Taking a Stand

Purpose marketing isn’t a new trend, but it’s an enduring one. And purpose-led work has been a perennial winner at Cannes for at least a decade.  More recently, due to political trends around the globe, some brands have seen pushback – and sometimes boycotts – for this sort of marketing, which is seen by some as too progressive or too “woke.”  

Yet a number of brands are willing to take the risk to keep pushing for causes they think need championing and tackling topics that many would see as divisive. Where the real magic happens is when a brand can push a cause that ties directly to its own brand promise and purpose. 

When Sky Broadband teamed up with Guild eSports, they ran into a very real problem that couldn’t be fixed by broadband speeds. Three out of four women under 25 face abuse while gaming online. And it’s not simply a matter of teasing. Vile language, sexual harassment, and threats of violence abound. The company created a “training facility” within the Sky Guild Gaming Centre and invited male gamers to see if they had what it takes to become a pro gamer. But halfway through game play, the men were suddenly subjected to a barrage of abusive language taken from real-world game play that women had experienced. Shaken by the level of abuse, the influencers became advocates themselves and took their experiences to social media, increasing awareness of the problem by 33% within the gaming audience. 

eBay has been selling pre-loved clothes for years, but it lacked the fashion credentials needed to breakthrough. So, we took the brand to the world’s biggest fashion event of the year, the Vogue Met Gala, where 54 million fans tuned in to find out what’s in style.

Working with Vogue and New York’s trend setting rapper, Ice Spice, we curated a vintage fashion collection from eBay and allowed viewers to shop Ice's look on ebay.com/shopiconic, in a first-of-its-kind eCommerce integration. For the after party, fans watched Ice Spice ‘get ready’ in eBay-sourced Prada and Gucci vintage clothes.

We made old-clothes the “new, new thing”, according to the Washington Post, and Ice Spice’s getting-ready video was viewed 4 million times, boosting brand awareness by 29% and an eight percent increase in brand recommendation.