Dive into culture with DC

Culture is a big concept.

Culture is fashion. It's music. It's the language someone uses and how they use it. But underneath that, culture can mean values or fundamental assumptions about the world. Culture and ideology come with us as we perceive the world, acting as a lens for what we’re taking in and how we make sense of it. 

At Duncan Channon, we formed our own “Culture Club” to bring our people together and foster good old-fashioned discourse about culture, its meaning, and its role in advertising. And in this monthly series, we’re extending these learnings to you as we explore, dissect and react to themes we’re observing.

To kick us off, let’s first get clear on some of the ways culture is typically used, then break down what defines a true ‘cultural practice.’

Currency

Essentially, being up-to-date on what’s popular and new. Anything that’s overexposed tends to wear out. Without deeper insight, it can often lead to lazy creative executions like celebrity linkage or jumping on a viral trend. 

“What currently trending topic could be linked to our brand?”

Sensemaking

It’s one thing to know what is popular but another to understand why. This cultural analysis can be helpful for connecting an artifact of culture to further shifts in values or unacknowledged truths. 

“Why are Buffalo Bills fans throwing each other through tables?”

Brand cultures

These are the patterns of use that may arise around the product itself. The culture becomes a treasured, inextricable piece of the brand’s equity while not being fully under the control of the brand. And in an increasingly polarized climate, it’s a challenge to be big without running into culture clashes. 

“What is something that everyone who has used our product can relate to?”

Insight into a subculture or population

As the country grows more diverse, this will be an increasingly important capability. Specialized appeals can immediately establish relevance, but if done poorly, they can come off as pandering. 

“What might help Latinos feel that our brand is ‘for people like me?’”

Social norms

Culture also includes social norms: value judgments and the implicit sense of what is acceptable or encouraged behavior for a given group. This includes work on normalizing a new behavior or shifting the social perceptions around a brand. 

“How can we break through the stigma and judgment surrounding our category?”

When putting a ‘cultural practice’ into play, here are some things we’ve found are instrumental: 

One way we achieve this is through our in-house cultural consulting group called The Collective. They have built the knowledge and expertise that thinks through cultural perspectives and unique social experiences at the start of our strategic, media and creative processes. We also bring in expert consultants and thought leaders to ensure our thinking and implementation are on target and relevant. By prioritizing cultural authenticity and partnering with experts in cultural consulting and translation, we can confidently create impactful campaigns that resonate with diverse audiences.

If traditional ad agencies label General Market distinctly from the multicultural market, the insinuation is that General Market is White, while the multicultural market is nonwhite. We must move away from White centric advertising vernacular because, as we know best, the words we use matter. Published marketing content on diversity only matters if processes internally reflect the importance of cultural nuance.

Creating a space for people to become more aware, empathetic, confident and more interesting human beings can also make them better marketers. To honor that, we created Culture Club: a place for DCers to nerd out about their passions, talk about the pieces of media occupying their attention or share the issues they find most pressing, all while drawing connections to the larger cultural forces in which we live. Given the diverse backgrounds at DC, Culture Club allows us to hear from the different perspectives of our peers. We’ve discussed the intersection of typefaces, gender, “camp,” the subtleties of racism in food culture and our perpetual grappling with the categories of the U.S. census, to name a few past topics.

Culture gets used so broadly that it can mean everything and nothing. Getting it right is essential not only for great advertising, but to honor all cultures.

With this ongoing newsletter we’re putting cultural competence at the forefront and inviting you to join us. Be sure to subscribe for future knowledge drops!

This issue written by: Mariya Manuel, Brand/content strategist; Adam Flynn, Senior social norms strategist; Katherine Mansfield, Senior communications planner; Samantha Escobar, Senior communications planner and Javier Solis, Associate brand strategist.