In truth, 2023 has been a big year in marketing. The emergence of ‘A.I’, revisions in Google Search and especially the growth of Digital Direct Marketing. That being said, not everything was exactly what we wanted… What effort/campaign/trend would you want to return from 2023? Answer in the comments!
Even core proponents of brand purpose, such as Thomas Kolster, aka Mr Goodvertising, pulled back on purpose in 2023. “The space just became too crowded,” he told us in our wide-ranging look on where purpose is headed. “If you look at some categories, like chocolate, the number of purpose statements is ridiculous. And a lot of it is nonsense.”
Purpose, though, is more than just attributing a social conscience to a brand. It can be about sustainability too. And 2023 saw more brands seemingly retreating into their shells when speaking about climate issues. Greenhushing, the act of brands keeping quiet about sustainability work for fear of being accused of greenwashing or because they’re struggling to hit targets they’ve set for themselves, became a hot-button issue.
At the Festival of Marketing, Primark’s chief customer officer Michelle McEttrick warned of the increased attention on greenwashing leading to greenhushing. “Not only are brands who are greenhushing losing the opportunity to connect with and widen their customer base with customers who are more ethically and sustainability driven but it risks real progress across the industry,” she said.
It is easy to be cynical about brands taking a stand on a political or social issue. Terms like greenwashing and pinkwashing didn’t appear out of thin air, after all, and those closest to these causes can sniff out a disingenuous attempt to curry favour from a mile away. But, equally, it’s important to remember that many brands are just trying to do what they see to be the right thing and many were not rewarded for it in 2023.
This has been a dreadful year for brands who fail to effectively handle any fallout. AB InBev, the owner of Bud Light, is the prime example. It faced a backlash it was wholly unprepared for when it partnered with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney for a post she promoted on her social media channels. Innocuous enough, it seemed, but the backlash was fierce and immediate with boycotts quickly gathering pace from right-wing consumers and AB InBev saw volumes decline by 14% in the aftermath.
AB InBev, it has to be said, did a pretty bad job of handling the situation. Immediately distancing itself from Mulvaney in a way that didn’t placate its critics – and only served to anger the LGBTQ+ audience it was courting. Bud Light will be fine, of course, as Marketing Week columnist Mark Ritson said. InBevs most recent campaign, after all, proved quite popular and returned the brand to safer territory: sports.
Image in conjunction with tripleseat