On the heels of a highly publicized celebration of women at the Oscars, many brands leveraged a loud voice celebrating the future of females on International Women’s Day. Let’s take a look at how 5 leading national and international companies aligned and activated their brands in conjunction with this global cultural moment. Each provides powerful insights into how to activate the purpose of a brand to drive build goodwill, growth and impact.
- P&G #WeSeeEqual
Building on the success of its #WeSeeEqual 2017 campaign, P&G continues its investment around gender equality both internally and externally. The brand extends its commitment to equality by updating its signature Thank You, Mom Olympics spot with the tag, #LoveOverBias.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6E4pfAzUCE
- Mattel’s Barbie Unveils Shero Role Model Dolls
As part of the brand’s largest effort around International Women’s Day, Barbie launched a set of 17 dolls representing 17 different heroines (or “Shero’s” as referred to by the doll brand). While their will undoubtedly be critics, it represents an important shift in celebrating and showcasing diversity with the next generation, which is part of the brand’s recently defined communications platform, You Can Be Anything. While the company had incredible intentions, it could have done away with the gendered tweak to ‘hero’ in order to qualify these particular role models as females. Simply referring to the characters as ambitious role models or heroes would server the brand’s intent in a much meaningful way.
Link: https://barbie.mattel.com/en-us/about/role-models.html
- Vans’ “Girl Skate India”
The California street-style brand known for championing self-expression, Vans launched Girl Skate India initially in 2017 to brings its support of creativity in communities to rural India by through access to skate and cultural expression. Not only did the brand document the capability of skate to connect and elevate communities, its hosting clinics to open up the ability to share in this powerful form of self-expression and culture.
Best practices your brand should keep in mind when aligning with a key cultural moment?
- P&G’s internal and external alignment around equality ensures it shows up in authentic ways to positively contribute to the brand’s value over the long-term.
- Barbie evolves its products in direct response to changing consumer mindsets as well as expectations for the role companies should play in positively contributing to society.
- Vans leveraged its brand DNA found in skate as an opportunity to connect with new communities and cultures in incredibly meaningful ways through communications, programming and community investment.
Taken together, these three examples provide powerful guidelines for how to authentically balance business growth and social impact. First, is the authenticity of your intent in that any initiative must be authentically and measurably focused on making a difference. Second, is a willingness to disrupt yourself in order to maintain relevance and resonance with the consumer marketplace. Third, is the need to balance a clear connection to your heritage while bring it to life in new and compelling ways. Combine these three mindsets, and your brand will be well positioned to make a meaningful impact that builds its business as well.