What’s in this article:
- The core dos and don’ts of addressing social issues in your organization’s marketing efforts can significantly assist you in forming strong and long-lasting customer relationships
The last decade has seen a dramatic shift in what consumers expect from brand messaging. Regardless of industry, companies can no longer avoid the cultural conversation around prominent issues like racism and sexual misconduct.
This development has put marketers in a tough spot. They have to figure out how to earnestly address complex social issues while — at the same time — continue to advertise their product or service. It’s hard to come up with a more difficult dual mandate.
If you’re struggling to craft messages that tackle important topics with sincerity, then read on. Your existing customers will appreciate it – and existing customers are the secret sauce of growth for any brand out there.
Do: Write from the heart
Thanks to evolution, people have always been pretty good at spotting false emotions.
Social media has only increased our innate sensitivity, making earnestness essential when taking on big issues. And few things communicate earnestness like simplicity.
Expedia’s “Let’s Take a Trip” ad is an excellent example of this principle in action. During the middle of the pandemic, the travel service created an ad featuring a couple recreating the adventures they wanted to take in their living room. After watching the pair overcome their isolation with a mixture of ingenuity and laundry, the short commercial ends with one simple statement: “Imagine the places we’ll go, together.”
Shakespeare wrote that brevity is the soul of wit. It’s also the soul of sincerity.
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If you’re struggling to explain how you feel, don’t make things complicated. The shortest expression of the sentiment is often the most genuine.
Don’t: Overstate your impact
As Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong recently noted, “It can take decades to move the needle on large global challenges.” Many of today’s salient social advancements were earned through the sacrifices of millions of people. While the internet is accelerating the pace of change, it’s important to remember that any organization’s effect on any of these challenges is quite limited.
Few ads have made this mistake more than Pepsi’s “Live for Now” commercial. Focusing on a Pepsi-branded protest rally waving generic signs like “Join the Conversation,” the ad climaxes when Kendall Jenner — after abandoning a photoshoot — hands a Pepsi to a police officer. Almost universally panned, the ad seemed to hijack the Black Lives Matter movement, sanitize it, and then suggest that the secret to social change lies in 12-ounce cans of soda.
If you want to connect with your audience on a cause, remember you’re just one helping hand among many. Realism is far more relatable — and endearing — than well-meaning exaggeration.
Do: What you say you believe in
There’s no hiding the alignment between your actions and your messaging in the digital age, which means a brand’s integrity is more important than ever.
For years, Apple has made a public commitment to sustainable business practices. In 2020, the consumer tech behemoth pledged to become fully carbon neutral by the end of this decade. As bold as their statements have been, Apple has been remarkably good at following through. They have, for instance, dramatically reduced their energy use and increasingly relied on recycled material in their products. It’s no small feat to turn the world’s most valuable company green, but they seem well on their way. And the effort has earned Apple respect.
But not all brands are as successful living out their stated values, and that disconnect can be highly pronounced.
YouTube has long come under fire for its content moderation practices, especially from independent creators. The platform’s policies on demonetization, content removal, and channel deletion have received widespread criticism for their opacity. So, when YouTube was recently awarded a freedom of expression award — during an event sponsored by YouTube itself — it raised many eyebrows. It is perhaps unsurprising that the award presentation video, as of the time of this writing, has received 180 likes to 52,000 dislikes.