Cultural fluency is no longer optional for brands, and that will require balancing gut instinct with some internal organization and discipline, according to speakers during the final day of the Brand Innovators Marketing Leadership Summit.
Jumping on cultural moments, working with creators and influencers and astute social listening are a must at a time when consumers are reliant on social media for their view of the world and recommendations on products and services, said the Summit panelists. The last day of the four-day event, pegged as the “Culture Shifters Summit,” focused on the power of cultural relevance and the intersection of brands and the fandom for passion points such as sports and music.
“We are talking about the most important thing in marketing, and that’s culture,” said Dr. Marcus Collins, clinical assistant professor of marketing at the University of Michigan’s Stephen M. Ross School of Business. “It is the most influential factor to move human behavior, which is what marketing is meant to do.”
“Culture begins with conversation. Conversation leads to cooperation, which then leads to collaboration,” said rapper Darryl “DMC” McDaniels. That progression leads to transformation, said McDaniels, half of hip-hop duo RUN-DMC, whose “My Adidas” created a mid-1980’s brand moment.
Finding creators to work with and picking cultural moments is a tall ask, said speakers. Fandoms are varied and come in many sizes, consumers often have several passions and follow multiple creators and influencers, so marketers need to pick their spots.
“There is no monoculture,” said Jessica Bryndza, vice president of brand marketing at Lyft. “There are a bazillion cultures.”
The speakers echoed many of the insights touched at the start of the summit, when marketers stressed connecting with cultural interests and fandoms will be key to help brands gain attention at a time when technology is transforming marketing.
“We need authentic voices to help validate our stories” said Dimitrija Georgiev, head of media & digital marketing at Under Armour. The sports apparel brand works with the rapper Gunna, who is a flag football supporter; he headlined a “halftime show” sponsored by Under Armour during the recent Video Music Awards.
This is typical of the cross-pollination of fandom. While fan communities can be small, most consumers belong to multiple fan groups, and they still crave larger engagement, said Mary Kate Callen, Senior Vice President, Market & Cultural Intelligence, Paramount Advertising. She cited Paramount research that showed 76% of consumers believe pop culture tentpoles like TV shows or movies bring people together.
Finding those crossover moments and tentpoles is key, said Callen. For example, Paramount found 45% of sports fans say they also are fans of music. That insight was part of the planning for the VMA show. That opportunity “just hit the jackpot,” Georgiev said.
Brands are leaning into fan communities and creators to spread their message because the industry has seen a fundamental shift in how young people consume media, said Damon Berger, head of consumer digital engagement at Gap Inc. Generations Z and Alpha are averse to advertising, he said; they consume content in platforms beyond legacy media and want to hear from people they trust.
“The way they experience culture is fundamentally different,” he said. “This is something that as brands we have to, not just think about, but fundamentally incorporate into our media mixes and how we go to market.”
Influencers are now more trusted by the young demographic than other sources of information, said Linda Bethea, chief marketing officer of Danone. This means marketers need to think about how to leverage influencers first in some cases. “Sometimes it’s the heart of the strategy,” depending on the target audience, she said.
Trust Your Gut
To plumb cultural moments, marketers need first to define what culture means, said many speakers. Marketers often conflate culture with popularity, but they are different, Collins warned. Popularity is about pervasiveness—“a narrow, myopic way to think about culture, if not wrong”—while culture is about finding meaning in how people engage with the world, he explained.
Tapping the culture also requires distinguishing between a viral moment and a trend, and parsing which cultural moments are worth investing in, said speakers.
“Not every brand needs to jump on a trend,” said Joshua Nu’u-Steele, co-founder & chief revenue officer of Ideally. Marketers need to pick moments that align with the brand DNA, he said, reminding the audience of the quick flameout of Kendall Jenner’s social activism ad at the height of the Black Lives Matter movement.
Speakers lamented that “personalization” and “authenticity” have become buzzwords, but both concepts remain important to connect with culture. Marketers need to treat cultural moments and creators less as a search for social media viral moments and more as long-term efforts, grounded in strong partnerships and supported by data.
“The how we work together is so important,” said Casey DePalma, chief brand communications officer, Unilever U.S. Marketing disciplines need to sit down together to figure out the audiences they want targeted and which creators and platforms they need to work with to deliver on those elements, DePalma explained. While marketing had a “set it and forget it” mode in the past, now the process is open to new opportunities and to optimizing all the way through, but only if there is collaboration between disciplines.
Internal structures were helpful in helping H.R. Block capitalize in an authentic way on the announcement of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s engagement. The company was compelled to respond, since it’s based in the quarterback’s home town of Kansas City, and an engagement is a notable milestone with tax consequences, said Jill Cress, H&R Block’s chief marketing and experience officer.
Recognizing that no one was getting any work done while reacting to the social media storm of the engagement, the team put together an idea and got approvals over text in a matter of hours. The company gave employees the afternoon off to go home and process the news. The moment went viral and resulted in 1 billion earned media impressions, 3,000 new TikTok followers in 24 hours and most importantly, 92% increase in job applications, said Wendy Fitch, vice president, brand, content, and insights, H&R Block.
It was a bold move, said Cress, but it was informed by strong insights and supported by good relationships built across departments including legal, who had to be looped in quickly to react in real time, she said.
“The soft and the hard”
Many of these efforts still require a leap of faith, said speakers. The return on investment in culture “is not always the easiest thing to calculate, but sometimes you have to trust your gut,” said Kara Beilman, vice president of marketing at W, the personal care brand launched by influencer Jake Paul.
Many speakers noted these efforts are not as easily measured as traditional media, at least not by the usual metrics. They stressed finding alternative performance indicators that can stand the scrutiny of the C-suite.
“You have to creatively push the boundaries of the data you are getting,” said Julia Victor, CMO of Angel City Football Club. “It’s a different ROI. It’s about one-to-one, not about screaming from the rooftops.” The women’s sports franchise uses personas and tracks online comments to see how fans are engaging and gauge the depth of the fandom.
“It is the soft and hard,” said Nilofer Vahora, chief marketing officer of Amika. The hair care brand listens actively to its stylists community, but also engages in social listening and works with trend agencies to identify trends and concerns.
“It’s super-important to listen first,” Vahora said, to maintain advocacy and dialogue with the community. Brands can miss the mark if they are not relating back to their core, she explained.
Building on cultural moments and connecting with the fandom also requires brands to give up some control over their communications and trust the relationships they have built with creators.
“Fueling fandom is getting more comfortable giving your brand to your fans and letting them have a relationship with you,” said Victor. “Those memes will do better than your branded content will.”
