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PETA retired its highly successful ‘I’d rather go naked than wear fur” campaign after 30 years. During this time the campaign has contributed to many designers and celebrities shifting away from fur. Even Queen Elizabeth said she wouldn’t be buying any new fur. Brands can change hearts and minds by aligning with social trends.
Brands should prepare their position on trends in advance, and study social trends such as those in this compilation. The author aims to distil the learnings from 500+ reports.
This video is based on an original blog post on why the Queen Would Rather Go Naked.
Framing a trend
Latching on to trends is also a matter of framing the content. When Ronaldo moves a bottle of Coke from his podium the story is that he is saying no to unhealthy food! And that supposedly crashed Coke’s share price – it didn’t but it certainly helped Ronaldo get a lot of publicity.
So how do you choose which social trends to go with?
- It of course depends on relevance. You need to understand your target audience and determine their interests.
- Next you need to juxtapose two ideas that make it interesting. For example, Queen Elizabeth not buying fur or Ronaldo not drinking Coke. Both ideas need to be relevant to your product.
- It needs a tiny bit of controversy. Today, if you can connect a development with the environment, health, wellness, religion or that old staple, money, your framing will be successful. So you need to show how this trend benefits/hurts one of the above.
Who should use social trend marketing?
Anyone can use it. Going viral is often the right combination of these three factors. One cannot predict a successful formula but generally a version of “Celebrity X following Trend Y impacted this <key factor> positively/negatively”. For example, Queen Elizabeth following the No Fur Movement saved minks from a certain death.
Just be cautious that you are are ready for the controversy or fame that is sure to follow!
