2020’s most credible brand work…
Welcome to The “Wrap-up wrap-up” for 2020!

2020, you’ve had a shocker, mate. But you did push us to invent The Credibility Wrap-up… so we’re not gonna be too hard on you. What started in March as a way of documenting and sharing credible brand responses to the pandemic, morphed in July to a more general look at credible brand activations, ads, etc. This is packaged up each week and shared via email.

As the year stumbles to an isolated close amidst the perfect excuse not to see certain relatives, we thought we’d have a look at July-December and try to extract some key themes from all the amazing credibility-building work shared in the 22 editions of The Credibility Wrap up since we made that switch. (For key themes learned from pandemic-specific work, see the wrap up we made in July).

THEME #1: Brands actually using their cultural influence.

We’ve noticed brands are increasingly prepared to take a political stance, or directly confront social taboos or stigmas… eschewing a previous mentality of “that’s not a job for us” and getting over fears of appearing partisan. This makes perfect sense to us, because the only non-credible point of view to hold is pretending not to have one! Much better to distil the opinions of your own workforce and/or empathise with your customer base and pin your colours to the mast. A few examples:

#WombStories from Bodyform , basically said, “Menstruating can suck and be really painful… discuss!”, opening up a conversation that has long been avoided in favour of over-representation of rollerblading! Recognising that women and girls everywhere can benefit from more openness and using their campaign to kick the door open is a highly credible move; creating a platform the brand should be able to work from for a long time, and offering real differentiation vs. the competition.

, basically said, “Menstruating can suck and be really painful… discuss!”, opening up a conversation that has long been avoided in favour of over-representation of rollerblading! Recognising that women and girls everywhere can benefit from more openness and using their campaign to kick the door open is a highly credible move; creating a platform the brand should be able to work from for a long time, and offering real differentiation vs. the competition. Levi’s Unlabelled Collection goes beyond the lip service so often paid to LGBTQ+ related activity by brands, by being truly credible in 2 ways (neither of which were “spend more money on the ad”). First, Levi’s own LGBTQ+ staff clearly owned this rather than just the marketing people. Second (perhaps as a direct result), they created something that as well as being thought-provoking was also useful; curating a collection of Levi’s clothing without gender-labels. Simple, powerful, useful… credible.

goes beyond the lip service so often paid to LGBTQ+ related activity by brands, by being truly credible in 2 ways (neither of which were “spend more money on the ad”). First, Levi’s own LGBTQ+ staff clearly owned this rather than just the marketing people. Second (perhaps as a direct result), they created something that as well as being thought-provoking was also useful; curating a collection of Levi’s clothing without gender-labels. Simple, powerful, useful… credible. ‘Nineteen Eighty-Fortnite’ by Epic Games challenged the Apple and Google app store duopoly on behalf of gamers everywhere. Epic offered Fortnite players a 20% discount on in-game currency IF they downloaded the new mobile version of the game direct from Epic. Apple and Google responded by pulling the game from their app stores… but Epic clearly knew this was coming and responded with a spoof of Apple’s famous “1984” TVC, painting them as the controlling “Big Brother” and taking them to court the same day. They had a point and they made it in style!

(Note: You might be thinking Black Lives Matter examples are conspicuous by the absence above… this is because, to be honest, we really feel most brands — apart from perhaps Nike — were just “joining in”, and not contributing anything of real substance.)

THEME #2: Credible collabos

According to various trend reports, the last 5 years have probably all been “the year of the collaboration”. But this year feels like the one where brands have really worked out how to do this credibly. For us, that means:

Partnerships that are mutually beneficial, rather than just one brand paying another wads of cash Brands articulating why they have decided to collaborate and why that’s part of their shared culture The collaboration itself results in something that is more than the sum of its parts. i.e. creating something new, interesting of genuine value or utility.

Examples:

Heartbeats 4 Sneakers from Klarna & Highsnobiety . Why would sneaker geeks collaborate with a payment processing platform? To solve a real problem; automated bots now dominate purchases via limited edition sneaker ‘drops’… so the brands teamed up to build a new way to buy, that requires proof you have an actual heartbeat before you buy! Problem solved, collabo well-explained, both brands lookin’ clever… respect of sneaker-heads: earned.

. Why would sneaker geeks collaborate with a payment processing platform? To solve a real problem; automated bots now dominate purchases via limited edition sneaker ‘drops’… so the brands teamed up to build a new way to buy, that requires proof you have an actual heartbeat before you buy! Problem solved, collabo well-explained, both brands lookin’ clever… respect of sneaker-heads: earned. ‘BYGGLEK’ from LEGO & IKEA . LEGO are famous for creating brilliant playtime… but notorious for messy floors and causing excruciating foot pain in unsuspecting adults! So they teamed up with IKEA and made “Bygglek” (Swedish for ‘build, play’) — a series of storage boxes and shelves that aim to make cleaning up another form of play. Unsurprisingly, they’ve sold out.

LEGO are famous for creating brilliant playtime… but notorious for messy floors and causing excruciating foot pain in unsuspecting adults! So they teamed up with IKEA and made “Bygglek” (Swedish for ‘build, play’) — a series of storage boxes and shelves that aim to make cleaning up another form of play. Unsurprisingly, they’ve sold out. ‘Businesses We Love’ from Google and Channel 4. A video series that sees Channel 4 Talent celebrate some of their favourite local businesses and encourage people to help them through the pandemic by leaving a review on Google — e.g. Mo Gilligan showcasing his local barbershop. Star power meets tech as both brands use their strengths to do more for local business than either could have alone.

THEME #3: Proper transparency

Businesses are typically not very transparent entities, despite what they might tell us. So much is hidden — especially when it comes to HR/people issues, company finances and supply chains, etc. So often the argument here is that they would be giving away secrets or IP that would compromise their competitiveness… an argument we feel is wearing thinner by the year. So, it’s been nice to see some refreshingly transparent stuff from brands in 2020. Specifically:

Brands admitting when they still have a lot of work to do on something. Nearly always dressed up as a commitment to a future goal! But it’s better than no commitment! Sharing information or knowledge for the greater good (always a great Thought Leadership play anyway!) Brands acknowledging the commercial pressures under which they’re operating.

Examples:

Your Brand Here from Special Olympics New York was a refreshingly open call to the world’s sports brands for sponsorship. Instead of settling for second division sponsors, they called-out the big brands directly… at the time of writing it looks like United Airlines and Disney have answered that call!

was a refreshingly open call to the world’s sports brands for sponsorship. Instead of settling for second division sponsors, they called-out the big brands directly… at the time of writing it looks like United Airlines and Disney have answered that call! Future Foods from Unilever saw them announce a milestone sales objective, aiming for €1 billion sales of plant-based meat and dairy alternatives within the next 5–7 years. Their objectives are twofold; to help people transition towards healthier diets and to help reduce the detrimental impact the global food chain is having on the environment. They have not shied away from the enormity of the challenge, with even the press release pulling no punches and calling on the whole industry to unite. A bold vision, with the bravery to go live without all the answers.

saw them announce a milestone sales objective, aiming for €1 billion sales of plant-based meat and dairy alternatives within the next 5–7 years. Their objectives are twofold; to help people transition towards healthier diets and to help reduce the detrimental impact the global food chain is having on the environment. They have not shied away from the enormity of the challenge, with even the press release pulling no punches and calling on the whole industry to unite. A bold vision, with the bravery to go live without all the answers. Together Against Hate was a joint initiative by Channel 4, Network Rail, Nationwide and Co-Op highlighting the abuse customer-facing staff experience. It reveals 400 customer-facing staff members experience abuse every day and features recordings and CCTV footage of both verbal and physical abuse experienced by each company’s employees. What a way to make staff feel appreciated, strengthening the brands from the inside out, while using the power of real life examples to land the story unforgettably!

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See you next year!

That’s literally all from us this year. If you’re interested in building brand credibility, then you might want to sign up to our weekly Credibility Wrap-up.
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['Brand Strategy', 'Credibility', 'Content', 'Marketing', 'Advertising']