The Move to -15°C (case study)

The Move to -15°C initiative was designed to unite stakeholders at every stage of the cold chain to change the standard temperature of global frozen food, accelerating decarbonization and building resilience for the world’s future food needs, without compromising food safety or quality.

CHALLENGE
Container shipping ensures equal access to food worldwide but comes with an environmental cost. DP World wanted a sustainability campaign that showed action, to increase trust amongst B2B stakeholders.
For the last century, we have shipped frozen food worldwide at the globally recognized standard temperature of -18 degrees Celsius. Every degree has significant impact on global warming. Together with DP World, we asked a potentially world-changing question: does the freezing temperature have to be that cold?
After months of research with independent academics we arrived at a ground-breaking answer: A temperature change of three degrees wouldn’t harm the food inside the shipping containers, but for the world outside would be transformative, promising energy savings of 25 terawatt-hours and 17.7M tons of carbon annually.
We called our initiative The Move to -15° and shifted focus onto how we could enlist businesses throughout the global cold chain to adopt the transformative change.

STRATEGY
Competitors had to become partners. After ensuring we had robust data showing that a temperature change of three degrees wouldn’t harm the frozen food, we focused our strategy on turning competitors to allies and encouraging everyone to move from -18°C to -15°C, for the sake of our planet.
It was vital to ensure that DP World’s findings and carbon-saving approach could be embraced by the whole industry, so we homed in on our target audience — global companies within the cold chain shipping industry.
We selected an unbranded neutral name, The Move to -15° and created campaign assets that could be perceived as neutral and were therefore adoptable by competitors. Neutral industry expert, Thomas Eskesen, with 40 years’ experience at some of our biggest competitors was engaged to galvanize support from industry stakeholders. We launched at COP28, the world’s most important event for industry collaboration for the greater good.

EXECUTION
Before COP28, we published a comprehensive report, where we shared our research openly and freely with all our competitors. During COP28, we launched a 360 campaign with film and visual assets. We hosted an -15°C event at the DPW House where the academics shared more about their research. A panel discussion was had with key members of industry discussing the Coalition’s potential, and Maha Al Qattan, Chief Sustainability Officer at DP World, took part in a Q&A about it.
An open letter to urge companies to join our initiative. A dedicated microsite with our hero video, academic report, infographic and key messaging put the idea out to the world and content was shared on the social media channels of key DPW stakeholders, supported by paid campaigns on LinkedIn. A press release went out to UAE, international and trade media announcing the research findings and our launching of the Coalition to start the move to -15°C.

OUTCOME
We successfully challenged an industry standard that had reigned for about 100 years. 60% of the global shipping container industry has signed up to our initiative, along with more global companies, including 17 of the world’s biggest food producers, refrigeration companies, haulers and warehouses. We achieved 4.4M views, organic and paid, for our hero film.
Trust for DP World went up with 11% after the campaign, measured by their year-on-year brand tracking from Brand Finance. This made it the most trusted brand within their competitor set. The initiative received positive news coverage in key global business media, including Forbes, Bloomberg, Yahoo Finance and the campaign landed strongly with the trade and sector media, including specialist sector publications Cold Chain News, The Lode Star, The Grocer, Just Food and more.
Helle Thorning Schmidt, the former Prime Minister of Denmark, said: “It’s powerful to see competitors come together on something momentous, which doesn’t require new tech, just collaboration.”