Grey partnered with Zespri to transform a hidden environmental crisis into a category-defining opportunity. With over 900 million tons of fruit produced annually generating trillions of plastic-based stickers and 25,000 tonnes of waste, Zespri needed to move beyond incremental improvements to revolutionary industry leadership. 

The agency's strategic counsel guided Zespri through a four-year, $4 million innovation journey, positioning the world's first fully home compostable fruit sticker not just as a product launch, but as an industry transformation catalyst. Grey crafted the narrative that elevated Zespri from fruit producer to sustainability pioneer, ensuring this breakthrough technology would become the new global standard, not just a competitive advantage. 

Tiny Innovation. Massive Industry Transformation.

Famous

Grey engineered a strategic collision between technical innovation and radical business philosophy. While competitors focused on surface-level eco-solutions, Zespri had already identified the invisible villain undermining all sustainability efforts: the non-compostable adhesive. 

The breakthrough insight wasn't just solving the technical challenge—it was redefining Zespri's role from competitor to industry catalyst. Grey positioned Zespri's counterintuitive decision to open-source their breakthrough technology as the ultimate cultural disruption: choosing collaborative transformation over proprietary profit. 

This collision was amplified through strategic storytelling, framing Zespri's scientific achievement within a larger narrative of corporate responsibility evolution. The campaign demonstrated that genuine leadership means elevating entire industries, transforming individual innovation into collective progress—a philosophy that resonated globally and drove unprecedented industry adoption. 

Effective

• 200 brands across 20 countries adopted the technology within six months 

• 82 trillion cumulative decomposition years saved  

• 156,000 tonnes of methane reduction achieved via industry-wide implementation