As we all know, storytelling can be one of the most valuable resources in a content marketer’s toolbox. But in the wake of the latest Climate Change Conference, the COP 26 summit in Glasgow, some of the world’s smartest brands are pivoting and turning their attention towards the power of social impact storytelling. When done effectively, social impact storytelling shows people as active agents of change, which can help to humanize your brand and bring your key values to life, while also inspiring audiences themselves to act.
We said it back at the beginning of 2021, and we’re saying it again; it’s an important time for brands to stop selling and start serving. Customers are on the hunt for responsible brands that not only deliver real, empathy-driven brand experiences but go beyond traditional marketing methods to create captivating stories that show how their brand is going that extra mile, whether it’s supporting small businesses, local communities or the planet through its responsible practices.
Social impact storytelling is one of the key ways brands are winning the hearts and minds of their customers. But why? Because customers are more likely to engage and buy from brands that align with their own beliefs. The age of conscious consumerism is here, and it’s here to stay. Research from the 5Ws Consumer Culture Report claims that 83% of says it’s important for the companies they buy from to be in line with their own values on societal issues and the environment, while 76% want to see the CEOs of companies they buy from to speak out on issues they care about.
Edelman’s 2020 Trust Barometer also shows that customers believe brands can be a powerful force for change. Being able to trust what the brand does is right when it comes to reputation, values and environmental issues is becoming an increasingly big driving factor for customers purchasing decisions – and brands need to take notice. As climate change worsens, sustainability is only going to become more important to your customers which is we see social impact storytelling being a major content trend as we enter 2022.
To succeed with social-impact storytelling, you should first understand the values and motivations of your key audiences. Only then you can create a concrete content plan that uses the appropriate methods, communications tactics and channels to mobilize people around your brand values and practices.
Over the last decade, there has been a significant shift away from brands talking at their stakeholders to brands talking with them. This change in dialogue, driven mostly by the rise of digital and social platforms, has given audiences more power to voice their candid perspectives on what a company is (and most importantly, isn’t) doing, which has jolted many brands into opening up their lines of communication. With a great deal of audience outrage towards brands that don’t stand for a particular social or environmental issue, it’s now more important than ever for brands to keep a finger on the pulse on their stakeholders – whether to monitor customer sentiment, respond to critiques or to continue engaging with them on sustainability and wider societal issues that matter to them the most.
With more purpose-driven brands edging into the spotlight, you can’t deny the importance of social impact storytelling and its contribution to establishing a trustworthy, authentic brand that people believe in. Not only do these stories demonstrate brand values and their intention, but they are also a creative way of highlighting how the brand is using its resources to drive real and meaningful change.
Let’s face it, with this overwhelming evidence it’s crucial for companies to invest in a social impact storytelling strategy. Join Wordsmith as we take you through three stellar examples of social impact storytelling across three different industries that will encourage you to start telling social impact stories of your own.
1. Tommy Hilfiger: “Moving Forward Together”
Content strategist Alexandra Sheehan explains that the best social impact stories are ones “…that are important to more than just yourself. It resonates with your employees and with customers, cultivating a community of brand advocates who stand behind and support your story." And no one knows this better than world-renowned American fashion designer, Tommy Hilfiger.
Ensuring that every part of their organisation works towards sustainability, their social impact stories show the breadth and depth of their dedication towards sustainability and social inclusivity. Hilfiger commented, “We’re living in a new world now, and I think people have woken up to the fact that in order to save the planet, we really have to become sustainable in our lives in many, many different aspects”.
Recently, Tommy Hilfiger installed 48,000 solar panels on the roof of Tommy Hilfiger’s European distribution centre located in the Dutch town of Venlo. Their CEO, Martijn Hagman, says the brand believes it’s “one of the most powerful solar roofs in the world at this moment.” Generating enough electricity to power all of the brand’s operations in the Netherlands, the roof even gives electricity back to the grid.
Driven by a vision to ‘Waste Nothing and Welcome All’, the solar panel is just one of the many steps outlined in Tommy Hilfiger’s sustainability program “Make it Possible”, which sets 24 bold targets around circularity and inclusivity for the brand to hit by 2030.
Their latest social impact storytelling campaign, ‘Moving Forward Together’ promotes social good and aims to help both the fashion and creative industries recover from the pandemic. The initial launch of the campaign asked audiences to get involved in the digital co-creation of new clothing by solely using left-over fabrics, which shows the brand’s commitment to ‘waste nothing and welcome all’. Aside from this, they’ve also partnered with learning platform FutureLearn to offer a series of free digital learning courses hosted by Tommy Hilfiger ambassadors that cover a range of social inclusivity topics such as LGBTQ+ allyship and community building to empower fans to become drivers of social change. The Tommy Hilfiger Fashion Frontier Challenge to help fund impactful fashion start-ups is also another way Tommy Hilfiger backs up their unique social impact stories with real action.
2. Bank of the West: Means and Matters
You could say Bank of the West, an American bank, is one of the most environmentally friendly banks on the planet. What sets the Bank of West apart from its competition, is that its 600 branches and offices across Midwest and Western United States refuse to finance coal-fired power plants, arctic drilling, tobacco companies, hydraulic fracking, tar sands mining or shale, among a long list of others outlined in their robust environmental policy. It’s the only major bank in the United States to partner with 1% for the Planet, The Conservation Alliance and Protect Our Winters. The company has also recently committed to investing $1 billion towards financing and advancing green technologies. And in a world where an estimated 90% of the money you put into your bank account is reinvested, this all becomes extremely important through the eyes of the ever-growing environmentally-conscious customer. But how does this bank communicate its compelling initiatives and core values?
Leslie Nucci, Head of Earned Media at Content Studio, who worked with the Bank of West on their content strategy back in 2018, said initially that their blog, “was a very ‘bank-y’ blog…it wasn’t differentiated. ” Leslie continued, “they are the only leading bank in the country that has these policies,” she said. “We don’t have to always be talking about banking and bank accounts. The intersection of money and sustainability is a really interesting place to explore.”
The effective platform Bank of West use to tell their social impact stories and sustainability initiatives is through their engaging Means & Matters online content hub. And this isn’t just your average, stuffy, financial blog – it features long-form hard-hitting journalism on the dramatic rise of food insecurity in America, a tongue in cheek guide to C02 told by cats, cars, and kegs and deep-dives into 6 Women Leaders Shaping COP 26 and Our Planet’s Future. The content hub even calls out the wrong-doings of other banks that are currently investing in harmful acts like arctic drilling.
Encouraging conscious customers to think about where they put their money is paying off. According to Contently’s Performance Analytics, the average Bank of West reader spends 2 minutes and 30 seconds engaging with stories on Means & Matters, which is an impressive 54% higher than the finance industry average across Contently’s Analytics.
Their innovative social impact storytelling articles are also helping to instil customer loyalty. Statistics show that 30% of the Bank of West’s Means & Matters audience consists of returning visitors, even though the publication has only been around for less than a year. “If somebody is taking the time to read your entire article, they’re probably way more likely to remember your brand than they are if they just clicked on an ad four times,” Leslie said. But Means & Matters isn’t just about building an engaged, loyal audience. It’s about achieving something much bigger: inspiring a generation of conscious consumers that align their finances with the Bank of West’s values in the hopes of instigating real-world change.
3. Natura & Co: breaking the “echo chamber” with WaterBear
Natura & Co, a Brazilian global cosmetics group that includes world-leading brands such as Avon and the Body Shop aren’t shy about taking a stand for the planet. The launch of their 10-year “Commitment to Life” plan back in June 2020, sets out an ambitious 31 targets to tackle some of the world’s most pressing issues, including; the climate crisis; protecting the Amazon; defending Human Rights and ensuring equality and inclusion throughout its network by 2030.
Recently, Natura & Co launched a dedicated content channel with an eco-video free-streaming platform, WaterBear, to successfully communicate their values and social impact stories in the hopes of mobilizing conscious customers around the globe. Sam Sutaria, Head of Strategy at WaterBear commented that Natura & Co would focus on “atomic storytelling, which has a sharper focus on individual characters, events and small-stature stories”, effectively breaking away from the ‘echo chamber’ of traditional environmental storytelling that mostly employs scaremongering tactics. The goal Sam said, was to create “living breathing, emotive empathetic stories that compel people to act”.
The brand is currently working on a compelling eco-documentary series that explores the fascinating stories of indigenous people in the Amazon. With over 250,000 global users already using the WaterBear platform, this gives Natura & Co’s message, even more, reach, with the hopes of effectively touching the hearts and minds of communities around the globe to think about “sustainable beauty” in a different way.
Few would deny that storytelling is a powerful tool for not only inspiring action and change with your audiences but also influencing thought leaders and politicians higher up that can drive real change. And believe it or not, in today’s digital landscape content marketers have the power to become changemakers through crafting truly compelling social impact stories for their brands, because it’s these remarkable stories that have the potential to sow hope and propel our social progress forward in ways we never thought possible.