These Award-Winning Brands Lead with Purpose
More and more, marketers and their employers are recognizing the importance of pursuing a higher purpose beyond the simple quest for profits.
Mastercard Chief Marketing and Communications Officer Raja Rajamannar has expounded eloquently on this imperative. In an episode of the ANA Center for Brand Purpose's podcast Beyond Profit, he explained: "As a marketer, you're in a very privileged position. You have access, you have the resources, you have influence, and you have capabilities to shape the cultures of societies. I think all the privilege comes with responsibility. The responsibility is to do something good for the society. Why do you do it? Because it's politically correct? Or because it gives you some better return for your business? You do good because you're in a position to do good. And in the process you do well."
The spirit behind Rajamannar's words has guided the work of numerous 2022 winners of the Internationalist's Innovation in Media Awards, who have endeavored to do good for society in a wide variety of ways. Some have striven to improve the sporting world; another promoted life-saving medical training; still another combatted domestic violence. However, they all have in common a determination to lead with purpose.
Readers can peruse the summaries of these efforts below or click on the embedded links to see the full case studies.
The Ad Break the BHF Never Expected to Be In
If CPR is performed in the first few minutes of cardiac arrest, it can triple a person's chance of survival — a fact borne out in a very public manner when Danish soccer star Christian Eriksen was saved in this way after a heart attack suffered mid-match.
The British Heart Foundation capitalized on the moment to encourage people to learn CPR with a 40-second ad that was broadcast to coincide with Denmark's next game, just days after the initial medical incident. The ad was seen by 1.6 million viewers, driving visits to the BHF's "How to Save a Life" website, which increased by 246 percent.
This French Insurance Brand Created a Jersey That Made Rugby Safer to Play
Rugby has the reputation of being a dangerous sport, especially because of tackles. And the numbers support this conventional wisdom: Fifty percent of injuries and 76 percent of concussions that occur during playing or practicing rugby are caused by a tackle.
To address this issue, French insurer GMF collaborated with the French Rugby Federation (FRF) and scientists from Bordeaux University to design the first training jersey that taught players how to tackle properly and reduce the risk of injury.
"The Safe Training Jersey" had an intuitive design that gave players guidelines to identify the optimal areas to target and properly frame their tackle attempts. GMF promoted the jersey on social media with teaser posts and through interviews, articles, and a digital movie that presented and explained the tackle bib.
Banco Santander Launches a Technology Contest to Promote Inclusion, Sustainability, and Diversity in Soccer
A long-time soccer supporter, Spanish multinational financial services company Banco Santander created an international innovation contest to reward tech ideas and solutions that would make the soccer world more inclusive and sustainability-minded.
The company used press releases, videos in social media, newsletters, and general media to drive awareness of the initiative. Entrants were asked to leverage technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, blockchain, augmented and virtual reality, and the internet of things to improve soccer.
Over 200 startups around the world participated in the challenge. The three winners received 10,000 euros in cash and the possibility of carrying out a pilot project valued at another 10,000 euros. One winner proposed intracutaneous chips with a virtual assistant capable of recognizing the person who was wearing it and giving answers to any type of question in a personalized way according to their needs or disability. Another winner proposed a way to gamify the reduction of carbon emissions.
How a Nonprofit Used a Magazine Cover to Support Victims of Domestic Violence
Two hundred women were murdered in Israel by their partner during the past decade — five times more than in England, Italy, or France. Today, there are still over 200,000 women living with an abusive partner.
The COVID-19 lockdown exacerbated the deep gender divides as it forced families to live closely together for long periods of time amid increasing financial and social stress. In 2020 alone, 20 women were murdered by their spouses in Israel, up from 13 in 2019.
The organization No to Violence Against Women (NTVAW) partnered with Israel's most popular women's magazine, Laisha ("For Women'' in Hebrew) to confront the sad epidemic.
NTVAW innovated by changing the magazine's traditional front cover for the first time in 75 years, using it as a media channel. It advertised its helpline prominently on the front cover, so women were aware of the resource. All that people could see on the front page was the *6724 number along with a short CTA to call when in danger.
Panadol Shows You How to Take Care After a COVID Vaccine
Drug manufacturer and GlaxoSmithKline subsidiary Panadol confronted one of the most serious obstacles to our recovery from the pandemic: vaccine hesitancy.
Recognizing that this reluctance often resulted from a fear of the potential side effects of the vaccine, the company undertook to communicate the actual, mild risks posed by the vaccine, capitalizing on a variety of channels, including out-of-home, social media, and education across TV news.
Purpose-driven marketing isn't the only topic that the Internationalist's Innovation in Media Awards shine a spotlight on; they recognize marketing efforts that demonstrate excellence in a wide variety of marketing techniques, including print, social media, gaming, and search marketing, to name but a few. To browse the full library of Innovation in Media case studies, just click here.
The views and opinions expressed are solely those of the contributor and do not necessarily reflect the official position of the ANA or imply endorsement from the ANA.
Morgan Strawn is a senior manager of editorial and content development at ANA.