Marketing, the magic that connects us in times of crisis

Marta Miranda – Branded Content Specialist & Producer – Recent events in Ukraine have had an immediate impact on the emotional side of any entrepreneur's day-to-day professional life.

In Influencer Marketing, for instance, some Portuguese influencers were mocked on social media by other well-known figures for brushing aside what was happening in Ukraine.

Influencers carried on posting their “outfits of the day” and their events with little sensitivity or empathy, instead of using their voices and platforms to encourage the wave of solidarity that our community quickly rallied behind.

Some new brands have postponed launches because, quite simply, it makes no sense to carry on as if we weren't all watching a tragic global crisis unfold right on our businesses' doorstep.

Marta Miranda – Branded Content Specialist & Producer – Recent events in Ukraine have had an immediate impact on the emotional side of any entrepreneur's day-to-day professional life.

In Influencer Marketing, for instance, some Portuguese influencers were mocked on social media by other well-known figures for brushing aside what was happening in Ukraine.

Influencers carried on posting their “outfits of the day” and their events with little sensitivity or empathy, instead of using their voices and platforms to encourage the wave of solidarity that our community quickly rallied behind.

Some new brands have postponed launches because, quite simply, it makes no sense to carry on as if we weren't all watching a tragic global crisis unfold right on our businesses' doorstep. So how should we act as a brand?

In a recent article, we looked at the importance of content strategies (Content Marketing) in terms of relevance, whether through entertaining narratives or through informative and educational material.

Marketing can and should educate consumers. It can strengthen brands by steering them in the right direction.

A brand's followers will recognise its value through the content it chooses to publish. And that drives engagement and relationships — positively, but it can also spark an image crisis (made worse by how easily bad practice goes viral on social media). It is increasingly easy for a misread ad campaign to generate negative fallout online: some brands, quite tastelessly, used the 9/11 catastrophe as a backdrop to advertise to their markets.

One example: a Brazilian creative agency ran a campaign for WWF – World Wild Life – that played down the events of 9/11 against the natural disasters recorded in the same period: “The tsunami killed 100 times more people than 9/11. The planet is brutally powerful. Respect it. Preserve it.” Source: Propmark – WWF campaign Gone are the days when brands were judged solely on the kind of product they sold. Today brands are assessed as a whole, by an ever more demanding consumer (whatever their age group).

People want brands to stand behind causes. They want brands (individual or collective) to be transparent and ethically accountable for their practices, and to share what they are doing to support their communities. Ultimately, they want brands to show empathy and not live in a “bubble”, detached from what is actually happening and concerned only with their profits.

The last two years, with the ongoing pandemic, showed us how brands had to adapt their content (ad campaigns and social media posts) to the reality of the moment, shaped by various health restrictions with social consequences.

Content promoted social distancing, mask wearing and plenty of entertainment to encourage people to stay at home. Likewise, brands turned parts of their industrial production over to mass manufacturing of medical supplies, sharpened their e-commerce operations and adopted home office working across their organisations. A question of empathy

Consumption has not stopped, of course, and nor should it stall, for the sake of the economy and everyone's livelihood. But what consumers expect (and push for) is that the brands they trust, especially in times of crisis, make their position clear (where relevant) and guide consumers through the content they publish, rather than focusing solely on driving sales (as if customers were unthinking “robots”).

Brands cannot be “deaf”, because they too are part of society. There is not much room for debate about how brands should act if we focus on the word empathy: empathy for all forms of life, and for every culture caught off guard in the middle of a catastrophe.

While some brands prefer to stay quiet and weigh up their next steps, others reposition themselves with faster decisions. Looking specifically at how brands are behaving as forms of expression in the face of the war in Ukraine, we are seeing some choose to state their position outright.

We are seeing brand logos take on the colours of the Ukrainian flag (including brands based in Russia — for example, the Instagram page of the Auchan Russia hypermarket, where you can see the adapted logo).

We are seeing brands get involved in solidarity initiatives that they promptly share on their social media pages. We are seeing support through certain services offered free of charge that may be useful to families who were living in Ukraine; and, more recently, a tendency to support businesses run by Ukrainian professionals who have just arrived in Portugal.

Major global brands — such as Netflix, TikTok, Apple, Land Rover, Disney, and fashion labels like Prada, Burberry, Zara and H&M — are going further still, announcing the suspension of their operations in Russia. Whatever a brand's stance, more or less vocal, we are living through a time when content strategy must be conscious, relevant and sensitive. It is understandable that some brands are announcing postponed collection launches.

This is not a moment when we feel like celebrating new projects. That said, investing right now in communicating good practice towards the local community becomes more relevant and will (in)directly have a positive impact on a business, both now and in the future. Source: Twitter Havaianas Europe It is always a good time to communicate good social responsibility practice; more sustainable production; charitable donations to institutions or volunteering initiatives. Whatever the scale, what counts is the (good) intention. It is always a good time. But doing it now has far greater impact!