According to the Duke University Fuqua School of Business twice-annual CMO Survey, more than a quarter of top marketers now believe it’s appropriate for their brands to take positions on political issues.
Research suggests that consumers respond better to brands that display corporate responsibility, with 73% of people believing that companies should do more than just offer a product or service.
As it happens, many brands are already doing their bit, commonly drawing up ‘social good’ strategies to raise money or fight for a chosen cause. However, more often than not, this is done somewhat behind-the-scenes – not as part of a consumer-facing strategy.
Advertising and politics don’t mix and the despite the ample evidence to this effect, brands continue to demonstrate an inability to keep themselves out of trouble.
The latest example of this: Keurig, the manufacturer of a home brewing system.
Following Brexit and the US presidential election, many brands have responded to the polarized times by choosing to weigh in on political and social issues.
But brands face numerous challenges in trying to do this successfully. Chief among them: how do brands connect with consumers at a time when so many of them don’t see eye-to-eye on some of the most important issues of our time?
Starbucks is one of the brands that isn’t afraid to get political in an increasingly polarized world.
Its most recent political statement: it announced plans to hire 10,000 refugees following US President Donald Trump’s enactment of a temporary travel ban targeting individuals from a number of predominantly Muslim countries.
From Brexit to the US presidential election, it would seem that we are living in one of the most politically-focused and politically-polarized times in recent memory.
Increasingly, the political discourse is finding its way into the brand world. Or, to be more accurate, brands are joining the political discourse.
Whatever apathy, excitement, rage or despair you might feel about the main candidates for Mayor of London, there’s no doubting that the vote on May 5th was a big deal.
The winner will enjoy the third-biggest direct personal mandate of any politician in Europe. That’s a lot of people power.
So how did the main candidates use people power in the run up to the election?
The 2016 Presidential primaries are well under way, and not surprisingly, all of the candidates are actively using social media to rally support.
Here’s how the two candidates for the Democratic party, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, are using social media.
Thanks to the use of social media by Obama’s team in 2008 and 2012, the role of digital marketing in politics has been a hot topic.
Online was a key battleground in the recent general election, and this trend will only increase in the years to come.
I’ve been talking to Craig Elder, Digital Director at the Conservative Party, about the role digital played in a Conservative victory.
Politics and social media go hand in hand. There’s even a social network with political consciousness an implicit demand of its users (Volkalize).
Social media is mature enough now that in America the senate is currently deciding on whether employers should have the right to demand disclosure of social network user names from its employees.
Essentially, we see our free social media activity as a right, as much as we do our vote.
With Alastair Campbell the opening speaker on day two of our Festival of Marketing, and British and American elections in 2015 and 2016 respectively, it seems appropriate to ask ‘what can political parties expect from social media?’
Many of the challenges being discussed at the Campaign Tech 2012 conference today in Washington DC will be familiar to Econsultancy readers in the brand world.
How do you reach influencers? What can you do with “big data?” What’s going on with mobile? Where are viewers headed?
And above all else, how do you get your message in front of them?
It’s an election year in the United States and by all accounts, it will be an interesting one.
President Barack Obama, doesn’t yet know who his opponent will be, but when it came to website traffic in January, the Democratic incumbent handily beat all of the Republican contenders.