37. Creating change, driving sustainability, and rethinking everything with Mike Spirkovski

How can we use creativity to drive sustainability action on a global scale?

On the latest episode of The B-Side with James Barrow - the first for 2023, I had the pleasure of chatting with Mike Spirkovski, the former chief creative officer of Saatchi & Saatchi Australia. He is now the co-founder of Rethink Everything, a creative company that solves complex business problems by integrating creativity and imagination to create positive and sustainable change.

Mike shares his experience in the advertising industry, where he developed a passion for creating impactful ideas for good. He discusses how this led him to double down on this journey to co-found Rethink Everything, which provides him access to experts from various fields, such as environmental science, sustainability, marketing, public relations, and politics, allowing him to extend his reach beyond traditional agencies.

He explains the Rethink Everything business model and how he is partnering with brands to tackle some of society's most significant challenges. Like Citizens of the Great Barrier Reef, spearheading the Great Reef Census campaign, a groundbreaking global citizen science effort to survey and protect the largest reef system in the world.

We discuss how organisations can integrate sustainability initiatives into their brand purpose rather than keeping them as part of a separate ESG strategy. And we jam on purpose-driven marketing, measuring the success of sustainability campaigns, the perils of greenwashing, and the need for brands to be authentic in their actions and marketing communications.

Mike and Rethink Everything are committed to making a difference and creating unprecedented, wide-reaching impact. It was a fascinating and inspiring conversation and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Cheers!

You can find Mike here: linkedin.com/in/mike-spirkovski-6087a113
Learn more about Rethink Everything here: http://rethinkeverything.au/
Take part in the Great Reef Census here: https://greatreefcensus.org/