Locate Productions
We are thrilled to announce our newest addition to the Ethical Agency Alliance: Locate Productions
A production company with over 20 years’ experience showing the industry how to shift from any‑brief work to planet‑positive, regenerative storytelling:
“Our aim is to show the ad industry you can transition a business from taking on any and every brief, to one that not only aligns with a sustainable planet but one that helps regenerate it and that the business can be more profitable and retain all its staff.
We want to move the conversation from ‘how to be less bad’ to ‘how to be part of the solution’. The role of authentic, live-action production companies can be key to this; the talent and skills exist and I believe there is a desire to do this work. It’s just how we get paid for doing it.”
Find out more: https://www.locateproductions.com
Below, read the interview with Angus Light, Co-Founder & Executive Producer at Locate Productions👇
What does creativity for good look like to you?
It means producing work for brands and organisations where the campaign aims to do more than just generate sales. Working for clients that have genuine values beyond simply maximising profit.
How do you drive change in your work?
Having set up 20 years ago our approach very much comes from a position within the industry, where we feel our sphere of influence is at its strongest.
We are Certified B Corp & 1% for the Planet members but we are also APA and AOP members.
We helped design the AdGreen Carbon Calculator and fed into the Ad Net Zero 2030 Report, decline work for the fossil fuel sector and aviation industry and channel our skills and expertise to supporting nature recovery projects that need our services.
We use our production expertise to create experiences in Nature as well as producing video and photographic campaigns.
What are some examples of creativity being used to drive climate action that inspire you?
The Purpose Disruptors 'Agency for Nature - Season 2' campaign. 5 different briefs from 5 creative agencies aiming to improve nature connectedness for the 12-30 yrs age brackets.
The work reached over 25 million people being shown across OOH, TVC's, Cinema, social and online around the UK and beyond.
Moving away from sludgy greens to bright pinks, it showed how re-branding 'Nature' works and aligning it with youth communities and pop culture can change people's perspectives at scale.
When and how did you have the 'aha'-moment to transition your agency to focus on sustainability?
I grew up at the Centre for Alternative Technology in Mid Wales in the 70's and 80's so it's always been part of my DNA. But I ended up working in production in my early 20's, enjoying the work I was doing but knowing at the back of my mind a lot of it wasn't good.
Around 2018/2019 was when we started to really make changes at Locate. The IPCC report that said we had until 2030 led to us having our first Carbon Literacy training session. Around then AdGreen had just launched and Ad Net Zero used us as a production company case study in their report.
From around 2019/2020 I attended my first Purpose Disruptors event and we started adding 1% for Nature to our budgets and made a commitment to not work for fossil fuel brands.
Seeing others taking a stance inspires you to make changes and normalises a new way of doing things, helping justify your own decision making.
What is your biggest challenge as an Ethical Agency?
How to define an ethical brief when you need to respond to a client within hours if you are going to decline it. And turning down work when faced with financial challenges.
We work in production so don't have any retainers or contracts and rely purely on project by project work. The same client can come to us with an amazing purpose-led brief but also briefs for sectors we don't want to work in, so managing that relationship can be tricky.
Decisions to take on work are also dependent on the present financial situation. A strong pipeline allows you to be more stringent.
Working on briefs you are not comfortable with is sometimes needed in order to bring a client with you; a bit of a 'we make bad businesses better and good businesses bigger' principle.
Measuring and reporting accurately is another challenge for a business of our size and limited resources. And as a production company the metrics we need to consider aren't straight forward. B Corp is largely centred around revenue levels. But that's not a fair playing field given the different budgets that exist. Time dedicated to different types of briefs and jobs is probably more effective, or Output (the amount of work we produce) as a metric might be more useful.
Why did you join our Ethical Agency Alliance?
The challenge facing the production sector isn't one of values and ethics; it’s one of secure income and revenue streams. I believe the vast majority of crew, suppliers and production companies are progressive in their thinking and ideally don't want to be making work for brands that are destroying the planet. Excessive profit isn't the motivating factor in our world.
But how do we find the work we want to be doing to replace the work we don't - hopefully this is where the Ethical Agency Alliance comes in.
We also need support from organisations like C4C to help us upskill and improve, to help us learn how to be better.
What do you believe needs to change for the creative industry to be a real force for good?
For the purpose-led sector to outperform the more traditional revenue streams. For businesses that are aligned to a sustainable future to start winning contracts that others want. The business case for making these changes needs to replace it just being a values-led decision.
