Thought leadership is a remarkably resilient idea in the fickle, fashion-conscious world of marketing tactics. If you’re in B2B marketing or a clearly defined market niche, it’s a safe bet you need a thought leadership strategy. 

But what exactly is thought leadership, and how do you get it right? Read on for a quick summary of the essential dos and don’ts for thought leadership strategy and best practices.

Defining thought leadership

CEOs and executive teams love thought leadership. They want it, expect it to happen quickly and get disappointed when it fails to materialise. 

So the first step for anyone guiding a team of talented, insightful leaders is to get everyone on the same page. Are they using thought leadership as a substitute for press coverage, positive customer feedback or an opportunity to inspire employees? 

Perhaps in the social media age, they’re confused by paid social celebrities who spruik consumer products for the highest bidder? 

Taking our cue from this fun reference, here’s a definition to help sort things out. 

A thought leader is an influencer.  

This person has the authority, confidence and insight needed to capture and retain the attention of a target audience. It could be the chief executive, an industry evangelist, marketer, head of communications, researcher or product specialist. 

This person embodies a deep knowledge of the subject matter, is able to speak about its history in context and credibly predict future trends. 

This ability to cut through with original ideas and influence a professional or social community is one of the most critical, in-demand leadership traits. We’re hungry to know why a brand, a product, a big idea or a person is different. Why should we give this idea our attention? 

A thought leader has the answers.

Why it matters

A B2B Thought Leadership Impact Study published in 2020 by Edelman and LinkedIn examined the impact of thought leadership. 

It reported 48 percent of B2B professionals consumed more than 1 hour of thought leadership content each week. These same people reported it influenced 49 percent of their sales decisions. The only downside was just 15 percent rated thought leadership content as having excellent quality. 

That sounds like a low bar to clear and an opportunity to impress!

How to get it right

Step 1: What’s your one big idea? 

I’m a big believer in the power of a single idea expressed very clearly. One blog post should be underpinned by one central idea. One video tells one story. A powerpoint slide has just one take-home message.

So what’s your big idea? If it helps, begin with your passions. What big trends are you following, and how can you break them down into small bite-sized chunks? 

Step 2: Do the 3Ds

Discover. Develop. Distribute. 

It helps to break down your thought leadership content strategy into these three stages. 

• Discover

Subscribe to newsletters, read widely and collect as much information about your favourite topic. Think of it like a university assignment: gather your sources and look for new, surprising ideas that impress you. If you’re inspired, others will follow.

Discovery is as simple as asking yourself two questions: 

1. What do I want to say? 
2. What is my target audience interested in?  

The point of overlap between the answers to these two questions will give your thought leadership relevance and power.

• Develop

Refine, simplify and develop your ideas. The best way to think about this stage is to create connections and observations between different, or conflicting ideas. 

For example, I’ve been fascinated by a unique aspect of our humanity. We can simultaneously hold two conflicting ideas in our head, an idea called cognitive dissonance. To develop this idea, you could look at how this concept influences industry trends or customer behaviour. What surprising findings could inspire people? 

Here’s a quick step-by-step guide to help:

1. Brain dump
2. Filter your thoughts
3. Consider content type
4. Interview / brainstorm
5. Write, rewrite, edit
   

• Distribute

Next up, distribute. You’ve written (or had ghost-written for you) a great post, recorded a podcast or filmed an inspirational selfie video. 

Your goal isn’t to become insta-famous. You want to reach the right people and the right people. That means finding the right people who can help publish and amplify your ideas so that the right eyeballs or ears find your content. Don’t overlook the 

Step 3: Listen and learn

It’s easy to overlook this final stage. The only way to improve, refine and make a greater impact is listen. What are people saying about your ideas? What words are they using? What insights can you gather from the data? 

If you’re struggling to get meaningful feedback, be proactive. Ask five trusted friends, colleagues or partners for candid responses. 

I rarely make this a complicated process. Try this approach: 

1. Ask for a rating out of 10. 
2. What one idea was meaningful to you?
3. What’s one thing I could do to improve? 

It’s surprising how these three simple questions, asked regularly, can help you constantly improve. 

Bonus ideas.

In September 2020, our Brand Storytelling Masterclass focused on the essentials of thought leadership. 

Here’s my list of Dos and Don’ts to stick up next to your desk. 

Good luck, and remember one final idea. We love influencers who are real, tell their own stories and tell us why ideas matter. That is, be yourself. 

In the world of B2B marketing communications, it can be a radical idea but experience show fortune favours the brave.

Onwards,

Mark

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If there’s one role which should champion the customer, it’s the CMO. Chief Marketing Officers are not just the head of brand, creative and a strategic growth driver. 

For decades they’ve proudly flown the customer flag: an internal advocate, who by combination of intuition and data-driven insights, seeks to orient an entire organisation around this grand notion of customer centricity. 

The trouble with doing business in 2020 is that most basic norms were thrown up into the air as countries across the globe progressively entered pandemic lockdowns. 

Traditional notions of what customers “typically want” were unreliable at best. 

Our monthly brand storytelling masterclass unpacked this issue in November, connecting a few important threads:

• How can I find out what customers really want today? 
• How well do these wants, or needs, align with our mission? 
• Does everyone in our team understand how we can best serve our customers?

  In response, I’ve outlined three essential questions that bring all of these ideas together by digging deeper into at means to advocate for customers. 

Experience transcendence

Before we get to these questions, here’s a moment of tangential inspiration for you. Kylie Minogue, our much-loved global superstar, inspired me recently with the launch of her new album, Disco.

The Guardian, writing about the album launch, noted she is one of few artists to score a #1 album in the UK in each of the past five decades. Five decades! Explaining her enduring appeal, how’s this for a headline: “Kylie Minogue’s appeal has always been in her sparkling transcendence of the ordinary.”

It was an ah-ha moment. Connecting the dots in my head, I’d recently come across Maslow’s updated hierarchy of needs. Sitting right there at the top was “Self-Transcendence.” 

Source: medium.com/coachilla-hq/

If we reflect for a moment on 2020, we’ve retreated deeply into the bottom of the pyramid, concerned for our personal safety amid a global pandemic. Could we take for granted food, sleep and a sense of connection with friends and family? Nope. 

And yet, as we stare ahead into 2021 here in Australia the mood is gradually getting lighter. We’ve witnessed steady progress on COVID-19 infections, started coming back into the office, and the community is beginning to reconnect in greater numbers. 

Thoughts inevitably return to the bigger, higher picture. How could I best fulfill my potential and gain a greater sense of meaning next year? 

These are non-trivial questions, and for all CMOs should be top of mind when considering how we’ll position our organisations. So what should we do? Borrow some transcendent inspiration from Kylie. 

Her music is, for ardent fans, a transcendent experience. It takes us beyond our daily issues into a form of escapism that seems almost magical. Importantly, she’s not the only artist to achieve this feat. A soaring orchestral score, powerful opera, or any of the world’s best rock bands can achieve this feat. 

What about brands?

Believe it or not, commercial organisations have also delivered transcendent experiences. And by that, I mean they’ve created a product, service or told stories that do more than simply deliver a great “customer experience.” 

The latter, it must be said, is quickly becoming table stakes. Everyone delivers a customer experience, good or bad. The question is whether you can truly move people. 

One example comes to mind: Harley Davidson. This is a brand that sells freedom and escape. It embodies the very notion of transcendence. As a bike rider, I can empathise with this idea. Leaning into long, fast corners and a glorious stretch of straight bitumen are more than enough to take your mind off the day’s worries and into a space that feels other-worldly. 

So how do you translate that emotion into something tangible? 

One attempt is the Apple TV+ series Long Way Up, starring Ewan McGregor of Star Wars fame and his best friend Charlie Boorman. The pair ride electric Harley Davidson Livewire motorbikes from the very bottom of South America to LA, a 13,000 mile journey that takes viewers along for the ride. 

It’s hard not to get caught up in the sense of escapism, freedom, and adventure.

Then we’ve got the Harley Davidson TV, a unique digital channel on its website that takes you deep into the history, stories and people that have helped build this storied brand.

Source: https://tv.harley-davidson.com/

Make it happen: Start with three questions

So how can you take your customer experience to the next level and inspire or move customers, particularly in B2B environments? 

We put together this table to illustrate the idea that we must get better at asking more of the right questions. 

Here are the three key questions we use when interrogating a brand’s story: 

1. What’s the biggest customer problem we solve?
2. How well do our values align with customers? 
3. Are we a united team of problem solvers? 

For each one, I suggest the following approach:
 

1. Start by interviewing a range of internal stakeholders, particularly people who regularly talk with customers such as: sales, service, consulting and support teams. This is the fastest way to gain insight without resorting to expensive external research.
2. Borrow from design thinking and its “five questions” approach. For each response ask a subsequent “why” question to explore the reasons behind the answer. Keep asking why until there are no future insights.

The goal is to move from simple answers to the best possible answers, as illustrated in the table. 

We want to understand the values, belief systems and desires that motivate customers and how we can help them? 

We want to know what we have in common beyond the basics of growth, health and happiness. What movements, social good, or transcendent experiences (like Harley Davidson) appeal to your organisation and its customers? 

We also want to know how every single person within an organisation, from HR to operations, finance, sales, engineering, software development and marketing can see themselves as someone authentically connected to the task of solving real problems and creating lasting, transcendent experiences.  

Parting thought

Asking great questions and diving deep for customer insights isn’t a new idea. But, how far down this path have you gone? 

As we rebuild our organisations and start reimagining a positive future, it’s worth calling out the fact that the CMO, together with marketing and communications teams, can’t lose sight of their mission. 

Maya Angelou said: “I think we all have empathy. We may not have enough courage to display it.”

Advocating for the customer is hard work, and even risky from the perspective of keeping your job. Their wants, desires and transcendent experiences may stand in conflict with more mundane profit, growth and competitive desires.  

Yet if we remember Maslow’s Self-Transcendence insight, failing to be courageous may leave space for someone else to take the lead.

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It’s one of the greatest unasked questions in business. Is your brand emotionally intelligent?

As leaders, business professionals and, well, humans, we take pride in understanding other people. At the simplest level, an engaging conversation requires listening carefully to understand the world from someone else’s point of view. 

We call this empathy, of course. How is someone feeling? And how can we take this insight and respond in ways to build the relationship or invite someone to share our view? 

The interesting thing from the perspective of B2B marketing is how well do we apply this very human perspective? 

In my experience over the past decade, a persistent issue keeps holding us back. Demographics. There’s nothing wrong with understanding our customers from the perspective of age, location, gender, location, ethnicity, education and other factors. 

What often happens, however, is we use demographics as a proxy for the very real thoughts, feelings, value systems and beliefs that shape our decisions. 

This other world, psychographics, is where we start to get a window into the real world of our customers. The researchers at Behaviouraleconomics.com observe that we humans, in B2C and B2B environments, are far less rational decision makers than we’d like to believe: 

“We live in the moment, resist change, are subject to distorted memory, and are affected by physiological and emotional states.”

The real kicker here is to realise we can’t take customer sentiment or previous buying patterns for granted – unless of course we actively foster relationships with key decision makers. 

Research published by Google gives us a clue about how we can make this happen. 

A global study of more than 9,000 B2B marketers, way back in 2009, revealed that only 14 percent of buyers would pay a premium for a product or service’s unique benefit. That is, you might be the market leader with the best widgets, but you could easily get beaten on price or a myriad other factors. 

Sadly, the pursuit of unique market difference, coupled with inferred insights from demographics remains a default approach for many organisations. 

What’s a better way? 

The same study found that when a B2B buyer can identify personal value in the transaction – such as career growth, reputation growth or pride – they are 50 percent more likely to buy, and 8x more likely to pay a premium. 

That might be an uncomfortable statistic for some of us who like to think we’re rational, hard-headed decision makers. 

And yet, who doesn’t like working with people you actually like? Who is prepared to risk their reputation for a supplier unpopular with your colleagues? 

Back in the 1980s, a popular meme among technology leaders was, “Nobody ever got fired for buying an IBM.” Sure, the PCs were technically great, but choosing IBM was also a safe career move. 

Interestingly enough, these ideas still resonate today. Consider the big name IT suppliers. How do you feel about Apple, Amazon, or Microsoft? Each one deliberately cultivates a devoted following of developers, partners and customers who see the world through their unique lens. 

Insights from psychographics and empathy for the customer journey are carefully wrapped into product development, customers events and marketing. 

So what about you? How much time, care and attention is your brand paying to the thoughts, feelings and variable sentiments of your customers?

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Sales, marketing and executive teams have for years used ABM to bring them together around a common desire to improve customer engagements. 

Specifically, ABM helps them develop strategies and tactical plans that deliberately cultivate key customer relationships. I define it as “personalised sales and marketing programs for a market of one.” You look at an existing customer and find ways to deepen the scope and value of that relationship. It’s an exercise of combining collaboration with customer empathy and business strategy.

As a point of comparison, above the line (ATL) marketing is typically focused on the opposite approach. We start by communicating to the masses, then bring them down through the marketing funnel to an ideal state of 1:1, personalised communication that leads to a sale or conversion. 

So why is interest rising in ABM? Simply put, it works. A survey of B2B marketers in January 2020 by webinar platform On24 discovered 78 percent (or 8 in 10), rate ABM as more effective than traditional marketing.

Likewise, research by ITSMA reveals 87 percent of marketers who measure ROI rate ABM as outperforming every other marketing investment.

“Account-based marketing (ABM) refers to personalised sales and marketing programs for a market of one.” – Mark Jones

Let’s think about that statistic for a moment. Nearly 9 out of 10 B2B marketers surveyed believe ABM delivers better ROI than advertising, direct marketing, digital, SEO, content marketing and a myriad of other activities. That’s a pretty good reason to pay attention and sharpen your focus on ABM, I’d suggest. 

From experience I’d add that our clients are using it for these strategic reasons and very practical reasons – namely it brings clarity, focus and accountability to sales account plans. If your account plan is strategically developed and backed by the team, it sparks an energy that flows right through to client engagements. 

For these reasons, it’s easy to see why it doesn’t take marketers much convincing. The real issue is the c-suite and other departmental stakeholders. ABM, they ask? What distinguishes it from any other three-letter acronym bandied about?

Picking up on this sentiment, I delivered a virtual event recently during which I talked about why you and your colleagues across the business should care about ABM. It sparked a few questions and a request for more information, so here’s a handy guide you can take to your next meeting.

Top 10 reasons why ABM matters

1. It works
   87% of marketers say it delivers better ROI than all other marketing investments (ITSMA).  
2. Sales and marketing alignment
   82% of B2B marketers report it improves sales and marketing team alignment (LinkedIn). 
3. Less customer churn, better retention
   84% of marketers believe it helps retain and expand existing relationships (Adobe/Marketo – Alterra Group).
4. Better customer engagement
   75% of customers prefer personalised offers, making them more likely to engage with your content (Adobe/Marketo – Aberdeen Group).
5. Improved brand, business reputation
   74% of leaders employ ABM to change perceptions and strengthen reputation with targeted accounts (ITSMA and ABM Leadership Alliance).
6. Bigger deal sizes
   91% of ABM leaders say deal size is larger for ABM accounts, with 1 in 4 saying deals are more than 50% larger (Forrester/SiriusDecisions).
7. Pipeline growth
   45% of leaders with ABM experience report pipeline growth (ITSMA and ABM Leadership Alliance). 
8. Close more deals
   86% of B2B companies report ABM improves win rates (TOPO). 
9. Budgets are growing
   ABM accounts for 36% of digital marketing budgets, growing at 9% p.a. – a sign your competitors are likely using ABM (LinkedIn). 
10. C-level engagement
    27% of ABM leaders report c-level engagement in ABM accounts rose more than 50% (Forrester/SiriusDecisions).

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Business is anything but usual with the global COVID-19 pandemic affecting all facets of our lives. It’s safe to say ‘the future of work’ we’ve all been talking about has well and truly arrived, with many companies moving their operations and workforce entirely online. So, what does this mean for brands, their marketing and PR efforts and the customer experience?

Many brands rely on in-person customer experiences as the key channel through which to connect with their audience and make a lasting impact.

However, with the Australian Government as of 18 March banning events of more than 100 people, brands are now being forced to swiftly change their approach—without impacting their objectives.

Here at Filtered Media we have experienced this shift first-hand. Our Chief Storyteller and CEO, Mark Jones, was set to launch his debut book Beliefonomics: Realise the True Value of Your Brand Story this Friday 20 March after four years of research, planning, writing and road-testing the idea with organisations. However due to COVID-19 concerns, we are reimagining the in-person VIP launch event that had been planned, and seeking an alternative solution that would best serve the health and safety of our clients, connections and staff.

Our solve? Rather than cancel altogether, let’s host a virtual event that allows us to practice social distancing and also bring people together – virtually – over a lunchtime live stream.

While our original event was planned and ready to go, our last minute pivot to a live streaming event opened up opportunities that our original in-person event would not have enabled. Instead of being limited to inviting only guests local to Sydney, the broadcast allows us to open up our guest list to people from all over the world – including our PROI Worldwide community!

This immediate ability to increase our reach, simply by transitioning to digital, got us thinking about how other brands can also seize this opportunity during these uncertain times—and fast!

Here are three things brands should keep front of mind:

1. Don’t fear the transition to digital

We encourage brands to consider alternatives before cancelling an event altogether. While a live stream might not be a suitable option for every brand, maintaining the ability to interact with your customer in some way is vital.

Many brands have invested in long-term relationships and collaborations to craft their events and curate their content. For the foreseeable future, the way we consume content and engage in professional learning will be largely dependent on digital technologies.

Pivoting to a digital solution that best suits your needs (i.e. an interactive webinar, going live on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook or LinkedIn; converting your event into a subscription-based online content series, etc) should be fully scoped out before an event is cancelled entirely. Don’t fear the transition to digital.

2. Think outside of the box

It’s important to continue providing consumers with content they need. As creatives, we have a duty to continue to think strategically and outside of the box to find solutions to the problem at hand.

Consider online event listing and review publication, Time Out. Recognising that a lot of people are opting to stay home rather than go out during the pandemic, they have temporarily rebranded to Time In and are using their platform to suggest “things to do” while staying in. This is a strong and timely example of a brand willing to pivot quickly to maintain brand relevance.

Be open to trying new things, and be ready to refine your approach. Many of us will be in test-and-learn phases as we rapidly transition to new ways of connecting with audiences and customers.

3. Consistency and communication is key

During any time of uncertainty, consumers are looking for consistent and trustworthy communication.

We recommend continuing with business as usual marketing and PR activities wherever possible, such as weekly eDMs, social media content and community management – to instill confidence that operations are continuing and reliable.

And where things do go wrong, or changes in operations happen – use your regular channels to directly communicate to your audience what’s happening with radical honesty. Transparency breeds trust and loyalty, and also lets your audience know you care.

Need help?

If you are considering reimagining your in-person event program into a virtual offering – check out our virtual events services, or contact us to find out how our team of producers and audio-visual engineers can support your specific needs.

Email us or call +61 2 8355 3130

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Contrary to popular belief, it isn’t all arts and crafts over at the design station of your content marketing agency (at least, not all the time).

It’s a common misconception that design is solely about making things ‘look good’ and can be relegated to a nice-to-have afterthought. Think about design upfront, and build your brand.

The so-called ‘colouring-in department’ actually owns the important task of ensuring brands serve a top-notch first impression and a consistent visual customer experience — from digital to point-of-sale (POS). With 90% of information transmitted to the brain being visual, it is understandable why design plays a starring role in a brand’s first impression.

Consider exceptionally successful organisations like Apple, Google, Tesla, Airbnb and Instagram. Not only do they produce impressive brand storytelling; they are strategically design-led, and a good handful of the companies were even co-founded by designers.

But what does it look like when you consider design at every stage of the campaign production process, and how can it lead to better outcomes?

What does it mean to be design-led?

Design thinking methodology has taken a huge leap from the world of product design with organisations vying to implement it throughout the workplace as a core strategy for innovation. 

Stanford University’s d.school — a highly regarded centre dedicated to helping people develop their creative abilities — defines design thinking as a process of collaborating, breaking, reassembling and imagining to achieve strategic innovation and problem-solving.

It’s a solution-focused methodology, and it’s what designers have been doing for decades.

Image source: https://www.nngroup.com/articles/design-thinking/

Design thinking helps to shift focus from the product or service itself to a more human-centric model, and this is where you’ll find the heart of a typical design process. It’s not about what is being created, but why it’s being created and how it’s going to be created for the best outcome.

This methodology begins with a phase of understanding and empathy for the problem. You might discover a designer typically finds it difficult to think outside the box or get creative without a chance to dig a bit deeper into this understanding or context behind a design request.

A well-written brief should be able to get the ball rolling by providing adequate context and allowing the designer to get inside of the mind of the consumer.

The process continues with phases of testing, ideating, exploring, making mistakes and learning along the way. This is the key to embracing creativity and finding the most strategically-aligned way forward.

When applied to strategic innovation in the workplace, knowing that it’s ok to fail or break things as long as we learn from them and move forward, is what helps design-led businesses to thrive.

“Most people make the mistake of thinking design is what it looks like. People think it’s this veneer — that the designers are handed this box and told, ‘Make it look good!’ That’s not what we think design is. It’s not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.”

— Steve Jobs

How can design thinking help to create better campaign outcomes?

The first thing to understand is that design is so much more than just the visuals of a campaign.

Design thinking methodology plays a great role in determining successful design. It’s more than aesthetic appeal — it involves a deep understanding of the purpose, context and audience of the design.

If we lead with this kind of thinking, we can craft an authentic story around a strong foundation of impactful visuals (graphic and video) and written messaging that consumers will engage with on an emotional level. This approach is known as brand storytelling.

‘Good design’ isn’t a checkbox, because the definition of ‘good’ is not black and white; but delivering good design that best fits the audience’s needs is a key driver of success.

Taking an authentic, human-centric approach to campaign planning — like design thinking — allows all members of a team to work together to create better outcomes, taking designers out of the ‘colouring-in department’ silo and building an integrated team of creators who can bring different skill sets to the table (like ours here at Filtered Media).

Myth: busted

Understanding colour theory, composition, balance and contrast are all just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to a designer’s process.

Next time you get the urge to ask a designer, “can you make this look good?” ask yourself this question first instead: “How can we approach this campaign plan holistically and ensure that every touch point is optimised for our audience?”

Consider how design thinking methodology could benefit your next campaign, and perhaps give your design team a pat on the back for all the hard work they do. Just try not to knock over the glitter glue…

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Crisis communication is a public relations specialty that aims to maintain or defend the reputation of a company or person under distress or duress, usually in a public way.

For any organisation, crisis management is a matter of “when,” not “if”. Not only do companies have to be risk-aware, they must be risk-prepared.

Not all threats are considered equal in severity. A company’s state of preparedness when a crisis hits can dramatically affect outcomes: from disastrous to surprisingly positive. In 2016, Deloitte conducted a global survey to gain insight into how confident board members are with crisis management.

Alarmingly, less than half (49 percent) engaged with management to understand what has been done to support crisis preparedness.

We address the top five threats businesses face today and the appropriate actions to managing a crisis.

Social Media Backlash

Speed is everything when managing social media. With a third of the world on social media, when an issue goes viral, it spreads like wildfire. Brands are desperate to maintain a positive impression on social media but forget they are not immune to bad publicity.

Take Snapchat for example. As an attempt to halt its decline over the past few years, Snapchat decided to create a “Would You Rather” advertisement at the beginning of each story. Its intention was to improve engagement, and it was all fun-and-games until the app released the advertisement “Would You Rather…Slap Rihanna or Punch Chris Brown?”, unintentionally referring to the 2009 incident when Chris assaulted Rihanna. Not only did Rihanna refuse to accept Snapchat’s public apology, the company lost $800,000 while social media users took to Twitter and Facebook to criticise Snapchat for its shameful and heartless act.

The saying “no publicity is bad publicity” is not so relevant in digital situations, as the ability for it to spiral to viral is exponentially higher.

Brands at a reputational risk must act fast, but not recklessly, in response to a crisis situation.

Keep informed to be up to speed with news as it happens and rely on manual monitoring, a mix of humans and tools. As social media has established itself as an information-distribution powerhouse, a management plan for social media backlash is essential. Take a step back, assess the investment and make a good judgement on whether the return is beneficial or detrimental.

Product/Service Faults

Managing a crisis regarding product scandals or service complaints takes slightly longer.

For example, in 2016 Samsung’s well-reviewed Galaxy Note 7 experienced severe overheating and explosions. Rather than issuing an immediate response, the company remained silent on the faulty product for months. Several months after the problem became known to the public, Samsung recalled 2.5 million devices and discontinued the model. The effort cost the company a whopping $5 billion at least. Time will be the most telling factor in how Samsung recovers from the Galaxy Note 7 issues and how long it takes consumers to put their trust back in the company.

Addressing the problem and offering a solution are key factors toward regaining consumers’ trust.

Miscommunication

Brand messaging must be made appropriate to the target audience’s native language. If a brand and its intended audience are not understanding or speaking the same language, misinterpretation is likely to occur.    

A popular example is Tourism Australia’s 2006 “So where the bloody hell are you?” campaign. The organisation undertook a massive advertising campaign to attract tourists to Australia. The word ‘bloody’ can be offensive in some of the campaign’s key markets. The UK banned the television advertisements, eventually relenting and allowing the ad to air after 9pm; roadside billboards, however, were permanently removed.  

Miscommunication is often unintentional and hard to position correctly once there is controversy. Focus groups are an essential precautionary method to testing your brand messaging as a method of understanding different interpretations from audiences inside and outside your target market.

Cybercrime

According to PwC’s 22nd Annual Global CEO Survey trends series, respondents list cyber threats as one of the top five concerns to their organisation’s growth prospects. Unauthorised access to personal information can leave a company incredibly vulnerable, especially among online retailers.

Outdoor gear retailer Kathmandu, for example, faced damage control early 2019 when unidentified third-parties gained unauthorised access to customer data during the post-holiday sales period. The company responded quickly with a statement on its website, explaining the situation and the preventative measures it was taking to strengthen customers’ sensitive information. Kathmandu further provided a Q&A on the situation and actions customers could take to protect their data.

Lesson learned here: internal technical management is crucial. As technology becomes more powerful, company’s must take extensive measures to protect sensitive information. Brands are accountable if internal and external sensitive information is released and should be continuously investing in security software to eliminate such consequences.  

Workplace Harassment

Though sometimes difficult to define, workplace harassment can quickly become a crisis if not properly – and sensitively – addressed.

New research from the Human Rights Commission found that 71 percent of Australians have experienced sexual harassment at some point in their lives. Scarily, there has been more than a 10 percent spike – 21 percent to 33 percent – in the last seven years of sexual harassment incidents.

Public sexual harassment incidences can quickly lead down a very damaging path for all involved. In 2018, one of ABC’s broadcast reporters spoke out about an inappropriate move Luke Foley, the leader of the New South Wales Labor party, made on her.

Similar situations take place in any workplace environment. Victims choose to remain silent out of fear of harming their reputation. Establishing a healthy workplace culture and educating employees of the consequences from abusive actions is crucial. Most importantly, it is the responsibility of all members on the managerial level as well as HR to understand how to resolve a workplace harassment issue.

Today, more women are speaking out about sexual harassment, kudos to the #MeToo movement. Managing a crisis such as harassment involves a system. The system needs to lay out preventative measures as well as steps to approaching an incident.

Precautionary measures to be crisis-ready

Rather than shifting all the attention to future scenarios, plan for the expected.

1. Establish a dedicated crisis leadership team; train members on their roles and responsibilities; periodically re-train and update crisis team members.
2. Identify a core cross-functional team with the talent and skills needed to see you through a crisis.
3. Every member of the team must have after-hours contact details of everyone else.
4. Include a communications expert in all crisis preparedness planning, along with legal, financial, executive and client or customer facing representatives.
5. Develop a crisis playbook that reflects the real technical and business impacts a crisis would have on the organisation.
6. Put the theory into practice. Some organisations do role-plays, simulated scenarios and as a minimum, advanced media training.
7. Take action on lessons learned.

Conclusion

A company’s state of preparedness can dramatically affect outcomes (from disastrous to surprisingly positive) when a crisis hits. Prepare a crisis-management playbook or dedicated team. Having done the groundwork before adrenalin kicks in will allow you to think more quickly and clearly on your feet with rational decisions when crisis hits. Most importantly, remember not all crises are the same; each incident will require a unique approach and reaction — but you need your core crisis principles, chain of command, media training, and key messages in place that can pivot and flex to any situation.

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As International Women’s Day is celebrated around the world, it is a chance to reflect on how the call for equality has challenged the status quo. We, as marketers, should take heed.

It’s no secret marketers are an agile breed, constantly challenged to move with our clients’ ever-changing needs. Budgets are cut, lead times shortened, and competitors gain new ground. However, what does it mean for marketers when our clients’ requirements change due to global shifts?

There’s an old saying: diversify or die. A better approach today might be diversify to thrive.

In the past, an agency was generally a group of people around the same age, on around the same wage and of the same ethnicity and sexual orientation. The composition of the group creating a campaign meant you undoubtedly got a singular, blinkered viewpoint.

As companies, we must adapt, leading by example. Diversity is essential if you aspire to developing a creative workplace that fosters the best ideas from a variety of backgrounds.

We live in a time when the calls for equality, irrespective of gender, race, religion or orientation have gained new ground – despite the fact that we have been calling for it for many decades. In the past, these calls have been left markedly ignored. Yet with the rise of movements such as #MeToo and #TimesUp a new landscape is emerging. Previously unheard voices are cutting through.

Shifting attitudes mean marketers have a responsibility to educate brands about the value of diversity and inclusion in campaigns, if they don’t already. As they say, it begins at home. When our workplace mindset changes it flows through to an impact on clients, campaigns and customers.

“There’s an old saying: diversify or die. A better approach today might be diversify to thrive.” – Liz Barrett

Lessons in lack of diversity

The lack of diversity in a company, and by extension the way that company markets itself – both internally and externally – can have a negative impact.

In early 2018, Nike learned the hard way that marginalising its female audience comes at a price. The company was left reeling after a revolt led by female staff saw some of the company’s top male executives leave the brand. Many female staff members slammed the company for standing by, unwilling to address the toxic culture.

It is no surprise then, with very little female leadership, Nike was struggling to gain traction in the womens’ product category – the fastest growing segment of the sporting and equipment market. Nike quickly recognised the need to diversify.

Today, Nike is singing a drastically different tune with the company declaring 2019 as ‘the year for women’ and releasing their acclaimed ‘Dream Crazier’ ATL campaign. A raw and emotional narrative, empowering women to push back against traditional gender stereotypes.

But Nike is just one example, and this isn’t a new topic. It follows decades of top-down male dominance – client and agency-side – leading to campaigns devised by men regardless of the end user. It is a very single-minded approach, especially considering approximately 85% of consumer spending is directly influenced by women, of whom many are part of minority groups.

When it comes to the people creating marketing campaigns the numbers are equally daunting, with women making up only around 29% of creative directors across our country. The story is similar with around 12% in the UK, while alarmingly these statistics are dramatically lower at only 3% in the USA.

This shortsighted observation of the opportunities a brand can harness to engage with a more diverse range of clients is a downfall many continue to make. As marketers, it’s our job to encourage clients to look beyond what has been done before, and create meaningful and unifying campaigns.

Turning the tide

Thankfully, today we are seeing brands creating various ground-breaking and thought-provoking campaigns.

2014 marked the beginning of seismic change, with the widely acclaimed Always #LikeAGirl campaign launch. The aim was to challenge the stereotypical phrase ‘run like a girl, throw like a girl’ and its common use as an insult. It serves as a prime example of a brand engaging with its market above and beyond its product, and creating a lasting impact.

Diverse campaigns have gained momentum ever since. Last year, two of Australia’s most recognised brands, AAMI Insurance and Telstra, separately cast drag queens to star in their advertisements – publicly embracing and representing the LGBTQ+ community in the mainstream.

Telstra partnered with Samsung to showcase network reliability, and AAMI Insurance presented its roadside assistance service by rescuing two queens headed to the Broken Heel Festival. Both campaigns received praise for thinking outside the box.

In 2019, even Pixar has jumped into the diversity conversation with both feet. Known for its epic storytelling endeavours, Pixar released the first in its SparkShorts initiative, short films written by Pixar employees about their own personal stories.

The film Purl, written by Kristen Lester, was inspired by her experience as a woman working in the male-dominated animation industry, painting an uncomfortably familiar picture of what it looks like when companies don’t embrace gender and cultural diversity.

The bottom line is simple. Diversity in all its expressions creates more opportunities for audiences to see themselves in a brand’s story, connecting hearts and minds with its messaging. It’s how you harness the full potential of brand storytelling.

Lead or reflect?

There’s also a bigger question to address: Should brands to lead or reflect social issues? It’s a timely and relevant question given the recent and somewhat controversial Gillette advertisement which called out ‘boys will be boys’ behaviour.

The advertisement received a mixed review, however Gillette hit back, standing by the message and intention of the campaign – to challenge toxic masculinity, bullying and harassment directly by asking men to question their own behaviour, and that of other men. Gillette chose to actively take a stand on a societal issue, rather than passively reflect the zeitgeist.

Why should brands take the lead? The answer is simple – if millennials are their target audience.

Millennials make up the largest and most influential online audience of consumers. While they have been described as many things, when it comes to millennial purchasing habits, the evidence is clear. As a consumer group, they demand more from brands than merely a product or service.

Brands who demonstrate social responsibility and ethical production efforts, and are striving for positive change in the world are typically more favoured by millennial consumers. Brands need to take a stand on the big issues, or get left behind.

Public support of diverse campaigns

Brands may worry that taking a strong stance on an issue could be risky business. However, what is most interesting about the companies who choose to make the shift towards diverse representation in advertising is that, of the 6000+ complaints made to the ASB last year, none worth noting were related to the portrayal of diversity and equality.

In fact, the most common complaints related to vilification of minority groups, as well as discrimination or sexualisation of women – all in defence of their human rights. The other societal issues that raised concerns were gambling, glorification of drug use in sport and the use of bad language.

Unlike other passing trends, the demand for accurately representing the diverse society in which we live, in the marketing campaigns we create, appears to be here to stay. Adapting to this new era is integral for marketers and brands alike to survive in the saturated market.

Globally, we still have a long way to go before diversity is fully embraced. However, it’s now clear agencies and brands that celebrate diversity will reap the rewards.

Want to recapture your passion for creativity and radical thinking?

Register now for our FREE breakfast networking event at Filtered Media on World Storytelling Day – Wednesday 20th March 2019 (8-9:30am).

Tamara Howe, Marketing Director ANZ at Kellogg Company will join Mark Jones, Filtered Media’s Chief Storyteller & CEO in conversation.

The post Diversify to thrive: Why marketers have a responsibility of representation | International Women’s Day appeared first on Filtered Media | Content Marketing + PR digital agency.

Anyone in marketing or public relations is pre-qualified as a creative person, right?

Creativity lies at the heart of our ability to distinguish the clients and brands we represent in a saturated digital world.  

To stand out, innovate, earn trust and generate value, we need new ideas and ways of solving old problems – possibly the simplest definition of creativity, with profound implications.

I distinctly remember the day my mother tied a broken washing basket together with old nylon stockings after it split from too many family laundry loads, and kept using it for months after.

It’s one of countless times she used creative thinking to solve everyday problems. Yet my mother would never self-identify as a creative person.

The problem is those of us in traditionally “creative” fields like marketing and public relations often hesitate to unequivocally describe ourselves as creative people, too.

I wonder if creativity feels inaccessible to so many of us because we (rightly) revere the higher realms of genius we experience in art, fashion, film, music and theatre as true creativity.

Cultural testimony tells us creativity wins film awards, creativity writes musical scores, creativity compels strangers’ heads to tilt in unison at art galleries.

I’d argue that as a society, we are better versions of ourselves when creativity of such calibre is celebrated and respected.

Research shows us that the creative brain is even “wired differently” as it can “simultaneously engage brain networks that don’t typically work together”.

So you could say there’s every reason to amplify the measurable benefit of harnessing one’s creativity in the microcosm of society found within most organisations.

To succeed as brand storytellers, marketers, public relations professionals, pioneers, and business leaders: we must normalise creativity in the workplace and our personal lives.

So, let’s embrace creativity as an accessible and necessary way to distinguish our product, business, marketing campaign, culture or brand.

How do we foster creativity in a work environment where systems, process and policy are buzzwords du jour?

Let’s get practical with these three ways to foster creativity in the workplace:

1. Stress and creativity aren’t friends

Stress and creativity are as suited to each other as Ines and Bronson from Married at First Sight. Stress blocks the arteries through which fresh oxygenated ideas flow. Stress triggers a survival hormone, where you’re consciously or subconsciously choosing paths of least resistance to simply stay alive.

Stress doesn’t allow you to explore the best solutions to a problem. It prefers the fastest, cheapest or easiest approach, which is usually a well-trodden, safely paved road.

Step one in leading a creative work environment is keeping a close eye on the stress levels of your people, and of course, yourself.  Traditional HR stress indicators are notable increases in sick days, work from home requests, or out-of-character responses to everyday situations.

2. Creative thinking demands space

If you’re leading a team brainstorm, a simple change of environment can be enough to refuel creatively tired colleagues.

Try moving people’s desks, standing or ‘walk and talk’ meetings, or hosting brainstorms at an art gallery, by the beach, or on a patch of council-approved grass near the office — and see how it positively affects the dynamic.

Outside of work, be mindful of physical spaces that fill your creative reserves too.

Ever wondered why good ideas so often happen in the shower? The mind is free to roam when it’s in a “safe space” that doesn’t demand higher-order thinking and triage survival systems to be in play.

As individuals, the mundane, ordinary, simple, visceral experiences of life can inspire creative thinking — so be present in those moments, “let your mind wander and follow where it goes” as author and Book Review editor Pamela Paul says in this fascinating New York Times story on the value of boredom.

“[When I’m bored] my mind has no choice but to drift into an elaborate fantasy realm. It’s when you are bored that stories set in,” Pamela says.

3. Set a deadline on creativity

Time is an absolute gift to the creative process. However, creativity loses its value in business without a deadline or purpose. Commercially-driven creativity needs a tapered time allowance with a deadline — imagine a time funnel, basically. Chaos and the unknown is proudly at the top of the creative funnel.

Speaking on The CMO Show podcast about creativity, self-described “Adventurous Thinker” Sally Dominguez exhorted listeners to “not be afraid of the chaos,” saying “if you feel confident that no matter what anything throws at you, you will come up with options that are viable, then, you can pretty much deal with anything.”

The creative person is comfortable in that unknown space. They roam around and ask questions, look at different answers, follow possibilities down curious paths to raise new questions, and offer answers to questions no-one even had! But without being held accountable to a publishing/submission/client deadline, or a creative purpose — that process alone has no natural endpoint.

To be truly effective in a workplace environment, winners of the creative race have checkpoints, sideline coaches, and a finish line — or more literally, a visionary or creative director with clear deliverables outlined and managed by an activator, or account manager, according to a pre-agreed strategic plan.

“As marketing and communications leaders we must figure out how to normalise creative thinking and innovation in our workplaces, and personal lives.”

Finally, we have to ask ourselves why creativity and innovation are important. Like any industry, we are time poor, pressed against deadlines, KPIs and performance objectives, so why is it important to foster creativity and innovation in our teams at work?

From a big picture perspective, I believe morality and creativity are two distinguishing features of our humanity that cannot be replaced by artificial intelligence. The powerful combination of the human mind, spirit and conscience means ethical decisions cannot be outsourced to machines. Similarly, artificial intelligence is dependent on precedent, and pre-existing data and patterns to inform new algorithms. Truly pioneering ideas don’t have an existing data set.

Closer to home, creativity finds new solutions to old problems. Sally Dominguez on The CMO Show podcast says creative thinkers “walk around the problem and poke at it from different angles”. You’ll get cheaper, faster, better, smarter solutions. You might get your own version of nylon stockings to fix a broken basket so it can keep carrying the load, or you’ll get a whole new basket design.

Innovation goes a step further: it identifies new problems altogether. Innovative thinking finds or creates a gap in what exists today, then offers a solution to a problem we never knew we had.

Consider eyebrows – stay with me here – as a prime example of an unlikely frontier for innovation in the multi-billion dollar beauty and skincare market. Who knew an untamed eyebrow could be linked to a person’s self-worth? Well fear not, we now have eyebrow blading, shaping, tinting, blending, brushing, and tattooing tools with an extraordinary number of consumers worldwide, now spending money and time on their ‘instaworthy’ eyebrows.

If an openness to creative thinking led to “eyebrow innovation” – where a problem we didn’t know existed was identified along with a whole host of products to fix it and a global market to buy them – imagine the possibilities when we apply that same process to our own spheres of influence.  

It’s a common misconception that creativity and innovation are the same thing, but you’ll see quite distinct colours in each — which may shift how you choose to use and nurture one or the other in your own workplace, life, and campaign planning.

So then, what’s the difference between creativity and innovation? From my own observations, holding them up to the light as separate entities:

– Creativity allows you to find new solutions to old problems.

– Innovation allows you to see new problems altogether.

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