Nature takes centre stage in Britannia’s billboard campaign

FMCG company Britannia flipped the script on outdoor advertising to spotlight its continued commitment to its sustainable practices. The brand let nature take the lead in its latest campaign, to highlight its ESG commitments over years.

The ‘Nature Shapes Britannia’ OOH initiative literally take the shape of trees around them, establishing both metaphorically and visually, how the company adapts to nature and not the other way around. Each billboard comes accompanied with a message about Britannia’s progress in sustainability across various facets: from plastic neutrality, to waste management and harnessing a circular economy; to water stewardship and energy management.

The trees decide the art direction and typography of the billboards next to them: they decide how to ‘shape’ Britannia. Making the brand name sometimes curve down, sometimes up, sometimes cramping it, sometimes making it bounce.

The campaign’s creative agency, Talented worked with multiple media partners to bring alive a unique media strategy that’s counterintuitive to conventional billboard selection process. Since media agencies don’t keep active data of billboards ‘blocked by trees’ in top Indian cities, the selection process involved boots on the ground.

Amit Doshi, chief marketing officer, Britannia, “Britannia has been committed to being a sustainable organisation with a deep commitment towards its strategic ESG pillars. Through years, we’ve learnt that sustainability needs a conscious, adaptive, flexible approach. This initiative is an embodiment of this flexible approach with nature shaping ‘Britannia’, quite literally. The team ensured even the material used for the hoardings was 100% cotton biodegradable, ensuring we stay committed to the cause we are delivering.”

Aabhaas Shreshtha, founding member and creative, Talented said, “Nature shapes Britannia and so it was natural for us to want nature to shape its advertising as well. And so began our mission to find ‘rare trees with billboards right next to them’.”

He added that after a long and rigorous recce-ing with its media partners, the agency studied the contours of each tree, understood its growth and coverage, and designed around them. “Large-scale sustainability charters are extremely consequential in the bigger picture, but can feel distant. By partnering with nature around us to tell the story, Britannia is bridging that gap,” Shreshtha stated.

Sonia Lal, Partner Coral Media, “We were pleasantly surprised when we were briefed on the current campaign ask and honestly feel incredibly proud to support Britannia’s initiative. It is not just a wonderful way to show the impact of the brand’s sustainability initiatives but a signal from one of the country’s long-standing advertisers to other advertisers and media owners to think differently. Not everything great must come at the cost of nature.”

The ‘Nature Shapes Britannia’ OOH went live in four cities including Hyderabad, Kolkata, Meerut and Pune, in partnership with a range of trees including Nag Kesar, Aam, Neem and Peepal.

Campaign’s take: In a move to challenge conventional outdoor advertising, Britannia’s ‘Nature Shapes Britannia’ campaign exemplifies a fresh approach to sustainability storytelling. By letting the trees surrounding billboards dictate the design and typography, the FMCG giant creates a striking metaphor: adaptability to nature rather than dominance over it.

Each installation highlights Britannia's environmental commitments, from achieving plastic neutrality to advancing waste management and water stewardship. This creative twist in execution, with billboards curving and bending to accommodate trees, effectively conveys the brand’s ESG ethos while also making an undeniable visual impact.

However, this campaign raises important questions about substance versus symbolism in corporate sustainability efforts. While the biodegradable materials and unique media strategy are commendable, such initiatives risk being seen as performative if they aren't matched by measurable, long-term results in environmental impact.

Additionally, the reliance on a ground-level scouting process to find suitable locations highlight the impracticality of scaling such a concept widely. Still, by physically embedding its message into natural surroundings, Britannia provides an innovative template for brands aiming to make their sustainability efforts feel authentic and immediate. Ultimately, ‘Nature Shapes Britannia’ nudges the conversation towards whether more brands should embrace such cooperative, ground-level approaches to align with their sustainability promises.