Paul Capobianco, Cultural Anthropologist

Sometimes in the morning my wife sashays across the kitchen, smiling as she proudly displays a tier of foamed milk atop a mug of coffee. She used to make coffee every few months with a strainer, like a cowhand in front of a campfire. Milk frother? We didn’t even know it was called that until about a month ago, shortly before a certain orange “Buy Now” button was pressed.

In retrospect, Dunkin’s pre-pandemic banner ad spookily foreshadowed the changes in many people’s contexts and behaviors: “Enjoy the Great Taste of Dunkin’ at Home/While You Endlessly ‘Add to Cart.’”

The reset of the pandemic elevates our basic needs as we reimagine them as indulgences.

New contexts mean new opportunities

New choices and habits surrounding indulgence are occuring around the world. Professor Nicholas Christakis of Yale University predicts that by 2024 we’ll experience a pent-up post-pandemic bellow of indulgent behavior and social interaction, rhyming with the Roaring Twenties that followed the 1918 pandemic. Most of our new habits won’t become meaningful, gratifying rituals, but brands have many opportunities to help.

Our adaptations to the pandemic change what we consider to be indulgences. By uprooting and shifting contexts, the pandemic forces us to imagine new reference points to orient fulfillment and a sense of control over our lives. That’s where the help comes in.

New opportunities mean new rituals

Opportunities for brands involve creating new contexts ripe for the development of rituals. At its best, fostering these contexts means helping people repeatedly choose to act on certain needs in mindful, fulfilling ways.

Intentionally putting effort into a habit transforms it into a routine. Creating a meaningful routine based on self-reflection transforms it into a ritual. Brands can be a part of these transformations. Some already are.

Rousing people to try something unfamiliar

TAZO Tea’s 2020 “Routine Reboot” initiative connected people with a wide variety of influencers, giving them a window into the daily routines of these inspiring individuals. This, in turn, invoked curiosity and the motivation for consumers to adopt these rituals as well. Invoking curiosity through what people respect and relate to gives them the motivation to adopt the kinds of routines that become rituals.

Planting the seeds of rituals no one’s heard of

Aeronaut Brewing Company hosts virtual open mic nights, trivia competitions, and “cat mixers,” where people meet each other’s cats and drink beer. Blending novelty with the familiar, in ways that make connections between people easy and special, can lay the ground for new rituals through newfound intimacy.

Reinvigorating rituals displaced by the pandemic

At Club Quarantine, DJ B-Nice virtually reinvigorates the ritual of dancing with friends in a vibrant sea of strangers. Recreating and serving seemingly lost needs invites people to ritualize their behavior anew in ways that now celebrate their resilience.

In all cases, repeatable, enjoyable gratification is made convenient and placed in a larger, more meaningful context. One of the most powerful ways to accomplish this is through collaborations and community building.

The creative possibilities are endless.

New rituals mean new selves

It’ll be a few more years before brands fully reap the benefits of helping people form new rituals. The brands that commit and innovate now will stand out as resources for the kind of mindful indulging that becomes a practice of resilience. We’ll remember them as the brands that were there with us as we struggled with self-reflection and growth.

That’s Defiantly Human.

Michael Murphy, Social Media Supervisor

Between a global pandemic that brought the world to a screeching halt, nationwide civil unrest in the ongoing fight for racial justice, and a highly contentious presidential election⏤all fighting for dominance in our news cycles and social feeds, it goes without saying that 2020 was perhaps the most complicated year for marketers in recent memory. (OK, probably ever, if we’re being honest.)

But with its myriad challenges also came an invaluable learning experience — one that we definitely couldn’t have gotten in any college course or industry webinar before, and that radically changed the way brands were forced to approach their social media strategies.

As 2021 unfolds, many of those same challenges remain, albeit with a new glimmer of hope as the vaccine rollout makes headway and consumer confidence slowly rises from the ashes of a truly terrible year.

So, how do brands even begin to navigate this dizzying landscape? It really boils down to one concept: proactivity.

Here are some considerations to keep in mind as you plan out your social strategy in a year filled with uncertainty:

Expect the unexpected.

As cliche as that phrase sounds, it became the new norm in 2020 to anticipate bad things happening. (As “Debbie Downer” as that sounds). It’s important for social marketers to stay on top of what’s going on and make plans, and then make back-up plans for those plans, keeping every possible scenario in mind.

With this in mind, we recommended that our clients avoid posting any social content on Inauguration Day. This would allow for the free flow of information, should any violence occur, and also avoid appearing tone-deaf, with any pre-scheduled content going live during a potential national crisis.

Acknowledge and speak to the moment, but do so with intent.

Staying silent in the wake of events of national or international importance, like the ones we’ve seen in the past twelve months, can have seriously negative impacts on brand perception. 70% of consumers say it’s important for brands to take a stand on social and political issues, which is up from 66% in 2017 (source: Sprout Social). Audiences today want to know that the brands they love are in tune with the current climate and aren’t afraid to speak up. In fact, many will begin to support a company if it takes a position — or, conversely, withdraw support for not doing so. (Bonus Tip: save the non-specific blanket statements about “coming together” without addressing the issue at hand; consumers are savvier than ever before, and are able to see through vague attempts to placate without principle.)

In the wake of #BlackLivesMatter protests, we advised that if our clients do want to make a statement, it must directly address the situation at-hand. We saw that brands using vague messaging (such as general calls for unity or the decidedly ambiguous “All Lives Matter” approach) were seeing significant blowback, which is indicative of the growing social savvy of consumers.

Find out how your business can fill a timely need and communicate that in your social content.

There are ways other than bold political stances that brands can show support. The onset of the pandemic in particular saw a rapid and persistent shift in consumer needs that required continuous monitoring in order to speak to the moment. It is important to research and lay out what consumers are feeling and needing and figure out how your brand can provide a solution to those needs, in a way that focuses on empathy rather than promotion alone.

In 2020, we saw that consumers were cooking at home more amid restaurant restrictions and generally negative sentiment toward gathering in indoor spaces. For our food CPG brands, we pivoted our messaging approach to acknowledge this and provide creative, gourmet mealtime solutions using the products that could temporarily fill the dining-out gap.

In short, 2020 taught us that consumers are watching brands’ social channels closely — and they’re relying on the brands they love to meet them exactly where they are. While it’s impossible at times to know what’s coming down the pike next, it’s imperative that brands plan proactively for how they will respond to the ever-changing world in which we live, and use their social channels to communicate their unique value propositions.

If hindsight is 2020, foresight is 2021.

Chelsea Carrasquillo, Brand Planner & Chris Corrado, Associate Media Director

CP attended this year’s AdAge Next: Health & Wellness conference – getting a glimpse inside what major advertisers are doing in a time of COVID. Brands such as Unilever, Bayer, Planet Fitness, Peloton and Lululemon shared their experiences and how they quickly pivoted operations and messaging to best serve customers in this new world. Below we share some of these key trends and takeaways for marketers…

Takeaway 1: Bringing Mental Health Awareness to the Forefront

COVID-19’s mental health toll is being called the second pandemic. Healthline has found that levels of anxiety and depression far exceeded normal rates throughout the past year; the driving factor wasn’t necessarily fear of the virus, but rather loneliness.

Laurie Dewan, VP of Consumer Insights for Healthline Media, and Erin Petersen, Editor-in-Chief of Healthline.com, reminded us that mental health is still a very personal topic, and as such, it’s essential to listen first to the audience and respond to them in a way that acknowledges their comfort level. For younger generations who are more vocal about mental health challenges, brands can respond by mirroring their language and extending beyond empathy to provide tools and drive impact. For older generations, who may face more of a stigma around mental health, the response might be to simply help them give a name to what they’re feeling, to think about mental health in less of a pathologized sense, and more in regards to the daily emotions and the effect they have.

An unexpected positive to come out of the last year has been the normalization of dialogue surrounding mental health. Shows like HBO’s Euphoria and Netflix’s The Crown, for example, have placed PSA bumpers and doctor commentaries across their programming.

As we continue to normalize this conversation, consumers are more likely to seek out information around wellness and look to brands to help them make small changes to improve their lives for the better. Healthline reminded us that struggling with mental wellness is not just pain, it’s highs and lows; the message should emphasize building resilience to ride the waves as they come — to appreciate the moments of joy and lean into the moments of happiness.

Takeaway 2: Meeting Customers Where They Are

A common message across the event was that barriers still exist in the minds of many consumers as they look to the wellness industry. This pointed to a mantra repeated in several sessions: brands need to meet people where they are.

Jeremy Tucker, CMO of Planet Fitness, pointed out that while historically many people have been intimidated by the fitness industry, and the gym in particular, the transition to digital fitness has allowed them to re-create their judgement-free zone, where people can explore fitness in the comfort of their home.

Sam Rogoway, Chief Product and Content Officer for Headspace, spoke of the brand’s new Netflix series, The Headspace Guide to Meditation, as a means of introducing people to meditation and mindfulness as a wellness tool. Rogoway said that a major initiative for them has been helping those who may be unfamiliar or unsure about meditation to understand it’s benefits in a way that removes intimidation.

“Meeting consumers where they are,” is an encompassing trend that includes both the physical media journey and the mental mindset of today’s consumer. That includes ensuring that brands are accessible and their messaging is both informative and reassuring, while avoiding the possibility of coming off as tone-deaf. It demands that brands make themselves more available for their customers, by offering products and services that provide immediate value, or by being a source of truthful and useful information. Brands that are prepared to help solve unique challenges such as work from home parenting hacks, or teleservices, such as telehealth or virtual estimates, are poised to be in a better position for success in the post-covid world.

Takeaway 3: Deep Human Listening & Action

Dewan and Peterson of Healthline repeatedly emphasized that empathy alone is not enough, brands need to find a way to provide real service for the communities they engage with. Dara Treseder, Senior VP and Head of Global Marketing and Communications at Peloton, said that their brand has worked hard to establish a “virtuous cycle” in which they take customer feedback and suggestions, and demonstrate the ways they’ve put it into action: “you said, we did.” Planet Fitness brought this to life with their decision to bring personal fitness to the consumer’s home. In response to the pandemic, rather than just putting forth a message of solidarity, Planet Fitness quickly paused membership fees, credited their current members, and made free personal training available online to anyone. Planet Fitness’ CMO, Jeremy Tucker, realized that they could provide their current and future customers with physical and mental wellness tools, free of charge, in a time where Americans needed it most. As Tucker succinctly put it, “doing good is good business.”

Takeaway 4: Personalized and Inclusive Messaging

The Ad Council, Publicis Health Media, DeepIntent, Healthline, and Peloton all echoed the importance of personalization in health and wellness marketing. We heard a resounding declaration that empathy is critical. While there’s been an emphasis on data in recent years, it should be viewed as merely a catalyst to understand larger behavioral trends. It is vital that brands go beyond data to understand the “why” behind these human behaviors so that they can tailor their messaging in response to those nuances. Connelly Partners makes this connection between data and human insights by bringing anthropology into the conversation to deliver empathetic advertising that reaches consumers on a deeper level.

With that said, a major challenge for brands, especially for something as broadly relevant as the COVID-19 vaccine, is establishing a universally-resonant, informative message, without neglecting the distinctions between different communities — whether demographic, ethnic, or socioeconomic.

Peloton’s Dara Treseder said that a big focus in their marketing strategy has been around increasing access to fitness (and thinking about access in a multidimensional way). For example, in Peloton’s partnerships with celebrities or influencers, they want to ensure diversity and make sure that communities who may have previously felt excluded by the wellness industry are represented, emphasizing that fitness and health is for everyone.

Headspace’s Rogoway said that contextual messaging was a major focus for them throughout the pandemic; they worked to speak to various points of stress that were affecting consumers and tailored the messaging to present meditation as a helpful tool to combat them. For example, ‘politics without panic’ was created to help address the stress related to the election and political division in the media.

Takeaway 5: Agility is Key

A reality that COVID has made abundantly clear is that agility is essential for survival — this has been true for all of us, as we’ve been forced to adapt to a new way of living, and it’s perhaps even more true for brands.

Sam McFadden, Head of U.S. Enterprise Marketing for Talkwalker, a social media monitoring platform, saw this represented in the online sentiment and conversations around fitness at the beginning of COVID. What began as frustrations around stay-at-home mandates quickly evolved as people sought out at-home workouts and alternative wellness opportunities.

Planet Fitness, previously an exclusively brick-and-mortar fitness chain, was forced to quickly pivot to the world of online workouts, and did so in a way that clearly prioritized the well-being of their customers: offering free fitness classes and pausing membership payments.

Peloton noticed the growing demand for new ways to stay healthy amid the ongoing pandemic. As a result, they quickly expanded their class offerings outside of their spin classes to provide in-home, personalized, full body workout classes.

In addition, Lululemon gained momentum throughout the pandemic by connecting with customers beyond their traditional e-commerce offering with their $500 million purchase of interactive home fitness startup, Mirror.

Heidi Arthur, Chief Campaign Development Officer at The Ad Council, and Andrea Palmer, President of Publicis Health Media, both shared similar thoughts in that collaboration is key, however it doesn’t have to be at the detriment of efficiency. We can use real time data and research to focus our direction and optimize results on a personal and empathetic level.