Whether your customers are business buyers or individual consumers, a well-crafted story may be the key to closing a sale. But building a compelling narrative isn’t always straightforward

What’s in a story? Stories typically involve a character embarking on a journey in pursuit of a goal. Harry Potter went in search of the Philosopher’s Stone, Tony Montana pursued money and power, ET just wanted to return home. Along the way, characters must overcome various obstacles before a conclusive event decides whether they achieve their goal or their ambitions are thwarted. 

For marketing teams looking to promote their brand, the storytelling arc is much the same. The same fundamental elements of stories in popular culture are also found in brand and business stories. The main characters are customers – businesses or consumers in search of a product or service to fulfil their goal. And the resolution is the sale – the product being purchased or a handshake in the boardroom at the conclusion of a deal. 

For example, a company (the main character) may want to increase visibility in its supply chain (the goal), but is reluctant to invest in cloud software thanks to concerns about data migration and security (the obstacles). By creating a compelling story, a savvy B2B marketer at a cloud-software firm can help decision-makers at this company see past their reservations and, eventually, guide them to a sale.

Marketers have a lot to gain from using stories to engage with customers. Stories are up to 22 times more memorable than facts and figures alone, according to Dr Jennifer Aaker, a behavioural psychologist and professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Plus, more than nine in 10 consumers (92%) prefer ads that feel like a story to those that don’t, according to a study by OneSpot.

Moreover, studies have shown that reading and watching character-based stories can stimulate the release of oxytocin, the hormone that creates feelings of empathy. Storytelling therefore can be a powerful tactic for brands aiming to build trust with customers and influence their emotions, attitudes and purchasing decisions.

So how can companies execute stories that will resonate with their audience? Some clues can be found in the marketing and advertising efforts of brands that have sewn storytelling into their DNA. 

In 1988, Nike’s first-ever ‘Just Do It’ advert told the story of 80-year-old Walt Stack. The 30-second video shows him wearing nothing but a pair of shorts and running trainers as he jogs over San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge with passing cars beeping in support. “I run 17 miles every morning,” he says. “People ask me how I keep my teeth from chattering in the winter time. I leave them in my locker.” The ad, which features minimal branding, ends with Nike’s now-iconic ‘Just Do It’ slogan.

In the months that followed Nike was inundated with letters and calls from elite athletes and ordinary Americans praising its portrayal of the tenacious octogenarian and inquiring about its products. It was a viral moment before the birth of the internet that helped to build the Nike brand. The reason for the ad’s success is now clear: skillful storytelling. 

Stack, a relatable elderly man, was the main character in the story in pursuit of his daily 17-mile goal. His main obstacle was age, but his Nike trainers helped him to achieve his goal each day. The ad delivered a powerful message: if an 80-year-old man can keep fit, what’s stopping ordinary Americans?

The benefits of effective storytelling are widely recognised among marketing professionals, but many businesses still struggle to create a compelling story around their products and services. This is especially true in B2B marketing, which often lacks the flair and creativity of B2C campaigns.

But B2B marketing isn’t doomed to be dry. Business buyers are just as responsive to a well-crafted story as individual consumers. If B2B sellers are able to create a relatable, evocative story around their products and services, they are likely to see a boost to the bottom line. And that’s an ending that will always keep board members happy.

Case study: Boots x VMLY&R

Alexia Vasilarou, freelance creative director at Joandalexia.com

Our approach to storytelling for brands is focused on relatability. For us, the most effective stories are those that tap into universal truths – emotions and experiences an audience can relate to because they act as a mirror for their own lives. We want to speak to customers directly and have them really understand what we’re trying to say.

Those universal truths depend on the type of brand you’re working with. Sometimes your job as a marketer is to find the truth behind something as simple as chocolate. How does it make you feel? Why do you eat it? Is there a typical moment when you consume chocolate? But sometimes you have the opportunity to explore deeper, more meaningful truths.

My creative partner, Jo Ridley, and I were given such an opportunity while working on a campaign for Boots, after being hired by VMLY&R to work on a broader project.

Boots’s tagline is ‘With you, for life’ and our job was to find ways to bring that message to life across various campaigns. As we explored different areas of the brand, we saw an opportunity to talk about the menopause, an issue that receives little attention, which leaves many women feeling isolated or confused by their symptoms. At the time, there was a lot of discussion about women’s health, so we felt it was the right time to tell this story.

Menopause affects millions of women, but it’s poorly understood, even by those going through it. We recognised the gap in awareness and used it as the foundation for the campaign idea we pitched to Boots. We highlighted the universal truth that, because of the lack of dialogue around the subject, many women are unaware that what they’re going through are symptoms of the menopause.

Boots gave us the green light and we began by carrying out extensive research and gathering testimonials from women who had been through the menopause. There are 15.5 million perimenopausal and menopausal women in the UK and 90% of them struggle to identify their symptoms as menopausal. On average it takes 14 months to make the connection. As we gathered these stories, we realised that it was a deeply personal experience because the symptoms can vary dramatically from person to person. 

We decided that print was the best medium to tell this story across multiple national publications, including OK!, New! and the Daily Express. In an age dominated by digital content, print can often cut through the noise in a way that other mediums cannot. We decided on a double-page spread format and I had the idea to draw attention to the confusion and lack of information on the menopause by explaining what the menopause is on the left-hand side, but including redacted text which would leave out crucial bits of information and leave people wanting to know more.

On the right-hand side of the spread we created a personal story about the menopause that was an amalgamation of the many stories and testimonials we read online. The aim of this was to reveal the personal, human experience of going through the menopause, highlighting its impact on womens’ daily lives and explaining why the symptoms can be so confusing. At the end of this account, we directed readers to the Boots Health Hub, where women can get access to products, services and advice. 

The campaign is a great example of how storytelling, when done well, doesn’t just sell products or services, it also offers real value to people. Addressing a topic that affects so many women but is rarely discussed in the public realm, helped to enhance Boots’s brand image, but also enabled them to contribute to a much needed conversation about women’s health.

Case study: Tork x Publicis

Barret Helander, creative director at Publicis

Business storytelling is about connecting with people. If you can connect through emotion, you can take something that may not seem relatable at first and make it so on a very innate level. We can use emotion in storytelling to make you empathise with a group of people on the other side of the world, for instance, and realise that we’re all a lot more similar than you think. 

Purpose has been at the heart of brand storytelling for some time now. Rather than just simply telling customers to buy a product, advertisers and marketers are keen to find a way to tell stories that show how their products are contributing to society, creating shared experiences and positive emotions that connect people. 

But one of the big traps we fall into in our industry is deciding the medium before the idea. Often we’ll discuss broadly what the client wants to achieve and begin talking about the video assets they already have on YouTube or their website, for instance, before we even know what the idea is. Instead, we should agree on the idea and then discuss the best way to tell the story.

Tork’s Paper Towel Plea campaign is a great example of this. Tork is a hygiene supplies company and one of the world’s biggest brands. We’d been working with them for a while but we were struggling to come up with the right idea for their tagline, ‘Better hygiene, better business’. Tork sells many different products – hand sanitizer, paper towels, toilet paper, etc – so it was difficult to hone in on an idea that brought all of these elements together. In situations such as this we try to make it as simple as possible. We decided to select what we believe is their most iconic product – the paper towel – and then explore the most interesting story we could tell involving the product and the company.

After doing some research, we were amazed by how many people struggle to wash their hands each day because of various health conditions or disabilities. We then had this lightbulb moment: Tork’s paper towels are distributed to more businesses in the world than any other product, so the seemingly insignificant paper towel presented the perfect medium to tell this story and get the message in front of business leaders who have the power to change this.

Our strategists started finding people with barriers to washing their hands, such as contamination OCD triggered by dirty restrooms, eczema that is irritated by harsh soaps and gels and arthritis that can make it difficult to use facilities. We began filming them speaking about their conditions and the frustrations they face on a daily basis when using public restrooms. As they told their story, we showed them writing it down on a paper towel. These actual stories were then printed on Tork paper towels. We visited the company’s research and development facility in France to work with designers on putting this into action.

Since we launched the campaign, the response from Tork has been really positive. They’re discussing launching the exact same campaign in different countries, which shows the real business benefits of purpose-driven storytelling. They’re also keen to use this as a north star and figure out ways to tell other stories about how their business and products genuinely aid the lives of consumers all over the world.

Raconteur case study: This could’ve been an email with Mailchimp

By building a campaign around their customers’ biggest challenges – a lack of time and a lack of resources – Mailchimp successfully positioned themselves as sympathetic to their customers’ needs and understanding of how they can help.

A year-long, mixed-media campaign was envisioned and an extensive thought leadership program drawn up. As well as demonstrating their tools for mid-market customers, this campaign showcased Mailchimp’s deep market expertise to build trust amongst their target audience.

Explore the full campaign here.

Raconteur case study: Growth Experience – with HSBC

HSBC’s recent research campaign, ‘Growth Experience’, sought to better understand the growth aspirations of UK SMBs while showcasing HSBC’s expertise in key business areas.

By conducting a thorough piece of proprietary research, HSBC were able to put their client’s story front and centre and hear first hand the specific challenges small and medium sized businesses face when growing a business.

Explore the research here.

Raconteur case study: A finance leaders’ guide to smart tax management with KPMG

KPMG’s recent Insights Report drilled down into pain points, challenges, and potential solutions for tax leaders across the UK. By taking a customer-first approach, and positing the report as a resource solely for tax leaders, KPMG were able to successfully demonstrate that they are an expert in the field.

More importantly though, by focusing on the struggles of their target customers, they empathised with their customers and emphasised that they are a trusted advisor for them.

Explore the full report here.

The following is a write-up of a webinar that Tom hosted and that you can watch here

In recent years, customer experience has been deprioritised in favour of the bottom line. But it’s time for businesses to sit up and take notice of the value of putting your customers front and centre.

In any downturn or economic crises, productivity and profitability inevitably rise to the top of the C-suite agenda – often at the expense of the marketing department. This results in things like customer experience getting kicked down the road to be reviewed when macro conditions get back on track.

An IBM and Oxford Economics survey of 3,000 CEOs last summer showed that customer experience had fallen to third in the list of priorities for business leaders, despite having taken the top spot the year before. It was replaced by productivity and profitability, and tech modernisation. Customer relationships, which were ranked as the fourth highest priority in 2022, didn’t even make the top list in the latest survey.

The result? Customers feel less valued, as departments are pressured to hit numbers, save costs, and improve efficiency – all at the expense of the customer experience.

CX has “definitely taken a hit over the past few years”, according to Benedict Buckland, managing director and chief strategy officer at alan. agency, the full-service B2B marketing agency. “I think there is always that pressure to just invest in activation, where you’ve got to try and get results in the short term,” he says.

One theory behind this recent shift is that CX, rather than being ignored altogether, has instead become a “team sport”. With multiple departments or initiatives all contributing to CX in some way, it’s no longer a standalone strategic objective for business leaders, but a holistic approach that the whole organisation should be driving.

“Rather than previously being quite siloed, [CX] is now something that marketing really gets involved in, and that sales get involved in as well,” says Anna Tankel, freelance growth expert and former senior growth manager at Onsi, the employee benefits platform. “For us, events were things we only used to do for prospects, but they’re now something that it’s quite easy to invite customers to as well.”

Marketing’s evolving role

From an agency perspective, Buckland identifies a recent “correction” in how companies are now viewing the importance of CX. “Over the past six months, there’s been a big increase in clients wanting to evaluate how they are doing things and realising that there’s actually more of a fundamental problem because they don’t have the necessary market orientation. They don’t understand the customer.”

These days, Buckland says that his agency is now doing more work than ever to help brands better understand or re-learn “who their clients and customers are, what their particular drivers are, and using that to actually reshape the proposition”.

But marketing isn’t just responsible for onboarding new customers or building brand awareness. It plays a crucial role at every stage of the customer journey, from initial calls to upsells, aftersales and improving loyalty.

According to Maisie Richardson, UK marketing director at spend management software provider Payhawk, customer obsession is all about mapping out all your customer touchpoints from start to finish, “and then allowing the business as a whole to identify areas for improvement and ensuring we’re all focusing on the same thing across all those different business areas”.

Reframing marketing’s role can be helpful for companies to realise how vital CX is, says Buckland, who calls for marketing to be reconceptualised as “the voice of the customer”. He says: “Brand is every touchpoint, every point of interaction with your customer, your prospect, your client. Whether that’s pre-sale, during the sales process, post-sale or as part of just service more generally. I think marketing does need to have a much wider jurisdiction to cover all of that CX dimension.”

In a similar vein, Richardson makes it her mission to listen to every point of contact with customers – everything from the first call with a business development representative to final closing calls. “The reason we listened to those types of recordings is purely to hear from the customer directly what they want from us. […] It’s our job as marketers to translate that to the rest of the organisation. And if we don’t do a good enough job of that, we’re going to fail as a business.”

Knowing your customers better

At the end of the day, don’t take your customers for granted, says Tankel. “Budgets are being cut left, right and centre. And the ROI of rolling out the red carpet for customers is always going to be stronger than for prospects. So don’t forget to invest in them,” she says.

For companies out there with a disconnect between how they’re selling and what their audience really wants, Buckland recommends thinking beyond simply what customers’ “rational needs” are.

“If you go beyond the rational, you understand the emotional drivers. But don’t just stop there […] Something that we’ve explored is this extra dimension of understanding on a philosophical level – what motivates and drives our customers and clients and how they see the world.”

He explains: “There’s an additional layer to understand what they see on a philosophical level, their role within an organisation and how they see their organisation’s role in a wider market. If you can start to tap into that, it’s really insightful for developing a brand proposition and wider storytelling.”

Creativity in the AI age

When it comes to speaking to your audience and making yourself heard, the rise of AI and machine-learning tools has helped companies create more content than ever before. But with so much noise in the marketplace, being heard is getting harder than ever.

Tankel highlights the risk of getting a “middle-of-the-road, boring, templated response” if you’re not using the tools in an innovative way. “You can challenge many of the tools you’re using to spin up something a bit more contrarian. […] But they’re never going to give you enough to cut through unless you really push them and add in your own spin,” she says.

Buckland calls these tools both an “inhibitor and enabler, simultaneously”, but a reality that the marketing world must lean into. “For us, it’s a real accelerator of initial ideas,” he says. “In terms of how we use [AI] within the creative process, it’s to accelerate that research and discovery phase. And it’s quite useful just being able to uncover a couple of blind spots that you have as a human being […] But certainly once you have those baseline ideas, it’s the requirement of a human being to synthesise that out.”

Within thought leadership, for example, generative AI tools are already being used to write Linkedin posts, tweets and even speeches. But we risk homogenising written content through the over-use of these tools, says Buckland.

“It is incumbent on marketers to think, ‘Okay, what are the other formats that I can use? What are the other ways in which I can communicate this idea or lead a conversation within my industry?’,” he says. “Yes, [AI] is going to be super disruptive for copywriters. But does it sort of sound the death knell for marketers? Absolutely not. I think that it will create that necessity, which causes innovation in different formats, different ways.”

However, being creative requires fostering a culture of creativity within marketing teams, according to Richardson. That comes, she says, by allowing time for free thinking “without that immediate pressure to ship campaigns as quickly as possible”.

She continues: “One of the things about being creative is actually taking risks that sometimes don’t always pay off. That’s one of the key areas where I think we’ll always need that sort of freedom of thought.

“We try very, very hard to not be the type of marketing team that is focused on bottom-line results in every campaign. We focus on creativity. We might not get it right 100% of the time, but actually that’s what’s important to us.”

Watch the full webinar here, check out how we helped Klear boost their brand, or reach out to discuss how Raconteur can support your brand building efforts here.

The following is a write-up of a webinar that Tom hosted and that you can watch here

Standing out in your marketplace has never been harder, and getting your name to stick in your customers’ minds requires long-term investments in building your brand.

Brand-building has taken a back seat in the B2B space over the past couple of years, as boards were forced to tighten purse strings and pile the pressure on marketers to deliver more tangible and immediate ROI.

But as economic headwinds begin to recede and businesses start to enjoy some sense of stability, the importance of brand is now being recognised once again, with companies looking to make more investments into longer-term market positioning and brand awareness.

For smaller, newer brands in particular, awareness is essential if you have any chance of standing out in a crowded marketplace – it’s the thing that will push you “across the line”, according to David Keene, the chief marketing officer for Europe at IT services group Wipro.

“Brand-building moves you from awareness, or even just casually coming across a company, into consideration. And the better your brand-building is, the stronger that conversion […] to consideration will be – whether you’re Google, Wipro, or some tiny, small SaaS startup,” Keene says.

According to Sophie Wooller, UK chief operating officer at digital agency Croud, brand-building should be a “non-negotiable” for all companies. “When we think about B2B, we think about facts. But you’re still selling to people who have opinions. And even to get on the shortlist […] there needs to be a level of brand awareness. That might be through word of mouth or through much broader, bigger media campaigns. But you have to start somewhere.”

She continues: “As depressing as it is, it’s not just the product – there has to be some brand awareness as well.”

It’s easier said than done, of course. Building your brand in your customers’ minds needs to encapsulate a number of different approaches and methods. That’s according to Nick Whitfield, communications manager at Future Biogas, a UK-based provider of clean and renewable energy. B2B marketing is all about “giving your customers the tools and information they need, in a format that feels familiar to them, in a language and vocabulary they understand and also use”, Whitfield says.

But building that up takes time. And oftentimes marketing isn’t given the adequate time required to deliver results. Things, however, might be starting to change.

According to a recent joint study by the ​​Institute of Practitioners in Advertising and Brand Finance, the strength of a brand and its marketing were named as the most important things that investment analysts look for when appraising companies – more so than leadership, technological innovation or even profits. What’s more, 37% of analysts said they regarded advertising as an investment compared with just 24% who viewed it as a cost, showing that even the investment community is valuing a longer-term mentality when it comes to marketing.

What makes a good brand-building campaign?

So how do you do it right? When it comes to successful brand-building, whitepapers alone won’t cut it – especially at a time when decision-makers are so time-poor. Instead, it’s all about empathy, storytelling and differentiating yourself from your competitors. But above all else, the key is consistency.

“I think consistency is really important in any sort of brand campaign you’re putting out there. Don’t claim to be something that you don’t actually practise in reality, or can’t be demonstrated in the experience a customer then goes on to have with your business,” Whitfield says.

To deliver a great B2B brand campaign, you need to be super clear on the objective, according to Wooller, since having multiple targets for a singular campaign can work against you.

“Are you trying to get your brand in front of as many eyeballs as possible? Are you trying to drive brand awareness? Are you trying to use it […] to drive consideration and start to drive outcomes? It’s really hard to do all of those really well, because they will have nuanced different audiences, and therefore slightly different ways, volumes and channels in which you want to get in front of people,” Wooller says.

“So if you can be super, super clear on the objective with your brand campaign that will then help guide planning around who, how often, which channels and where – and all the component parts that make up your marketing mix.”

How AI is changing the marketing industry

These days, when it comes to staying at the top of your game, marketing heads might be feeling the pressure from their boards to lean heavily on AI tools, and generate content at speed in a bid to stand out. But, as tools like ChatGPT rapidly reshape how people both interact with and create online content, can marketers still grab attention and deliver the unexpected?

The well-used metaphor that generative AI is akin to having ‘infinite interns’ is a useful thing to remember, says Wooller. “If you’re doing some research, or you want to have a load of ideas or a first pass of translation, you’ve now got infinite interns who you can ask the question of, and they will return some probably pretty good stuff. But you’re not going to send your most important clients what your interns return, hopefully,” Wooller explains.

“You still need a layer between what they’ve ideated, what they’ve come up with, and what you’re sending,” she says.

Of course, marketers should deploy AI where their main savings are going to be, Whitfield says, like automating repeatable processes that will reduce time and money. For example, companies who currently pay a fortune for stock photography will be able to save money by using generative AI for very similar end-results, he says.

“But in its current state, I’m much more convinced by using AI as a suggestive tool, rather than a full-blown content generator,” Whitfield says.

Standing out through storytelling

Ironically, with the relative ease of creating content and the ever-expanding avenues or channels to deliver it to audiences, it’s never been harder to convert prospects into actual leads. So great storytelling is what will set businesses apart in building long-term engagement and generating demand.

“Think carefully about who you want to talk to. Who’s your target customer? How does the customer feel? And how do you tell a story that allows them to feel?” Keene says.

“Don’t tell a story that your product team wants to hear […] Your product team is not buying your product, nor your CEO. You’ve got to understand your customer, and really put yourself in their shoes as a marketing person. That’s your role to understand and empathise with the customer, and to tell a story that they bought.”

And to do this well, your brand needs to own its own “story”, Keene adds. “At the heart of your brand, you need a brand book that everything is built on; it’s the foundations of your house. You need that fundamental, clear and compelling message that gets repeated across all of your channels and your campaigns.

“Sure, you can do different things and be creative in different ways. But if it’s too diverse, you’ll break the simplicity of that core message.”

Watch the full webinar here, check out how we helped Klear boost their brand, or reach out to discuss how Raconteur can support your brand building efforts here.

The best advertising is authentic and backed up by facts, while aimed at the right audience, in the right place, at the right time

Making a sale is getting harder. With consumers concerned about where and how they spend their money, it is important for companies to demonstrate their environmental, social and governance (ESG) credentials.

And, in an era where the general tolerance for advertising is on the wane –⁠ many people are prepared to pay extra to be able to skip ads on streaming platforms, for example –⁠ marketers are also faced with a significant challenge of conveying a lot more information in far less time. 

In 2024, then, marketing campaigns and ads must serve the dual function of selling a product or service and the company behind it, all the while navigating some difficult wider contexts. 

Being sensitive to tighter budgets

According to Sophie Lewis, chief strategy officer at advertising agency M&C Saatchi, “the cost-of-living crisis will be the biggest challenge marketers face in 2024, by a mile, as they look to drive growth in the face of a rather bleak economic outlook.” 

Most consumers, however, are reasonable and realistic, she points out, and will accept the macroeconomic circumstances which have led to price rises. Nevertheless “they still need to understand why they should choose one company over its competitors.” Indeed, increasingly, Lewis suggests, consumers want to see tangible evidence alongside ads to back up brands’ claims about the superiority of its products. 

Annika Bizon, marketing and omnichannel director at Samsung UK and Ireland, says the companies which are most likely to succeed in their sales will be the ones which can demonstrate longevity in their products or services. In 2024, consumers want to think of their most expensive purchases as “investments”, she explains. If a company wants to convince someone to part with a significant amount of their income when times are tough, they need to be able to guarantee at least some degree of “future-proofing them to last.” 

Lewis warns firms against “jumping on the cost-of-living crisis as a marketing opportunity”, however. “If you’re not doing something tangible to help customers,” she says, “you probably shouldn’t be talking about it.” 

Noting the misstep of meal replacement company Huel earlier this year –⁠ where the firm claimed it could help people save money on food by using its products –⁠ Lewis says brands can be sensitive to tighter budgets “without being inappropriate.” 

Adapting to shorter attention spans

In general, people’s willingness to read, watch or listen to adverts is decreasing. A study by Microsoft suggested that the average attention span of a Gen Z adult is about eight seconds, meaning that marketers and advertisers in 2024 are under huge pressure to make sure their imagery and messaging is instantly effective.

For Bizon, shorter attention spans will force firms to target their advertising more intelligently. “Marketing can no longer fit in one box,” she says. “Our audience is too broad. People have different passions, interests and needs, and brands need to understand that to be successful.” 

Making advertising relevant, Bizon says, is what is more likely to achieve cut-through. Samsung, for example, recently partnered with world champion skateboarder Sky Brown. “We were able to harness the insight that skateboarders often use shoes to prop their phones up to capture their tricks and progress – meaning that we could authentically position Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip5 as the ideal solution for them,” she explains. 

Another way to adapt to shorter attention spans, according to Suresh Balaji, the chief marketing officer at Lloyds Banking Group, may be to develop passive coverage – that is to say, make sure that their “distinctive brand assets”, such as logos, are seen by the right people, in the right place, at the right time. 

Vicky Kerr, director of marketing EMEA & APAC at Uber for Business, goes further. While she agrees that “product and service education needs to remain at the core of any strategy”, she suggests that companies may want to explore the “power of product placement”. 

When used strategically and alongside other channels, Kerr notes, this method can significantly amplify brand presence or awareness. “The trend of brands leveraging product placements, as seen with McDonald’s and others in [Netflix series] Emily in Paris, reflects a growing interest in this advertising strategy,” she says. “It works subtly yet effectively, embedding the product within content that the target audience is already engaged with.”

Understanding the importance of ESG

As well as offering value for money, consumers want to feel comfortable with who they are giving their money to. As ESG credentials increasingly factor into people’s purchasing decisions, François Bazini, chief marketing officer at Suntory Beverage Group (SBG), believes companies which have strong ones should showcase them.

SBG, which owns Lucozade, Orangina and Ribena, among others, primarily uses “packaging to communicate our ESG product credentials with consumers, with examples including clear labeling around the use of recyclable PET [Polyethylene Terephthalate], reducing the size of plastic sleeves on our bottles, and the lower sugar content on many of our drinks.” 

Positive brand association with social justice causes can also be achieved, Bazini says, through targeted sponsorship. “We’ve also spent years developing programmes and campaigns with real social impact through Lucozade Sport,” he notes, “working with Apprentice Nation, among many others, to help engage and upskill young people.” 

Advertising should not be indulgent or exaggerated, warns Bizon, but rather rooted in “authenticity”. Consumers can see through greenwashing and social posturing, so it’s not enough for a company to simply say that it cares, it must back it up with action. 

To this end, Balaji suggests that people will respond positively to a brand putting its money where its mouth is. “What works best in this arena are genuine rather than performative acts,” he says, “that show a brand is sacrificing something or shouldering some sort of cost to deliver against an ESG commitment.”

The future of marketing and advertising

Ultimately, ethics, honesty and evidence should be guiding principles for marketers in the new year. According to Lewis, “the age of ostentation is over. People want meaning and connection. And the brands which understand this will thrive.” 

Whether an ad or campaign sinks or swims in 2024, then, will likely come down to whether it can positively answer three main questions. Does this product or service offer value for money? Is the information relevant to the consumer it is targeting? Does buying this product or using this service do more good than harm to the wider environment and society?