Laura Materna, Experience Design Lead

Who can imagine Don Draper, gazing out the window of his corner office, casually saving the day with a smooth tagline about happiness… in the midst of today’s global pandemic and racial protests? He couldn’t. And that’s a good thing, even if it means our job as marketers is a bit more complicated. The very shape of social discourse is changing at a seemingly unprecedented clip, but the advertising industry has learned from societal shifts before. These shifts have pushed us to grow and even come out the other side a better practice. So how do we react to today’s issues?

We can look to several recent milestones for guidance on how to manage a brand in the current climate.

1. Remember that advertising is a two-way dialogue

Social media’s onset taught us to listen. These platforms reshaped and democratized the media landscape, empowering the customer with a voice just as forceful as the brand’s. As a result, brands had to pay attention to their audience’s needs and up their empathy game in order to engage with consumers meaningfully. Now in the middle of 2020, we find ourselves needing to pay even closer attention to the ebb and flow of this dialogue—not only to understand what the conversation is about, but also to understand when to speak, when to listen, and when to amplify the voices of others. Blackout Tuesday and Juneteenth challenged brands to pause and to listen, two muscles we’ll have to keep exercising.

2. Be vocal

Increased social activism taught us to take a stand. The past few years have seen a flurry of ads taking on a social issue—from Pepsi’s unforgettable protest-themed ad, to heartwarming stories of immigration in Super Bowl spots. And a few that spark controversy. A brand’s stated values won’t always align with 100% of their customer base. But consumers increasingly look to brands as a moral guidepost. That means brands can progress the national conversation with their platform if they have a genuine story to tell or have made a genuine effort toward a social cause.

3. Be transparent and direct

COVID-19 taught us to be truly down-to-earth, to be transparent, and to be direct. We dropped the façade, we scraped together alternate footage, and we focused on providing real, relevant information. Brands had to communicate something tangible: how they were donating, how they were changing their manufacturing to provide PPE or cleaning supplies, or simply how customers could expect to interact with that product or service. Consumers will expect the same transparency and authenticity moving forward, whether that’s about COVID-19, racial injustice, the environment, or any other challenges ahead.

4. Focus on helpful actions

Lastly, the mobilization that followed George Floyd’s death taught us to focus on actions that are helpful, as the national conversation dove into what, exactly, that meant. Helpful didn’t mean performative allyship or simply posting a black square; helpful, in this context, meant taking the time to educate oneself, have difficult conversations, and then push for change. And consumers agreed. As of May 2020, eMarketer found that over two thirds of surveyed adults believe brands have an important role to play to speak out against racial inequality and injustice, and would also be more likely to support brands who take meaningful action around racial inequality rather than making posts and statements.

The required response now, and for meaningful conversations in the future, is to put all of these pieces together: to pay attention to the dialogue and stop and listen when needed, to be vocal about your brand’s values, to speak to the consumer transparently and directly, and to focus on actions that will contribute to the greater good. These lessons take an abundance of empathy and even more patience. Lately though, we’ve started to see some concrete steps forward from what used to be the typical brand response just a few years ago. Brands like Ellevest published their own diversity statistics, goals, and benchmarks; advertisers for brands like Coca-Cola and Unilever took action toward holding tech companies accountable with the #StopHateForProfit boycott; in a sweeter move, Ben & Jerry’s developed a Justice Remix’d flavor, complete with educational resources at a children’s reading level, local partnerships, and a petition on their website. All of this gives me some hope that we’re on the right track when it comes to putting in the work.

Of course we have more work to do—from amplifying voices in our own creative departments to furthering the national conversation where we can. But wherever advertising has evolved, it is largely because consumers have demanded it. So, consumers: Keep demanding. It forces us to do better. And to advertisers: Keep listening with empathy, and keep pushing to do better.

Alyssa Toro
Senior Partner, Chief Creative Officer

For over 20 years, I drove to the South End on autopilot. I walked the same brick-lined streets and up 5 flights of stairs to the old piano factory we renovated. The business can get repetitive after that long, but somehow we always kept it interesting. So many things changed in that space as we grew from 4 to over 100. People would come and go, but some things have always remained consistent:

We’ve always been about the people. 

Without sounding too cult-like, we seem to attract the same type of people. Kind, empathetic yet ambitious and really clever. It’s funny because in many ways we all couldn’t be more different, but we are strongly united by a common purpose.

We blast music at every turn.

It’s ever present and eclectic and sometimes, entirely too loud.

We have an intangible energy.

There’s a certain energy in the air when visitors come for the first time. You get the sense that everyone really wants to be there. We’re there to create. That energy defines who we are and even though we aren’t there at the moment, I can still sense it.

Despite all of that consistency, every few years we are hit with a big shift in this ever-changing industry. And this one, by no fault of advertising, is certainly a doozy. We are fortunate to be able to work from home and still respond to client needs quickly. Our process is to define human insights and use it as a roadmap to create distinctive work. And what’s more human than the entire universe going through the same pandemic protocol? Relatively speaking.

There’s so much empathy and understanding to be had. And humor to get us through it all. We are proud to have the trust of our clients and thankful for their support.  I suspect we will emerge from this crisis with a new perspective as we have in difficult times before and I really do hope we can hang onto it. Our shared experience will help us come up with more insightful ideas making us well poised to tap into how people are feeling right now and respond in a way that creates connection.

So much has happened over 20 years, but what’s happening right now, at this very moment, is the thing that will propel us to be a stronger company. Here’s a quick snapshot of the brands that contributed to our success over the last 20 years.

Steve Connelly, president and copywriter at Connelly Partners, contributed the following thought leadership piece that ran in AdAge on April 2, 2020.

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No one should tell you how to feel right now. Your emotions are yours and yours alone.

But no matter what those emotions are, they are no doubt pretty intense. Some of us are panicking, some are dismissive. Some are paralyzed by the stress caused by this virus of uncertainty, others are stressed by the mandated cure of isolation.

This is not a time to debate, lecture or shout opinions. This is a time to respect each other, see all sides, care for each other, do everything we can to come together as this virus, the media, and an election year do all they can to pull us apart.

As an amateur anthropologist and agency founder, human behavior is a passion. I am forever trying to understand what drives our actions, decisions, emotions. Not the actions themselves, but the motivations behind them. The kind of observation that generates human insights that we can use to better understand and connect people.

And what I see right now is humanity holding a flashlight and pushing back the darkness. I see the elevation of simple things, of positive things, of defiantly human things.

Now certainly, there is a bunker mentality out there and times like these can bring out some less than attractive human traits. But there’s enough negative out there right now. Instead, I choose to see the positive. We are surrounded by positivity, you just have to allow yourself to see it.

I see people outside taking walks. I see kids running across their front yards. I see parents marooned at their desks, hopelessly trying to answer the call of both kids and work but with good humor, intentions and compassion. I see Scholastic supporting parents with open-access lesson plans and activities for kids through a new digital hub.

I see people FaceTime-ing, Google Hangout-ing, Facebook Live-ing. I see people who want to look into other people’s eyes digitally and feel comfort. I see people digitally connecting to talk in groups and meet in groups. I see people exercising in groups. I see brands from local health clubs to international brands like Nike offering free access for digital workout classes.

I see people coming together as our experts recommend keeping us apart.

I see dogs getting more attention from their humans than they ever have. I see comfort food, comfort TV shows, comfort music being consumed at all-time highs.

I see people who have every opportunity to sleep late and slack off, but instead are working, grinding, innovating and creating at levels we rarely see. People care about their jobs, their responsibilities, the people they work for and with. I see innovation from big and small businesses. I see Tito’s Vodka using their distilleries to make hand sanitizer.

I see people thinking of others in ways that we have never seen before. I see people checking in on senior citizens with regularity and compassion. I see people going to Mass on TV.

I see people applauding health care workers. I see brands reinventing to produce masks for doctors and nurses. I see Ford offering a car payment relief plan. I see internet providers like our client Atlantic Broadband offering free internet to people without it, and another CP client Gorton’s Seafood spreading the goodness of the sea by donating 500,000 servings of seafood for people in need.

The anthropologist in me sees human kindness. The marketing guy in me sees some brands shining a light on our capacity for kindness. Some smart, forward-thinking brands are fueling positivity by simply framing it. They are not self-serving, they are not editorializing, they are not benign white noise. Rather, they are empathetic and earnest, choosing to connect us as humans rather than sell as marketers. They are the brands that will see success tomorrow by being out there with positive messaging today.

The question all of us face right now in the face of this inhuman assault on our lives, is “What do I say?” Many brands, like many people, are paralyzed. But I would suggest expressing the simplest of messages would have the most resonance. Honest and human. Frame and remind people to see the wonderful things happening around us at a time when we all feel under siege.

Of course I also see some people out there seizing the opportunity to pontificate, to benefit, to impose their opinions and amplify their platforms. I see fear, I see uncertainty, I see tragedy. How can we not?

But right now, I also see people thinking about others. Worrying, caring, thinking, talking, connecting. I see what’s good about humans. I see brands reminding us all of that collective good. As is usually the case, bad times reveal the good in us all.

I see a time of darkness. And at the same time, I see the light of humanity shining through it. What’s needed right now is more human creativity to help us all see that light.

Steve Connelly

President & Copywriter

Opinion: Brands Have an Opportunity to Frame the Torch of Humanity That is Illuminating the Darkness

https://adage.com/article/opinion/opinion-brands-have-opportunity-frame-torch-humanity-illuminating-darkness/2248001

Carissa Mak, Creative Director 

We shouldn’t spread stigma and shame, we should be informing and empowering.’

It’s 9:12am on a Saturday. I just nursed my 15 week old and put him down for a nap. My four-year-old is watching Cat in the Hat with my husband in our bedroom. I steal away to the bathroom for a quick shower and a few moments of solitude on my phone. That’s when I saw the Frida Mom ad that one of my friends reposted to their stories.

This ad. This. They didn’t get to this ad by way of an elaborate strategy or assessing analytics. Oh hell no. This is a real life glimpse into the postpartum experience, that could only have been created by someone who has been through it and knows exactly what it’s like. It’s real. It’s raw. They decided to just put it out there, this part of motherhood. No big concept, no special effects, no glamour. Just a real, honest moment.

Is it pretty? No. Is it hard to watch? A bit, yes. But it’s the type of ad that we as women need out there. I watched it and have to say that I’ve never related more to an ad. Ever. I teared up. I’ve been there, this exact moment. The mesh undies, the padsicles, the amount of time it takes for just one bathroom trip. As a mom who has just recently gone through this, I’ve never felt more understood.

And for it to be banned from airing during the Oscars, is just an absolute shame. We don’t prepare new mothers enough for what postpartum looks like. I remember after I had my first baby. You focus so much on what birth is going to be like – from taking classes to reading birth stories online. You go into the delivery room feeling like you have a pretty solid idea of what might happen, what could happen. But then you have the baby and it’s like “WTF?!” No one prepares you for what really goes on “down there,” or what that first trip to the bathroom is like. It’s painful, it’s scary, and it’s hellah not pretty. But it’s reality.

When my friends prep for their first child, sure I’ll offer up registry item suggestions, but what I always send – and feel is much more important – is a list of items you need for postpartum, and what to physically expect. Every time I send the list, I get a bewildered reply of “What?! Is this for real?!” It’s real, and the Frida Mom ad is a perfect slice of a non-sugar-coated reality.

As advertisers, we can and should do better with shining a light on the real, the unsexy, the honest — because it’s so very important that we don’t only present glossy truths that people will then think are the norm. We shouldn’t spread stigma and shame, we should be informing and empowering. It’s an absolute shame that ABC banned this ad from the Oscars, but hopefully in doing so it will get even more of the attention that it deserves. Bravo Frida Mom.

‘I’ve never felt more understood’: Parent on Oscar-banned Frida Mom ad’

Campaign US

https://www.campaignlive.com/article/ive-felt-understood-parent-oscar-banned-frida-mom-ad/1673461

Claire Eisenberg, Director of Corporate Communications

Cause and Affect features CPers who pursue unique side hustles⏤ affecting others through their passion and inspiring us to live Defiantly Human.

There are people who are passionate about giving a voice to histories that matter today, stories that can change our future, people like our very own Director of Creative Services, Barry Frechette. These are the people who highlight good deeds that have gone unnoticed in order to inspire others to make an impact.  Outside of his day job at Connelly Partners, Barry made the leap into documentary films to shine a light on the incredible untold stories of our veterans and those who do good against the odds.

“I never made a documentary film before I made this one. But all my life, in the ad industry, you tell stories or snippets of stories… I’m just fascinated by people. And their stories. And I love storytelling. I love the medium. Armed with this experience and passion, I made the leap into the unknown.”

Barry Frechette (co-director, executive producer) and Max Esposito (co-director, director of photography, editor) created Paper Lanterns. The critically acclaimed documentary is about Normand Brissette (Lowell, MA) and Ralph Neal (Corbin, KY), two American POWs killed in Hiroshima, and Shigeaki Mori, a Japanese survivor who refused to let them be forgotten. The horrors they witnessed. The families that struggled to find the truth. And one man’s effort to give them the gift of closure.

“It’s not about going back and looking for apologies for the bombing, it’s about moving forward. There are tough moments in the film that we left in, but they are important because we want to show that there is redemption in all this. After all these years, we can still figure shit out. It’s opened doors for me where I get to hear other people’s stories and help them too.”

Paper Lanterns gave a voice to a community whose stories would have gone untold. Mr. Mori greatly impacted the last few days of Normand and Ralph’s lives. After surviving the initial bombing in Hiroshima, they were like so many others in the wake of the devastating attack⏤ without support or resources. And to think, what took place in Japan in 1945, came to light when Barry was looking through a photo album at his Grandmother’s house halfway around the world in Massachusetts. Paper Lanterns not only celebrates Mr. Mori’s compassionate heroism, but also inspires reconciliation representing our two nations as people who are not our past, but humans working together for a brighter tomorrow.

Barry recognizes and meets the challenge of honoring and protecting a lived truth that is not his own. While Barry worked on this project outside of Connelly Partners, he’s put into practice the agency’s purpose to be Defiantly Human⏤ prioritizing and defending empathy, compassion and the unique stories of humans.

Barry was recognized at the 2019 AdClub Rosoff Awards for his work to make a positive impact through passion. For more, visit https://theadclub.org/rosoff2019/.

Steve Connelly, President and Copywriter

Times were Boston, and I include Providence here, was one of the creative hubs of the marketing universe. Some of the greatest creative agencies and minds called our corner of the world home. And some of the biggest brands, born in the Northeast and around the world, came to our agencies to get access to those minds. But creative reputations are like gardens, they need constant attention and cultivation.

The responsibility for that cultivation falls to us, the marketing industry of Boston. We need to constantly be out as a unified market talking of what we are doing and what’s possible here. This is a pretty sexy creative beachhead. Flo lives here, JetBlue lands here, Bank of America banks on the talent here, the Gorton’s fisherman was born here.

But we don’t have a voice in the market anymore. The bigger players are responsible to their holding companies, not the talent and potential of Boston. Back then, to be an agency in Boston was to belong to a club of creativity, where every agency spent their days raising the bar for clients and daring their agency friends to keep up. Together we made everyone better, and we unapologetically told the world about it.

Today major local brands like Liberty Mutual, Dunkin’, Mass Mutual, Ocean Spray, TJ Maxx, Marshalls, Homegoods, Gillette, Reebok, even Cumberland Farms leave this market for advertising not because better talent and resources exist outside, but because they THINK better talent and resources exists elsewhere. We have been quiet, disorganized, self interested, rather than seeing and painting the big picture. Boston needs a voice, a voice that reminds and educates about the awesomeness available here. The more we stay quiet and fail to promote our market, the easier it is to see past what’s here and experience wandering eye.

Boston STILL does amazing work that should attract the next generation of great Boston brands like Wayfair, Hubspot and LogMeIn, as well as brands from all over the country. Boston has always been synonymous with independent thinking, with creativity, with being at the front of every innovation. We have never been much for staying quiet. What happened?

Noise starts here. We challenge other voices to follow.

Steve Connelly appeared in the Boston Globe article “Hometown advantage? Not for Boston’s ad agencies”. Learn more about his perspective and the local boston advertising scene.

Scott Savitt, Senior Partner, Director of Digital

Just how many dollars are fueling the retail economy?

Retail consumer spending in 2018 is predicted to increase 4.5% vs. the same period last year according to the National Retail Federation. While 4.5% may not sound like a big percentage, it tops out 2017 which was the best year for retail sales in over three years spanning all categories including auto and foods (per the Department of Commerce).

And for this online holiday season, Internet Retailer projects U.S. shoppers will spend an increase of 15.5%—that equates to $120 billion—compared to online spending during the same period last year. This year alone, Black Friday was a record-setting $6.2 billion as well as Cyber Monday which pulled in approximately $7.9 billion, an increase of 19.3% from a year ago according to Adobe Analytics.

What’s the sense behind these dollars?

One of the reasons for this unprecedented growth in retail is the way top retailers are creating frictionless shopping opportunities for their users especially via smartphones. Retailers such as Amazon (Amazon Go), Walmart (Google Home) and Wayfair (AR) are adopting strategies to deliver “experiences” to users vs. just selling their stand-alone wares and “products.”

These savvy marketers are creating more compelling reasons for why to shop and how by modern messaging and capitalizing on modern function.

As technology evolves and data becomes more accessible, these retailers and others benefitting from that $120 billion in transactions are more than ever in a position to personalize, automate and own the entire shopper journey on a path to continuing that 4%+ growth year-over-year.

How to add the dollars and sense for future retail growth?

Whether it’s comparison shopping in real time, an optimized mobile checkout process, live chat, user-friendly ordering options, click-and-collect services or smartphone push notifications, one of the foundational goals of frictionless shopping is to serve consumers whenever they want to be served enhancing the experiences leading to conversion.

Brands should be adopting more of a frictionless mentality when thinking about how to construct their consumer experience, especially in digital. The need to eliminate friction between customer and brand is a key factor in creating a positive customer experience and favorable brand attitude. This means brands think big picture when it comes to “purpose” and strategic positioning, but also non-optional consideration of the “micro-moments” during the customer journeys—literally down to each customer interaction and on each channel.

Whether it’s speed and convenience or instant access to content and/or product information, brands can meet customer’s expectations and gain share of the retail growth market by leveraging more frictionless thinking.

Steve Connelly, President and Copywriter

I attended this year’s ANA Masters of Marketing as a newcomer to the much-hyped annual event. I had high expectations (and a fair amount of skepticism) for the networking, ideas from brand leaders I could take back to my agency and golfing in the sun to spark unrehearsed conversation.

While industry heavy hitters graced the stage, I didn’t leave feeling inspired or armed with a lot of new ways of thinking. In fact, I often felt frustrated. Here’s why:

1. Diversity is not casting. To many at the conference, diversity felt like a checkmark approach. Simply cast a diverse group and mission accomplished. A superficial solution at best that misses both the point and opportunity. The observation reinforced to me how far our industry has to go to truly represent the spirit and opportunity of diversity and to realistically represent new and different voices that reflect the world we live in.
2. Data is strategic not strategy. In this forum, data wasn’t considered as organic at all … just numbers they seem to follow like fish downstream. There were no real insights shared, just a lot of data pontification. True marketing power and impact comes from a combination of real powerful data AND real life experience.
3. Brands sure do rely on agencies yet are slow to credit them. This was the year of the hotly debated in-house versus agency discussion. We should never devalue or denigrate what in-house agencies can do—they have great value. But outside agencies with a broader perspective of and appreciation for empathy and creativity have never been needed more.

Overall, the presentations were hit or miss. Put me on stage for next year or lose me forever. I will share the agency models that (without throwing stones) identify the value outside agencies have over in-house shops, how diversity should be with defined and used and how powerful data becomes even more powerful when it is humanized.

Alyssa Toro

Senior Partner, Chief Creative Officer

In an industry not always known for giving space to live life inspired outside of the office, I am fortunate enough to work at a company that values ideas, whether they happen at the agency or on your own time. I had my hands full as a mom of two and working full time as Connelly Partner’s CCO, but had an itch to tie my passions for family, conceptual design and nutrition together in a new way. What was born was a brand called Goodee to help parents lay the foundation for healthy eating through the intersection of color, strong design and plant-based foods.

I joke that I earned an equivalent of an MBA through the process. I did everything from creating the physical product to designing the logo and packaging, photographing all of the food, prototyping, and figuring out the legal mumbo-jumbo before it was ultimately sold into 11 Whole Foods stores. And boy, did I learn a lot along the way. I learned the perspective of all the roles needed to launch a brand, how to get the best ideas out of others, and the opportunities to draw outside influences.

I spoke with Muse by Clio about how launching Goodee gave me the perspective to be a better leader. You can read more here: https://musebycl.io/worklife/how-launching-wellness-brand-gave-me-perspective-be-better-leader