Over the years, brands have managed to be crowd pullers and have kept the audience enthralled with some brilliant marketing campaigns. These campaigns reflected the true values of the brands and that’s why they connected with their audience. Of course, they generated huge sales and built deep customer loyalty.

But with time, more and more brands started noticing this trend. The balance has now tilted towards cause marketing campaigns. Brands feel compelled to associate with social issues or social causes.

Of course, there are brands out there that are opportunistically hoping to ride the cause-wagon to sales success. But this post isn’t about them This is about the brands that “mean it” when they take a stand.

For these brands, this approach helps them link their brand values with the causes they support. Since this is an extension of the Brand Purpose, it lends the move a strong voice and authenticity. All in all, it helps the brand make a difference in the world while meaningfully impacting the brand’s overall image.

Here are five such brands that trod this path. They took a stand on social issues and meant it.

 

Lifebuoy – Help a Child Reach 5

Video: https://youtu.be/UF7oU_YSbBQ

Help a Child Reach 5 was Hindustan Unilever’s award-winning campaign for its soap brand Lifebuoy. It kicked off a campaign that promoted handwashing with soap in a bid to encourage hygienic practices in rural areas and schools. The idea came into being driven the research that revealed that each year, infectious diseases claim the lives of 2 million children under the age of 5 years. Lifebuoy decided to take a stand. It created a 3-minute film on the virtues of washing up. And the film and the campaign went viral. On digital channels, the hashtag #helpachildreach5 started trending on Facebook and Twitter. Lifebuoy’s brand ethos of making a difference by promoting healthy hygiene habits with its products was in perfect harmony with the campaign. That’s what made the audience connect with it. A clean sweep indeed.

 

Himalaya Lip Care – Project Muskaan

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26dx1EDXzRU

The Himalaya Drug Company is a personal care brand that announced the launch of a unique initiative not very long ago. It took up the issue of cleft lips in association with Smile Train India by coming up with a film on the journey of a girl named Jyothi. The film showed how her life was transformed after surgery. The initiative was called Muskaan and was the brand’s step towards raising awareness of the issue of cleft lips. It went on to create a movement offering corrective surgeries in some of the worst affected areas. To enable this, the firm announced that it would contribute Rs.2 from the purchase of every Himalaya Lip Care product to the campaign. This campaign was tied to the core brand objective of Himalaya Lip Care, which is to ensure healthy and nourished lips for ALL. And that’s worth a smile.

 

Airbnb – We Accept

Video: https://youtu.be/wuF2nI1Ugcc

Airbnb is a brand that’s fresh and finds favor with the millennial generation. It’s built a reputation on not accepting the rules of the previous generation. Airbnb has transformed how the world sees hotels and hospitality and it showed us that it truly believes in that transformation -even beyond its business. When President Trump made a move to limit immigration, it chose to take a stand. In the wake of the Presidential announcements, Airbnb created a Super Bowl advertisement that showed a diverse range of people with the message: “We believe no matter who you are, where you’re from, who you love or who you worship, we all belong. The world is more beautiful the more you accept.” Their stand was easy to accept because the brand had always advocated the opening of doors to let people from “other places” come into your home. How was this any different?

 

Ching’s Secret – ‘India ke hunger ki bajao’

Video: https://youtu.be/v2Ye7wXwzfY

Who would have thought food brand Ching’s Secret would come up with a cause-related campaign? This is a category more closely linked to “fun” than anything else. Instant noodles are a guilty pleasure, a trivial distraction. Or are they? Endorsed by actor Ranvir Singh, the Hakka Chinese Brand partnered with non-profit foundation Akshaya Patra, which runs a mega mid-day meal program in India. The foundation feeds millions of school-going children every day a meal that is often the only nutritious meal they get in 24 hours. The message conveyed by the brand in a digital film was along the lines of – it takes only Rs. 750 to feed a child for an entire year. The campaign also created a website and built a platform where concerned citizens could donate and seek additional information. Moreover, the campaign tweaked its tagline Hunger ki Bajao to India ke Hunger ki Bajao to deliver more impact on the target audience. A brand that was all about alleviating those mid-afternoon hunger pangs for the fortunate kids became a brand that helped alleviate hunger across a nation!

 

Always – Like a Girl

Video: https://youtu.be/XjJQBjWYDTs

Always’ Like a Girl video is a famous campaign that has earned rave reviews. Based on breaking stereotypes and empowering women, the video showed how men and women do things differently. The eye-opening fact the campaign brought out was how the phrase ‘like a girl’ had become an insult. The men and, even, the women in the video started acting in what they understood to be typical girly behavior. It then showed young girls doing the same things, “like a girl” while giving it their all and showed a stark comparison. Clearly doing something “like a girl” wasn’t quite what folks thought it to be.

Since the brand’s ethos is to empower women to live without limits through trusted feminine hygiene products and education, the campaign really rang true.

As you can see, brands around the world have stood up for social causes in myriad ways. But it’s the campaigns that adhered to the brand’s values and promises that come across as authentic and honest. These translate into meaningful change, customer engagement, and growth in the brand value. It’s all about being honest.

 

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