122: NBA + Blizzard meet the China minefield, brands and gun reform, alarming stats from the CMO survey, and being off-model
Hello hello hello!
In this edition of The World's Best Newsletter:
1. China is a [Business] Minefield
2. Business lessons from Porchfest
3. Private prisons banned in CA
4. BBDO + Thinx release new ad where men get their period
5. Brands and gun reform -- what Dick's has done
6. Alarming stats from the CMO Survey
7. Quote of the week: Off-model is on-brand.
1. China is a [Business] Minefield
This past week saw two organizations struggling to navigate the values of their US employees and consumer base with the demands of the Chinese government re: the protests in Hong Kong. Activision Blizzard saw a small employee walkout and larger customer pushback after it banned a Hearthstone pro player for saying “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times” during an interview about his tournament wins.
The NBA is navigating its own hairy situation after Houston Rockets' GM tweeted support for HK, prompting the NBA to issue a pretty lame statement trying to appease both sides. Read this SB Nation thread if you need to get caught up.
This move was heavily criticized as being incongruent to what the public had come to expect from "the world's wokest league."
From the NYTimes:
For international companies looking to do business in China, the rules were once simple. Don’t talk about the 3 T’s: Tibet, Taiwan and the Tiananmen Square crackdown.
No longer. Fast-changing geopolitical tensions, growing nationalism and the rise of social media in China have made it increasingly difficult for multinationals to navigate commerce in the Communist country. As the National Basketball Association has discovered with a tweet about the Hong Kong protests, tripwires abound. Take the “wrong” stance on one of any number of issues — Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, for instance — and you risk upsetting a country of 1.4 billion consumers and losing access to a hugely profitable market.
Now, multinational companies are increasingly struggling with one question: how to be apolitical in an increasingly politicized and punitive China.
2. Business lessons from Porchfest
What can businesses learn from the decentralized human experience that is Porchfest? It occurs all over the country, including a couple of great versions here in Boston in Somerville, Fenway, and JP. If you haven't checked one out, do so.
A short but valuable post from Chad McCloud explains:
In today’s Sharing Economy, there are good ideas (share a ride / borrow my apartment), and there are bad ideas (borrow my parachute). And then there are ideas that seem to bring together all the right elements of the ever-expanding movement. Porchfest is one of those ideas.
Lessons:
1. Empower the community, then trust the community
2. The intermediary as coordinator
3. The power of network in community
Read the piece here.
3. Private prisons banned in CA
Last week I shared that major banks supporting private prisons will no longer do so as part of an organized divestment push (Forbes.) Another blow to this industry comes in a move from California to phase out its use of private prisons and immigration detention centers (SF Chronicle).
“These for-profit prisons do not reflect our values,” Newsom said in a statement.
Assemblyman Rob Bonta, the Alameda Democrat who carried the bill, said the move would protect the health and safety of inmates who have been treated as commodities by private prison operators.
4. BBDO + Thinx release new ad where men get their period
Watch it here (AdWeek)-- executives hope that "Thinx’s “MENstruation” campaign sparks conversations in America beyond just the brand and gets audiences questioning the pointless daily obstacles many women face."
Creative, provocative, and in line with this brand's values. It's undoubtedly going to stir debate, especially as more people see it thanks to the recent funding this company closed. Can not wait :)
5. Brands and gun reform -- what Dick's has done
"One of the biggest obstacles to getting assault weapons banned in the United States is the amount of money they generate." (Good)
Pause and read that sentence again.
That ain't right.
In an example of a principled brand motion, Dick's Sporting Good's CEO Ed Stack made the decision to turn $5M of assault-style rifles in its inventory into scrap metal, and work to eventually and permanently remove all assault-style rifles from stores, saying:
"To think about the loss and the grief that those kids and those parents had, we said, ‘We need to do something, and we’re taking these guns out of all of our stores permanently."
The company also implored elected officials to enact gun reform including regulations to ban assault-style firearms, raising the minimum purchase age to 21, banning high capacity magazines/bump stocks, requiring universal background checks, and more.
He's not alone, per CBS chief executives from nearly 150 companies took the unprecedented step of signing a very public letter to Senate leaders urging them to reform.
It's the combination of talk (statements, interviews) and action (turning $5M of inventory into scrap metal, throwing its weight behind regulation change) that makes this a meaningful move, and not lip service / pandering.
Via Good:
The decision was partly inspired by the ugly truth that Dick's sold a shotgun to the Parkland shooter three months before the massacre, although it wasn't used at the shooting.
Dick's has taken a stand, and backed it up with action. In this CEO's view, profits do come at a cost.
"So many people say to me, you know, 'If we do what you want to do, it's not going to stop these mass shootings,'" said Stack. "And my response is, 'You're probably right, it won't. But if we do these things and it saves one life, don't you think it's worth it?'"
PS: How do CMOs feel about using their brands to take a political stand?
(H/T Anne Janzer for sharing!)
Although 73.5% of marketing leaders are unlikely to use their brands to take a stance on politically-charged issues, this percentage is trending down from the 82.6% who reported being unwilling in the February 2018 Survey. B2C companies are most likely to take a stance.
- CMO Survey
6. Alarming stats from the CMO Survey
More broadly, this annual survey of CMOs uncovered some additional, alarming points:
2 out of 3 marketing leaders state that they tend to focus on “managing the present” rather than “preparing for the future." (We are the purveyors of the long-term health of the brand.)
Marketing budgets are growing and are running at the the highest level in history of The CMO Survey at 12%, as a percentage of overall firm budgets. (Can we prove the return of that $$?)
Societal metrics measuring the degree to which marketing benefits society and the impact of marketing on the ecological environment show no gains over an 8-year period. "This is surprising given the pressure that customers and other stakeholders are placing on companies to create this type of value." (Pay attention, folks... this is coming.)
7. Quote of the week: Off-model is on-brand.
My friend Jaqi has built a remarkable digital agency from the ground up. In a new blog post reflecting on her growth, she explains common criticism she was given in her roles at previous agencies:
The answer was always, “well, it is just too off-model.”
The way I wanted to serve customers was frequently at odds with my management, who rightfully were focused on project profitability and project execution. Often, I would step well outside of a defined scope and ask questions about business strategies across the broader digital ecosystem. I would work out of the customers’ offices to witness firsthand their day-to-day challenges and what operations truly looked like.
I would dig into all of the data they let us and gain visibility into their product roadmap, all to better align with their business growth agenda. I would champion the individuals on the client team and help craft their internal communications, put together QBR slides and help them deliver a presentation of their vision.
I would get in the weeds. Then I would get caught.
“Why are you doing that, talking about this, writing that? You’re supposed to be delivering XYZ,” was a recurring refrain.
For me, this is what I needed to deliver confidently on current initiatives and to make recommendations on broader digital projects, programs and maturity road maps.
The reality is that the model for brands has changed and agencies need to adapt.
Marketing teams today are tasked with delivering on the promises of a modern customer experience. This requires analytics, personalization and optimization that can only happen with cross-functional, strategic digital excellence. Their silos are being broken down, and ours have to as well.
Qualified Digital was a chance to put these ideas into action, to encourage curiosity and passion in my team, all with the handcuffs off.
What I found is that being less transactional leads to more meaningful transactions, and that strategy delivered through earned trust begets greater acceptance and adoption of proposed initiatives. When you can directly align and correlate the value you deliver to the customers’ business outcomes, you are truly offering a service that your team loves to be part of, and one that customers find worth investing in.
Being off-model is very on-brand for us.
Go, girl.
Have a great weekend, and thank you as always for reading.
Katie
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