In 2017 it feels like everytime we open up Twitter or Facebook, switch on or read the news, someone in the world is under attack. With President Trump regularly making the media go wild through his use of Twitter, or Brexit providing an ongoing debate on the future of the UK, the political storm in the Western World keeps shifting focus to attack different groups of people. Whether they are the Transgender community of the US military, low-income households greatly affected by shifts in taxes or healthcare, our friends from across Europe, the BAME community, the Islamic community or women across industries and countries, this list goes on and on.
You might be asking what this has to do with marketing, but the simple truth is that what we see and hear about politics through the media has a great impact on how consumers interact with our brands. Anyone can openly criticise what is happening in the US, the UK and beyond; social platforms have made that incredibly easy to do. They were used to varying degrees of success by different parties in the US and UK elections, and these adverts appear on the same feed you use for your own. So when someone is easily persuaded to endorse or call-out the proposed actions of a political party for all to see on their feed, what will stop them doing the same to you if your advert doesn’t hit the right mark?
The best weapon you can have at your disposal is an empath. Someone who has great empathy with the ability to perceive the mental or emotional state of another individual. In science fiction, this is often thought to be a paranormal ability, but empaths do walk amongst us - they’re just much more able to understand someone else’s point of view, or read a situation the way someone else might. This is an incredibly desirable skill for any team to hold in an era when you need to build trust with your audience, establish and develop your brand, and better represent the aspects of society that those in power are affecting the most. Build the better brand. Show you care. Treat all with respect and engage your audience.
Not only is the marketing empath someone who can quickly warn how an advert could be negatively perceived, but they are able to bring emotion into the creative process that increases engagement with your messaging. The key elements of a successful advert are all connected to human behaviour: we watch videos that makes us happy, make us sad, educate us, make us laugh or are visually stunning and engaging. The empath marketer can play a role in establishing what sort of video will work best and constantly aid the development of any story.
There’s no way to please everyone with what you create or do, but avoiding a big backlash in today’s society would have been a huge help for big brands this past year. Pepsi missed the mark with its Kendall Jenner ‘protest’ ad. Nivea upset many for it’s racially insensitive “white is purity” tagline, and McDonald’s pulled a slot that suggested a child in mourning could be fixed with one burger.
But when we look at the Cannes winners of this year, the most stand-out success was the Fearless Girl. Unveiled in New York earlier this year, the small statue depicts a defiant girl standing in front of the famous Charging Bull sculpture on Wall Street. It was revealed not long after hundreds of Women’s Marches took place around the world - with the majority happening in the US a day after Donald Trump became President. Fearless Girl was commissioned by investment firm State Street Global Advisors (SSgA) as an advertisement for an index fund comprising gender-diverse companies with a high percentage of women in their senior leadership teams. The plaque below the statue states, "Know the power of women in leadership. SHE makes a difference". This campaign quickly went viral as it speaks for the time. The latina girl is the voice of many in a location famous for its historically predominantly male workforce.
If every marketing or creative team can find at least one person with the skills and ability to understand the feelings of others, then I believe we will increasingly see brands do better. Stand up for a cause or be mindful of the feelings of those they haven’t represented well enough. It’s 2017 and while politically we may be sliding backwards, advertisers now have a chance to promote and sell their products in ways that helps society to push forwards.
Create a reputation that happily works for lots of different audiences that can all be reached through the largest platforms we have available - social media. Invest time and energy into your tone, your visual representation and work with your empath to ensure it won’t upset or offend any group. While it’s never a guarantee that you’ll make everyone happy, a marketing empath will help you create an emotional connection with your customer that builds trust in your brand for the future.
By Damian Routley, partner at Adglow
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