Communicators focus on brand safety during Cannes Lions Festival
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American Express chief marketing officer Elizabeth Rutledge and chief corporate affairs officer Jennifer Skyler at the Axios Communicators event in Cannes, France. Credit: Matthieu Roggero/Axios.
CANNES, France — Major brands are trying to navigate how to stay relevant and top of mind for consumers without creating an unforced error.
Why it matters: The question of who owns a brand has a complicated answer.
- Brand stewardship is a shared responsibility, with marketers responsible for brand alignment and communicators responsible for brand safety.
The big picture: Corporate communicators are having to balance advancing the brand and corporate narrative by attracting new audiences without alienating their existing stakeholders.
- "We're in this moment, especially in the United States, where you have a lot of the things that businesses and brands have been pushing — whether it's social justice or sustainability or DEI — [that] are now being pushed back against. And that's making things arguably even more complicated for brands than it's probably ever been," Weber Shandwick U.S. CEO Jim O'Leary said at Tuesday's Axios Communicators event.
Between the lines: Brand partnerships can be risky — just look at Adidas' partnership with Ye (formerly known as Kanye West) or Ryan Lochte's deal with Ralph Lauren.
- When things do go awry, brands have to make a decision about the future of the partnerships quickly, said American Express chief marketing officer Elizabeth Rutledge.
- "You've got to be in the moment. You've got to react. You've got to be thoughtful. You've got to remember what your brand is aligned to, have the direct conversation [with the partner], make the decision and stick with it," she added.
Yes, but: It's not all risk.
Zoom in: American Express' strategic partnership with culturally relevant figures like Olivia Rodrigo or Formula One racing has contributed to millennials and Gen Zs making up 60% of new cardholders.
- "It's our jobs on the corporate affairs side to ensure that partnership and those narratives are hitting both our current customer base as well as prospects on our organic channels by showing up where they are — like TikTok," said American Express chief corporate affairs officer Jennifer Skyler.
Hinge, on the other hand, does not have its own social media presence and instead relies on influencer partnerships to connect directly with daters, chief marketing officer Jackie Jantos told Axios in Cannes.
- This strategy also aligns with their corporate mission, while reaching daters and potential daters in a more authentic way, she added.
- "This idea of [not] spending too much of your time in a digital space is core to who we are — we're all about in- person relationships and in-person connection."
State of play: Companies have been much more prescriptive in their Pride month campaigns than in year's past.
- However, brand purpose is not dead, added O'Leary. "There's a large body of evidence that suggests that purposeful brands outperform the competition."
The bottom line: It's a volatile time for brand safety, which presents an opportunity for marketing and communications to work together.
- And comms' increased presence at Cannes signals that they are beginning to.
Go deeper: Target cuts Pride Month products from some stores after backlash
