Marketing circular business models sprint
IN PERSON DATE: LONDON, 20 - 22 MAY
Circular business model pilots do not always scale as they do not generate enough consumer adoption to prove profitable. Ambitious and innovative organisations are trapped in a ‘circular pilots loop.’
Marketers have successfully driven unprecedented demand for linear solutions — so what if we channelled this knowledge, expertise, and creativity into driving circular solutions instead? This way, marketers can help unlock new revenue streams, build customer loyalty, and future-proof their brands.
This year’s sprint builds on the Foundation’s recently published Marketing playbook, which was co-developed with Kantar utilising learnings from last year’s Marketing sprint. The playbook outlines the role of marketers in the circular economycircular economyA systems solution framework that tackles global challenges like climate change, biodiversity loss, waste, and pollution. It is based on three principles, driven by design: eliminate waste and pollution, circulate products and materials (at their highest value), and regenerate nature. transition.
The playbook identifies four action pathways for marketers to seize circular economy opportunities. The Marketing sprint will focus on action pathways two and three: drive demand for circular propositions and make circular behaviours irresistible.
FlipFlipFlipFlipSprint objectives
Understand how to reach mass-market audiences with your circular business model
Challenge your customers’ circular economy journeys through a behavioural lens
Design a creative strategy for your circular proposition to test in your organisation
What will happen at the sprint?
PRE-SPRINT: Prepare
Company preparation: Identify the circular business model and project you would like to work on during the sprint and the relevant stakeholders who can support you to implement the sprint outputs.
Kick-off call: This will cover the sprint goals and agenda, participant introductions, and a chance to ask any final questions about the preparation needed. Accenture Song will join to share insights from their Our Human Moment report to broaden perspectives about people’s relationship with circularity and how marketers can use that understanding to maximise the impact and adoption of circular endeavours.
Pre-read: A curated package with circular economy and marketing resources to explore prior to the sprint.
DAY 1: Explore
Get inspired by outstanding examples of marketing circular business models
Unpick an existing circular customer journey, identify the target behaviour you want to influence, and design interventions to create more circular behaviours in your customers, led by Visa’s Behavioural Insights Lab
Connect with other marketers working on similar challenges
DAY 2: Create
Design a creative strategy to drive your target circular behaviour, led by our creative agency partner (to be announced)
Craft a compelling narrative for your creative strategy
Present to key stakeholders in your company for feedback
DAY 3: Refine
Receive peer feedback as you share your creative strategies
Refine your strategy with expert feedback and plan its implementation
Capture individual and collective learnings
POST-SPRINT: Test and iterate
Participant work: Finalise your creative strategy, share it internally, and test it, with the support of the Foundation or one of our sprint partners
Closing call: Share back key learnings and plan next steps
What will I gain from the Marketing sprint?
An in-depth understanding of how to successfully market circular business models
A creative strategy that marketers can continue to develop, use to engage internal stakeholders, and test to drive demand for circular propositions
A guide with the tools used during the sprint, as well as a collection of best practices uncovered by participants
Who should attend from my organisation and what project focus do we need to bring?
We require two participants per organisation to attend together. One marketing professional, plus one colleague from another relevant function, such as consumer/customer insights, sustainability/circular economy, supply chain, design, or legal (senior and mid-management level) should attend
An advanced understanding of the circular economy is highly desirable but not essential
At least three years’ marketing experience
When applying, please share the existing circular business model* you would like to focus on during the sprint (this must be at a prototype, pilot, or scaling phase)
* A circular business model, such as resale, rental, repair, product-as-a-service, refill, or remaking, decouples revenue from raw material extraction and production. This sprint will not prioritise business models focused on selling products made from recycled materials or interventions directed at curbside recycling.
Who else will be in the room?
This sprint is cross-sector, so a range of industries will present.
Time involvement for the sprint
The sprint consists of three phases:
Pre-work phase: 3 hours (virtual)
In-person phase: 2.5 days (in person in London)
Post-work phase: 1 hour + individual organisation testing (virtual)
Join us for our webinar — Marketing circular business models sprint: what you need to know.
23 January, 15:00 - 16:00 GMT
The webinar will include an introduction to the Marketing circular business models sprint, which will take place in London from 20 - 22 May 2025, and further information about the Foundation’s latest work on the role of marketing in accelerating the transition to a circular economy. You will also meet the team delivering the sprint.
The webinar will be recorded and a summary will be shared on this website after the event.
