‘Purpose-Based Marketing’ — Advertising, But Not As You Know It

A bit of an unusual Piq, but Heineken’s latest, and quick-to-go-viral, “social experiment” made me wonder if we’re witnessing a shift in advertising. This article goes into that question a little bit. It suggests that “cause- or purpose-based marketing” has escalated in the past three or four years. As one expert says: “There’s no doubt that a lot of brands see that they need to have a deeper meaning to connect with consumers.”

First, if you haven’t seen the ‘Worlds Apart’ ad: I’d recommend you do. Which, I guess, shows exactly why clever ad agencies choose this kind of messaging more and more: it works. People talk about it. Media write about it. It’s news.

Without wanting to spoil the punch line, it basically teams up political opposites: a feminist with a member of the “new right”; a climate change denier with an environmental activist; and a transgender woman with a transgender, er, denier to ask if there is “more that unites us than divides us”. What follows is a couple of minutes of real-feeling interaction. And a genius finale that make you think. And feel that there’s hope for humanity yet.

We’ve seen several of these kind of ads, even just this year. They seem to have a worldwide appeal, thanks to the global nature of social media. Back in January, there was the Danish broadcaster viral one titled ‘All that we share’. More recently we saw the various Super Bowl ads trolling Trump, with taglines like 'The world is more beautiful the more you accept'.

It seems that companies who’d traditionally have stayed well clear of political messaging now increasingly speak out. Whether their directors feel they have a role to play in sending the right message, or whether they know it captivates audiences (probably the latter): it’s an interesting trend to follow.