15 Dec Why ‘Brand Activism’ Is On The Rise In Content Marketing

Brands are looking to align themselves with a consumer trend, issue or topic as more socially aware customers are increasingly conscious of social and environmental causes.

Back in January this year we discussed Why Millennials look for socially conscious brands, and how this first digitally native generation is more aware of how its choices and purchases affect others.  This trend has driven a growing number of major brands and startups to align with social issues within their marketing campaigns.

The results of a survey from World Media Group into content marketing found brand or content activism was one of the clear themes and was providing a real opportunity for brands to engage with consumers on social causes, such as the environment, gender equality, ethically sourced and made goods and more.

One-fifth of survey respondents claimed ‘aligning a brand with a trend, issue or topic’ as a key benefit of a content marketing campaign. As consumers are less brand loyal than ever before, connecting and staying relevant to the causes they care about is seen as playing an important role in creating a long-lasting connection between brand and consumer and evoking some sense of brand loyalty for the future.

The research also found trends around new technology that brands say they will use in the near future.

Audio and podcasts were the most popular with 90% of respondents intending to use this in upcoming campaigns.

Respondents also believed that a big part of successful content campaigns was taking global themes and making them more relevant for local audiences.

71% of survey respondents said they currently adopt global stories for local markets, and 61% create content in a combination of local language and English.