The Ethical Agency

The National Business Initiative (NBI) is a voluntary coalition of South African and multinational companies, working together towards sustainable growth and development in South Africa. Since 1995, the NBI has been a collective movement of business leaders shaping a sustainable future, focusing on economic transition, social transformation, and environmental sustainability. With a membership base comprising the country’s largest and most successful companies and corporations, the NBI’s visual communication needs to be authoritative, professional, and forward-thinking. They engaged The Ethical Agency to refine their brand presence, ensuring it resonates with CEOs, policymakers, and international stakeholders, and to clearly communicate their social impact and work in the circular economy and sustainability sectors.

Client: National Business Initiative (NBI)

TEA created the brand identity, website, and digital marketing for End Food Waste ZA, the CGCSA campaign tackling household food waste across South Africa, which ran from June to December 2025. TEA partnered with the Consumer Goods Council of South Africa (CGCSA) to deliver the End Food Waste ZA campaign. We developed the full brand identity, built the campaign website at foodwaste.cgcsa.co.za, and ran a high-performance paid digital marketing campaign that reached over 3.1 million accounts on a R110k budget. We flipped the script. Instead of leading with environmental guilt, we reframed food waste as a personal financial opportunity: Reduce your food waste and save up to R1,200 per month. This positive psychology approach – focusing on personal benefit rather than environmental shame – became the campaign's core message, driving engagement rates more than double the industry average. TEA delivered end-to-end: full brand identity, a purpose-built campaign website at foodwaste.cgcsa.co.za, and a high-performance paid digital marketing campaign. The website included a meal planning template, leftover recipe guides, a food waste quiz, a fridge detective checklist, a wordsearch game, Instagram feed integration, newsletter signup, and a blog section. Every element was designed to move visitors from awareness to action. With a R110k total ad spend, the campaign reached 3,126,624 accounts and generated 7,414,889 impressions. The 2.06% click-through rate was more than double the 0.9-1% industry average, delivering 152,499 clicks versus a benchmark of ~27,500. Total page engagements reached 497,292 against an industry average of ~73,000. The Facebook CPM of R14.84 was a fraction of the R40-R70 industry standard. The project feeds into the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Goal 2 End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture.

Client: Consumer Goods Council of South Africa (CGCSA)