This month, we’re discussing creativity in communications. With everything going on in the world during the coronavirus pandemic, it’s more important than ever that brands, organizations and influencers ensure that they continue to effectively connect with their audiences amid the hubbub of external events, whether that be during COVID-19 or other future crises.
Today, we want to highlight some real-life examples of brands that have broken the mold to share their messages in fresh ways and inspire consumers to take action. We hope that analyzing these creative communication efforts help you to begin thinking outside the box.
Dove
Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty connects with its consumers in a way that goes deeper than a tangible product. It’s certainly nothing new for a hygiene brand to feature people in advertisements, but through this campaign, Dove did so in a unique and impactful way. The Dove Campaign for Real Beauty sought to include women of all different shapes, sizes and colors and even featured a young blind woman. Dove’s effort to include various kinds of women in its advertisements resonated with consumers who could easily see themselves in the women featured. The result of the authentic campaign was a powerful promotion of the truth that every woman is beautiful and deserves to take care of herself, so why not start by using a soothing self-care product, like Dove body wash?
Through this campaign, Dove effectively recognized a gap among its competitors and combined a solution to fill that gap with felt needs among their target audience to create something they had not done before.
The Washington Post
As one of the longest standing and most reputable newspapers in the U.S., The Washington Post doesn’t strike most of us as being a silly or sarcastic outlet. However, through its TikTok account, this newspaper has set out to prove that it has a relevant sense of humor and is up and coming on trends. In just a few months, The Washington Post TikTok account has gained nearly half a million followers. Considering that almost half of all TikTok users are under the age of 24, and older audiences tend to be more avid readers of newspapers, it’s likely that The Washington Post’s clever use of TikTok has created awareness of its outlet among audiences who otherwise may not have had much interest.
Sometimes, brands or voices get stuck in thinking that they can only reach one particular target audience. While it is useful to have a niche in mind when executing a communications strategy, one should not overlook opportunities to widen their audience.
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
Throughout the current COVID-19 pandemic, the CDC has sought to continually communicate relevant updates through several creative mediums that are resonating with audiences. One of the most effective ways in which the CDC has kept up communication is by uploading short but highly informative YouTube videos. Many organizations think the best way to blast information to a broad audience is by sending a press release or securing an interview with a local news station. While these traditional methods remain effective in many situations, they should not replace other modern means of relaying information, such as YouTube videos, especially considering that YouTube is the second largest search engine behind Google.
Videos, whether on YouTube, Facebook or Instagram, tend to play very well with audiences, especially if they are short.
Like Dove, The Washington Post and the CDC, we encourage you to think outside the box when brainstorming for ways to share your voice and remain relevant. Sometimes, connecting with a new audience or beating the competition can be solved by simply trying a new method of outreach.