Advocacy advertising is a type of advertising that aims to bring about social change by raising awareness, promoting action, or changing attitudes. It is commonly associated with cause marketing, social activism, community engagement, corporate social responsibility, and brand values.
In this post, we will explore the most popular questions about advocacy advertising and provide answers to each one.
Advocacy advertising is a form of marketing that advocates for a particular cause or issue. This type of advertising aims to inspire people to take action, raise awareness or support a particular cause or mission. Advocacy advertising can be for-profit or non-profit organizations.
In advocacy advertising, companies align themselves with social causes and create campaigns that promote the cause. They may use various media sources like television ads, billboards, newspapers ads, and online media to get their message across. The campaigns aim to create an emotional connection with the viewers and encourage them to take positive action towards supporting the social cause.
One of the primary benefits of advocacy advertising is that it enables companies to show they care about their communities beyond just selling products or services. It also helps brands build stronger relationships with their customers by increasing brand loyalty and trust. Additionally, advocacy can help increase sales as socially responsible brands gain more support from consumers.
While traditional advertising focuses on selling products and services directly to consumers; advocacy advertising focuses on promoting societal issues beyond direct sales targets. In contrast to commercial advertisements trying to trigger people’s desire for immediate gratification or consumption; advocacy advertisements target emotions like guilt or outrage over an injustice in order to motivate people towards long-term social change.
Some successful examples of advocacy campaigns include P&G’s “Thank You Mom” campaign which celebrated Olympic athletes’ mothers; Patagonia’s environmental activism campaign "The Responsible Economy"; Dove's "Real Beauty Sketches" video campaign aiming at challenging unrealistic beauty standards imposed on women worldwide ; Nike's Dream Crazier ad (for promoting women's rights), just before and during the 2019 Academy Awards ceremony .
One challenge companies might face when using advocacy advertising is being perceived as insincere – Many consumers have become increasingly savvy at recognizing when a brand is posturing rather than practicing authentic corporate responsibility towards supporting causes congruent with it’s brand values.
To wrap up-
Overall,get it right - advocacy marketing will bring value not just for your business but also society as well.The most important thing you should consider when creating your advertisement strategy is always staying true to your mission statement.
1) Do Good by Jane Henry
2) Goodvertising by Thomas Kolster
3) Purposeful: Are You A Manager Or A Movement Starter? By Jennifer Dulski
4) Brand Activism written by Christian Sarkar and Philip Kotler,
5 ) The New Age of Corporate Citizenship written by Darryl Travis
