At Mattr we believe that in today’s world the best brands do so much more than sell products. Below are four of our fave examples of this over the last few weeks:
1) Celebrating everyday heroes - Cadbury’s
In their first ad campaign since 2013, Cadbury’s Heroes have created an emotionally-led social content series, heralding parents as everyday heroes doing their utmost to re-connect with their kids.
Each episode is dictated by a physical challenge that a parent is training to master to better their relationship with their child, like learning how to be a pro BMX biker or becoming a figure-skater extraordinaire.
We love this campaign for its authentic style and “real people” narratives. It’s great to see that Cadbury’s focus entirely on putting their audience first, before pushing their product marketing straplines.
2) Creating make-up specifically for chemotherapy patients - gen.u.ine
20 Likes, 0 Comments - Gen.u.ine (@gen.u.ine.cosmetics) on Instagram: "Cheek tint. Adding a bit of colour to what chemotherapy can take out. We are going to be doing a..."
While more mainstream brands in the beauty industry are becoming more vegan and natural-based, the one demographic most mainstream companies don’t consider catering for are patients whose skin has changed as a result of extreme exposure to radiation or chemotherapy treatment.
Enter gen.u.ine, a young challenger brand started by Amy Bland and Sacha Burke, two young advertising grads. The idea was born after the painful loss of Amy’s grandma who couldn’t wear popular makeup brands because of the change in her skin - starting a whole new conversation around the lack of availability of makeup supplies to patients undertaking such extreme treatment.
It’s great that for such a young brand, their purpose informs every detail - their products are named after people who have had experiences with cancer and at their first launch, the team used real-time insights from patients to inform what products they should offer first, based on what make-up they missed the most during treatment.
We can’t wait to see how they channel their extremely powerful stories as the brand grows. Their Kickstarter is launching soon here.
3) Making rescuing the next big thing - Battersea Dog’s & Cat’s Home
Rescuing an animal is fraught with misconceptions - and Battersea Dog’s & Cat’s Home has created a great rally cry film to challenge those assumptions. Everyone loves to watch silly dogs and cats on their socials, but what we especially loved about this film was how the narrative flipped traditional pet rescue campaigns on its head.
Caring for a pet who has suffered trauma or needs emotional support is no mean feat, yet the film focuses on the happy and emotional outcome from a journey of growth for both owner and pet. Essentially, their whole campaign surrounds the idea that your pet’s history is an exciting character trait, not a drawback or weakness to feel sorry for. It’s cool to rescue.
4) A new way to promote sustainability using music - Sharp’s Brewery
There’s always been a strong connection between alcohol brands and the music scene, but this activation has a refreshing twist. Sharp’s Brewery is based on the North Cornish coast, which is at the heart of every beer they create, celebrating ‘the elements three’ to inspire their taste.
With the ocean coastline so close to their hearts, Sharp’s Brewery decided to raise awareness about the endangered Cornish coastline. And yeah yeah, we know what you’re thinking... “another brand jumping on the plastic bandwagon”. Well not really. Sharp’s are avoiding preaching, or creating a campaign around beach cleaning. Instead, they’ve taken their previous engagements to environmental organisations one step further, collaborating with Nick Mulvey to create a track that will live on vinyl LPs made solely from plastic collected at their local beach in Cornwall.
The product looks awesome and the accompanying film is great too, showing the passing of hands from plastic collected to the creation of the vinyl.
As all these brands above have shown, there are so many different touch points at your disposal to strengthen your brand values - these campaigns are great examples of content that go well beyond the traditional feel of external comms to build authentic connections with their audiences.