Survey Says Brands Need to Properly Support Black Lives Matter ASAFP

The protests, conflict and senseless death in the USA over Black Lives are terrible. This injustice has been going on for far too long and now is the time for leaders to help bring about the required change. Not only is it the right thing to do, it is a business and political imperative.

Our clients at Hotspex Insights and Media reach nearly every single human being in the world with ads, products and services. We help them do this properly with marketing and media insights. That is our craft at Hotspex and so we decided to use it to help ensure global leaders understand why it matters that they urgently do the right thing in these times.

Last night we surveyed 2,100 Americans to understand how they view the Black Lives Matter movement and what they expect our business and political leaders to do about it.  The results are profoundly simple: People want to see meaningful action.

-      40% want to see CEOs tweet support at the very minimum

-      45% want brands to make ads as Nike has with “Don’t Do It”

-      51% want to see donations to Black Lives Matter related causes ... there are many options and it's amazing to see big brands be very creative in how they are trying to have impact.

Now is NOT the time for inaction. Why not be even BETTER than just a tweet/ad/donation?

Saying nothing is saying the wrong thing. It’s been amazing to see many of our clients come out and publicly make donations and powerful statements in support of Black Rights.

If brands don’t act, the impact on their business could be significant.

We asked … “Imagine your favorite brand did NOT support Black Lives Matter right now by taking action... what would you do?”

64% of Americans said they would stop using the brand. Wow.

That’s a BIG impact for a brand/leader from failing to do the right thing. It is very heartening to see over half of society supporting Black Lives with their wallets. Wallet support typically brings about meaningful change.

If you are in marketing or leadership at any company … if you have the ear of a CEO or CMO … please make them aware of this. Now is the time to strategize about how brands can do something meaningful. Humanity has solved many incredible problems with remarkable ideas. Ideas are what are needed now.

And as for politicians, they have a role to play also. They need to do the right thing and they need to do it now. 94% of Americans would NOT vote for politician that didn’t very soon show support for the Black Lives Matter movement. Voters are watching and looking to their leaders for leadership.

I hope that we can use this pandemic as an inflection point on this critical issue and that it can once and for all start the end of racial discrimination and injustice. Brands have a massive role to play in this. Their ads and policies shape societal values. They're hiring and training shapes the workforce and social norms.

Now is the time to act quickly and purposefully with creativity and impact.