How smart brands connect with culture

Provocative talk at Contagious Now Next Why today on culture, and it’s dad-at-the-disco cringe potential for brands who use it as a commercial tactic. No prizes for guessing that Pepsi’s tone-deaf Kendall Jenner ad was held up as the best example in a category no-one wants to win.

As Content Director at SevenC3, a big part of my job is helping brands to connect with people through their interests, opinions and desires. And steering them away from spaces and places they have no right to be. It's a tough thing to get right, and Senior Strategist Georgia Malden was spot-on with this list of challenges brands face.

No1 How do we define culture? This isn't a new problem. There have always been varying interpretations of what culture means to a brand – from being in tune with trends and tastemakers, to a reflection of changing attitudes in society on big issues like gender equality and diversity.

No2 Culture can polarize audiences. People have always held strong and differing opinions about cultural issues. Now social channels mean marketers can hear and see just how fragmented their audiences have become. No more neat segments or personas; if a brand chooses a cultural position, someone, somewhere is not going to like it.

No3 An explosion of cultural touchpoints. The spawning of ever-more places for people to communicate – social networks, reviews, messaging apps – means more places for marketers to get it right or wrong. And more places to be consistent in their opinions and take on the zeitgeist.

Malden’s advice on how to tackle these issues is worth repeating – brands need to decide precisely where on the cultural spectrum they want to play. She carves up this choice into three tactical options – Behaviours, Values or Interests – neatly explained in the slide below.

More interesting for me was that out of nine or 10 terrific examples of brands finding a credible way into culture, only one was traditional advertising (Axe’s feelgood ‘Find your magic’ series). From the Lego Life Instagram-like app where children too young for the real deal share creations, to Brazilian beer brand Skol asking the public to help them redesign sexist posters, it was a parade of content-rich, tech-enabled and most of all interactive initiatives. Cultural alignment is clearly a two-way street, with a lot of real-life listening and learning along the way.

Nic McCarthy is Content Director at SevenC3