This content originally appeared on November 5, 2020 in the Future of Marketing weekly email series. Subscribe here.
Welcome to issue no. 37 of Future of Marketing.
Each week, we send you the most relevant trends, resources, and strategies in social and user-generated content (UGC) from marketing leaders around the globe.
This week, weâre discussingâŚ
- Why brands should speak up on important topics
- Social listening and reading the room
- How the Calm app used politics to advertise (and why it worked)
Stand for something
A majority of consumers expect brands to take a stand before purchasing â but the thing is, some companies hold back from speaking up because they fear backlash, lack strategy, arenât prepared, or donât have leadership support.
This pushes brands to halt marketing efforts around sensitive topics (i.e. racial injustice, climate change, the environment, politics) instead of participating or leading the conversation.
A study by the Advertising Research Foundation states:
âIt is more challenging and costly to regain market share and brand equity once lost by âgoing darkâ than it is to maintain them with even modest investment.âÂ
Not to mention…
âReduced advertising by competitors provides a media environment with less ad clutter and potential lower media costs.â
As your competitors back down from speaking up on social issues, focus on bringing about real change and acting upon your brandâs values. Lean into conversations, educate your audience, and capture market share from your competitors.
But first…Â
Read the room before you post
While you should be bold, you should also be wary of the conversations taking place online to avoid sharing tone-deaf content that could cause unwarranted backlash from your audience.
âShall you or your brand do something about it? Know that, if you do something about it, you will be criticised,â tweeted Fer Machado, Global CMO at RBI. âIt doesnât even matter what it is. But, the thing is, if you donât do it, you will be irrelevant.â
True â but itâs not easy!
Gap quickly deleted a tweet that users felt was tone-deaf amid U.S. elections (and people noticed).
Some say all press is good press â but if youâre in a leadership position, donât underestimate your social media managers and listen to their feedback when making decisions about what, when, how, and if to post.
Social media should be seen a direct channel of communication between brand and consumers â a way to listen, understand sentiment, collect feedback, and create content people actually want.
What we’re learning…
- Burger King is encouraging people to order from McDonaldâs and weâre loving it [AdAge]
- Marketers on Twitter are having a holiday gift exchange [Twitter]
- The CMO role is becoming more complex [Future of Marketing]Â
- The Definitive Guide to Social Commerce [TINT]
- How brands can follow through on the values theyâre selling [HBR]
#brandcrush: Calm đ
Each week in #brandcrush, we highlight exceptional brands that are channeling their customers’ voice to connect more authentically with their audience.
Who won the U.S. election? Our vote says Calm.
Calm advertised on television amid CNN polls and people canât tell whether it was comical or genius. Â
Calm also tweeted a series of mindfulness tips and tricks to bring it all together.
Why Calmâs strategy worked:
- Placement: Calm knew their audience would be tracking the polls on TV and social media.
- Relevance: Mental health is a huge topic (and the world needs a break from 2020).
- Disruption: Calmâs ad placement stood out because it was unexpectedly appropriate.
âAs we all grasp for a way to deal with all that’s happening around us, seeing the Calm icon next to the extremely stressful election results was a much-needed moment of levity â it was a joke we were all in on, when little else felt funny,â shared Brittney McNamara.
Calmâs sponsorship is a perfect example of understanding the role your brand can play when confronting important issues with clarity and purpose.Â
Calling all marketers đ¨
Weâre surveying marketers about the future of content production and user-generated content (UGC).
For each completed survey we receive, we will donate $5 to a charity of your choice (up to $2,000).
Complete the survey here.
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