Hatred & boycott - Threats brands need to watch out for in 2022
The year 2021 was marked by a series of ad controversies. Hence, 2022 will be more crucial for brands to determine what kind of content they are putting out and through what channels, say experts
A South Korean multi-billion dollar brand - GS25 - released a poster in 2021 depicting the thumb and index finger in a way that is often used to indicate something small. Many Korean men assumed the ad ridiculed the size of their genitals. GS25 had to publicly apologize to calm down the male consumers’ sentiments.
In India, Dabur faced similar backlash from right wing netizens last November for its bleaching cream ad depicting a lesbian couple observing Karvachauth. Many other brands also faced boycott campaigns and were forced to retract ads and apologize for hurting “sentiments of Hindus”.
Experts warn that brands will have to be extra careful in 2022 about potential threats of hatred and labeling in 2022.
“Brands will have to determine what kind of content they are putting out and through what channels. Any negative campaign that offends consumers can damage the brands’ reputation crafted carefully over the years,” Victoria Sunmie Lhie, Senior Executive Director, KPR, and President, cohands, South Korea recently said at a virtual event.
In an increasingly polarized world, brands are beginning to be caught in the political crossfire, often inadvertently, says Lloyd Mathias, Business Strategist, Investor and a former Marketing Head at HP Asia, Motorola, and PepsiCo.
“Easy social media access and engineered activism provide the much-needed oxygen to keep these issues alive. This makes the task of brand custodians akin to walking on eggshells. In this context brands will need to be extra cautious about their communications, stay sensitive on key issues and respect the public sentiment. However, they will still need to reach out to their target segment in a sincere, empathetic manner and not shy away from taking a stand,” says Mathias.
Major players have already started putting in place strict internal guidelines to avoid backlash on social media. Topics such as caste, religion, and political commentary are a no-go most of the time, executives at creative and media agencies say.
Amit Wadhwa, CEO India, dentsu Creative, tells e4m, “Social media is a great asset and could also turn out to be tricky not just for brands but even for individuals, movies, OTT series, etc. The tricky part is that even non-validated information has the potential of becoming big and even before anyone can react a lot of damage will be done. In this respect, it is only natural that brands are being careful of what they put out and are applying various filters around it and 2022 will certainly see this happening.”
The challenge before the brands is to ensure that all posts, content, and the choice of imagery are aligned with the brand. The reaction of both the target audience and the larger society needs to be considered, says Chris Higgins, Senior VP – Marketing at Netcore Cloud.
He further says, “The pandemic drove growth in online shopping, entertainment and social media, and many brands had to quickly pivot their ad budgets online and away from print and OOH. The general risk in digital campaigns is that the flow of content is much faster.”
“A print ad or TVC will have far more approval steps and senior-level input than social media posts, which often are approved in bulk (resulting in “Happy Good Friday” posts). Banner ads also tend to have lots of iteration, and multiple versions can go live with minimal oversight,” Higgins says.
Ad experts like Shreyansh Baid, Founder Director, Shreyansh Innovations, feel that creativity would be affected because brands may not attempt to present any progressive thoughts to avoid sticky wicket.
“Advertising was supposed to be a changemaker in society. If progressive thoughts receive such rebuke, then brand custodians would not attempt or dare to have any kind of progressive thought in any of their communication. It is definitely a matter of concern on how we move forward in 2022,” Baid says.
Avoid over-cautiousness
Wadhwa says, “We need to identify absolute ‘no zones’ for the brands because being edgy for the sake of being edgy isn’t what brand building is about. At the same time, we cannot be over cautious and put 100 checkpoints as we might lose the edge and the relevance among our consumers.”
“If we are over-cautious and cutting all edges in our communication, there is an even bigger risk of becoming boring and sometimes, non-relatable. The year 2022 should be a year where we balance by not being oblivious to these dangers and at the same time, not being over-cautious too on this front. The right balance and sticking to the brand zone is the key,” Wadhwa points out.
Mathias also feels that the brands should continue to take a stand on issues albeit in a sensitive manner. “Brands cater to diverse segments and what seems like a justified stance to some customers may seem partisan and biased to another. While companies and brand custodians need to be sensitive, so as to not offend any segment, this should not stop them from doing what is right, in the larger context,” he noted.
He adds, “Brands may touch upon social issues that they believe will resonate well with their positioning and their target segment. Also, brand custodians must remember that issues and trends on social media are mostly ephemeral, and die down quickly, when trolls divert attention to the next thing.”
Hyper-personalization may help
Many brands are exploring hyper personalization in their campaigns and content to deal with the issue. “2022 will be the year to move away from one-size-fits-all messaging, and explore far more segmented and customized campaigns to different audience groups,'' says Higgins.
