Finding Purpose and Cultivating Alternatives for the Future
This Week We're Finding Purpose, Breaking Down An Iconic Alternative Meat Ad, and Meeting the New Faces of Brighter Future
Welcome back to Changemakers, the official newsletter of Brighter Future.
Thank you for being a member of this community and joining us in the evolution of the Brighter Future newsletter. Each edition of Changemakers will include insights on brand storytelling, conversations with industry investors and founders, and deep dives into different aspects of planet-driven business.
This week, we’re sharing some advice on finding your purpose as a founder, providing a deep dive into a recent innovative marketing strategy, and introducing a couple of new faces here at Brighter Future.
Check out this week’s topics…
Advice on Finding Purpose with Antonella De Lazzari of Naturannova
Breaking Down Impossible’s Alternative Meat Advertisement
Meet the New Faces of Brighter Future
The Brighter Future Course, Impact Festival, and Other Announcements
Finding Purpose and Fighting for the Future with Antonella De Lazzari of Naturannova
Antonella De Lazzari is a co-founder of Naturannova, an organisation that aims to create natural, peptide-based, functional, and sustainable ingredients across various industries. The biotech startup harnesses nature's power through proprietary technology, integrating data, AI, and bioinformatics.
We spoke to De Lazzari about her work and her path to co-founding her startup, where she shared some advice for future entrepreneurs.
Check out the rest of her origin story below.
What lessons have you learned from overcoming setbacks, and how have they contributed to your growth as an entrepreneur and as an individual in general?
One major lesson I've taken away is that many concepts I’ve encountered in forums like the World Economic Forum or through courses from organisations like the Exponential Foundation— ideas or businesses that seemed impossible to me— were more attainable than I once thought.
At a certain point in my life, I was confined to a traditional job because I deemed these aspirations impossible. But I realised that success hinged on locating the right resources, nurturing the desire to pursue those goals, and taking decisive action.
This realisation marked a significant turning point in my journey. Additionally, the issue of self-confidence emerged, which is closely tied to my previous point. When you convince yourself you're incapable, it becomes the main thing that keeps you from your goals.
What kind of advice would you offer to someone seeking a similar path as yours?
Feel free to pursue what you believe and feel you should follow. Please don't give up on the quest to find your purpose; we all have one, and its discovery can sometimes require time. That's the primary point— pursue what resonates with you.
Next, cultivate patience and kindness. Embrace the journey more than the outcomes, for it can be challenging to handle frustration. There might be moments of feeling lost, inadequate, or unsure about how to infuse meaning into life, but these are instances where searching in the right places and having the will to act matter.
Occasionally, self-doubt might creep in, suggesting that you lack the skill or that success is unattainable. Just remember that it's simply a matter of taking action and committing to it.
Breaking Down One of Our Favorite Alternative Meat Advertisements
Impossible Foods recently made one of the best plant-based burger advertisements we’ve ever seen. The thirty seconds of high-octane marketing for meat-free meat grabbed us by our lapels and ended, improbably, with a man exploding through a door on a dirt bike and blasting into the hills of Los Angeles.
The advertisement is a masterclass on how storytelling can change product perception and consumer behaviour. At Brighter Future, we’re always looking for innovative ads like these and love to dissect the ways they make an impact on their audience.
Therefore, let’s break down Impossible’s “Meat from Plants” ad…
1. Character Development: The host of the advertisement is a masculine man whose meatiness embodies the brand identity. He inhabits a world of traditional American imagery, including county fairs and cookouts that directly appeal to hardcore meat eaters, the target audience who is often sceptical of plant-based alternatives.
2. Humour and Irony: With macho humour, this advertisement flips the table on anti-meat tropes and vegetarian branding. The brand is not afraid of eating meat; instead, it instructs meat-eaters to "solve the meat problem by eating more meat,” just the plant-based kind.
3. Cultural References and Settings: The advertisement’s settings are classically meat-centric and highlight situations where meat is celebrated, from backyard family barbecues to celebratory hotdog-eating contests. In many ways, this highlights the ways that meat-eating is a cultural experience, and the advertisement states plainly that their Impossible products will not compromise these celebrations.
4. Inclusive Messaging: The ad aims for a wide audience with family scenes and diverse actors from various ages and backgrounds. In this way, using a wide demographic of people and cultures provides viewers with the message that eating plant-based meat is a step forward for everyone.
5. Health and Environmental Messaging: The advertisement subtly connects health issues such as high cholesterol and overconsumption with traditional sources of meat without coming across as condescending or shameful. Instead, the advertisement offers a compassionate and understandable solution that doesn’t require intense compromise: eat more meat.
Impossible Foods' campaign is an incredible piece of narrative marketing that truly uniquely connects with its target audience. They’ve crafted a story that speaks directly to a reluctant audience of meat eaters by aligning with their values and lifestyle and proposing a real solution that works for everyone.
They are fighting meat with meat, and we’re sure it’s going to succeed.
We’ve Got Some New Faces at Brighter Future
We’re excited to announce the arrival of a couple of new faces here on the Brighter Future team; Kate Rushton and Mahler Meyerrose.
Kate is our new Community Lead and will be working closely to connect with the Brighter Future community and create more engagement opportunities. She has a background in building and managing communities for brands, startups, and international organisations. Before joining our team, Kate studied Environmental Management at Nottingham University and formally worked as an Energy Analyst focusing on renewables. In her free time, she loves to paddle board, drink coffee, or spend time in nature.
Mahler is our Community Engagement Specialist and will assist Kate with various tasks, including helping foster more engagement between the brand and the community. Mahler recently completed her MSc in Climate Change Finance and Investment at the University of Edinburgh's Business School. She has a passion for sustainability, climate finance, and clean technologies and is driven by the belief that we can create a more sustainable future for all.
Join us in welcoming them to the Brighter Future team and community; we’re lucky to have them be a part of our efforts to build a better tomorrow.
Brighter Future Course Beta
We’ve only got a few more spots open for the beta-testing program of the Brighter Future Brand Strategy course.
If you’re interested in providing feedback, suggestions for the content, and sharing your thoughts on the beta version of the branding course, contact us below.
Thank you to anyone who has reached out to us to provide some feedback on the structure and content of the course. We are excited to work through your notes and suggestions to get this tool out into the world soon.
Impact Festival Tickets
Next month, we’re heading to the Impact Festival to connect with people and organisations working to make a positive impact on the planet. As mentioned, we’ve met some great people at the event in recent years, and we highly recommend attending for anyone working in planet-driven business.
That’s why we’re excited to announce that we’re giving away tickets for this year’s festival, which is being held in Frankfurt, Germany, on October 30th and 31st.
If you are interested in attending, we’re giving away 8 free tickets for the festival. Sign up using the form below to claim your tickets before they sell out. We hope to see you there!
Thanks for joining us this week. We’ll be back with the next edition of Changemakers in a couple of weeks. See you soon.
Cheers,
The Brighter Future Team
