Brand ativism (in Portuguese) – especially with regard to pressing societal and environmental issues – is a particularly effective way of engaging your audiences and generating leads and business, and a booming trend in marketing, especially in digital.
“Since Marketing is Marketing, defining the values of your brand and communicating them in the most appropriate way to the interests of your audience is essential”, we can read in the article Marketing and Activism: What Has Your Brand to Do With Causes social? (in Portuguese). In today’s interconnected and polarized world, this truth has never been so up to date. However, as always, brands should do it with courage and determination, but in harmony with their identity, positioning and internal posture. Otherwise, they may face serious credibility and reputation risks.
See the successful and much-talked case where Nike decided to use Colin Kaepernick to celebrate the 30th anniversary of signing ‘Just Do It’. As Afdhel Aziz points out in The Power Of Purpose: Nike And Colin Kaepernick, the decision to put “the ‘Just Do It’ tagline in service of not just sporting excellence, but moral excellence, has allowed the brand to open up the territory it intends to play in; this is not just about success on the playing field, but redefining what success means in the world.” Needless to say, the results of the campaign were unmatched in brand engagement and market value.