marketing campaign that ran during 2022 and 2023 has helped educate the public about the harmful impact of synthetic fibres on the environment, and that choosing a natural fibre such as wool can help reduce the fashion industry’s impact on the planet. The campaign was launched as a response to findings from research conducted by The Woolmark Company which showed that while more than one third of global consumers said they were willing to pay more for sustainable apparel, they did not consider a product’s fibre composition when considering what garment to purchase. Furthermore, the research highlighted that consumers were not making the connection that synthetic fibres are made from fossil fuels.
It is these problems that The Woolmark Company’s campaign aimed to address. In the initial year (2022), the eco-campaign focussed on delivering a series of powerful visual messages through the emotive ‘Wear Wool, Not Fossil Fuel’ video that highlights the link between fabrics made from synthetic fibres and the crude oil used in its manufacture. The amazing reception of the video in 2022 resulted in The Woolmark Company running this aspect of the campaign again in 2023.
In 2023, The Woolmark Company also launched the ‘Filter by Fabric’ aspect of the eco-campaign which urges fashion brands to commit to transparent, accurate product names that reflect fabric composition. The initiative also empowers consumers to prioritise fabric impact when making purchasing decisions.
Eco-campaigns vital to support demand AWI CEO John Roberts says The Woolmark Company’s recent eco-campaign has been aimed at helping reverse the rise of fast fashion, which is dominated by synthetic fibres such as polyester, and increase demand for long-lasting clothing made from wool. “As a natural, renewable, biodegradable and the most recycled apparel fibre, wool is well placed to take advantage of the profound market shift towards environmentally friendly products – it is a great opportunity for wool. However, the market’s rush towards sustainability also presents a threat to wool, due to the large amount of greenwashing that is being undertaken by those brands that are heavily reliant on synthetic fibres, to make synthetic fibres appear more sustainable,” John said.
“AWI has been investing in research right across the supply chain to produce robust scientific evidence to counter this greenwashing and misinformation, and support the company’s marketing initiatives to increase the demand for wool. “It is vital that the wool industry continues to invest in marketing to address the opportunities and threats it faces, to promote wool’s natural eco-credentials and ensure that consumers are not misled but make truly informed decision when purchasing products.
“Marketing campaigns such as our ‘Wear Wool, Not Fossil Fuel’ and ‘Filter by Fabric’ initiatives have been very successful, but the industry needs more campaigns like this in the future to continue to increase consumers’ knowledge about the attributes of different fibre types and to promote the environmental benefits of wool.”
The ‘Wear Wool, Not Fossil Fuel’ aspect of the campaign centred around a 60-second impactful film that shows people struggling to escape an oil-filled swimming pool, which is a dramatic visual based on the insight that every 25 minutes an Olympic pool’s worth of crude oil is used to produce synthetic clothing (which amounts to almost 350 million barrels a year). The video then sees the people wearing wool clothes, wandering with freedom through forests, streams and meadows – a natural paradise – which emphasises the natural attributes of the wool they are now wearing.
Source: AWI