Putting Purpose to Work: The Next Steps
Last week I was part of a panel at the Cannes Festival of Advertising which focused on purposeful marketing. Organised by the Effie Awards Russia, the panel touched on the research I published earlier this year and looked at how purpose can be put to work locally. It was an interesting discussion with contributions from Coca-Cola, Sberbank Russia, MTS Group and KPMG Russia. I wanted to highlight three key points from the panel and illustrate them with case studies.
Step 1 — Identifying where you can have the biggest impact
The first consideration is that the more time you use on assessing what kind of positive impact you can deliver for your stakeholders, the more genuine and trustworthy your purpose will be perceived. What pays dividends is gathering insights beyond the consumer insights that are part and parcel of the marketing process. A good example here is the insight used to build the Umeed project by our agency Indeed in India. They worked with widows of combat veterans to give them a livelihood to support their families.
The key here is that in most cases the best campaigns focus on positive change that can be understood and experienced by a range of stakeholders, thereby avoiding a purpose that is seen as superficial or off brand. In the case of the Umeed project the purpose is deeply embedded as it takes in all the stakeholders in the supply chain to work together for good.
Step 2 — Using media to engage the community
The second consideration is to deploy media not to shout about how great you are, but as a way to engage stakeholders around the purpose that you are pursuing. The Sberbank campaign (which our agency Vizeum worked on) used empty show windows, billboard and geo-targeted online banners to engage the community living and working near the focal point of the campaign. Not to talk about how cool it was, but to ask people to share their opinions and help drive neighbourhood improvement, and help inform entrepreneurs about where they were most likely to have business success, when opening a shop.
The key here is that media is used to engage and connect with citizens (not consumers) around an issue that is important to them. Who would not notice empty shops in their apartment building? Who would not want it to be in use as a café/community centre/juice bar etc.? By connecting people with practical options and steps, the brand is bringing the purpose to life as part of society rather than as abstract communication.
Step 3— Making the digital economy better for everyone
The third consideration is to ensure that every campaign has clear impact measurement in place to gauge its effect on the digital economy. Consumers are looking for advertising that helps them live better lives and, equally important, how brands can help create better communities. How can digital technology remove the inefficiencies in linking up supply and demand, to avoid wastage? A good example of this in practice is the Fire Safety campaign run in the last few years by our colleagues at Columbus and Dentsu Australia.
By focusing on measurement and evaluation, they have been able to, year-in-year-out, improve the campaign to target the most relevant people with information about fire safety in their area. This means that the technology is helping people stay safe in warm summers, and out of the way of bush fires. This is again work that shows the power of marketing in the digital economy when it focuses on a clear purpose.
