In 2021, $284 billion was spent on advertising in the United States. That’s a staggering number, representing a lot of power.

“Ours is a banal sort of apocalypse,” Amanda Hess wrote recently in her New York Times essay “Apocalypse When? Global Warming’s Endless Scroll.”

“From Don’t Look Up to Greta Thunberg videos to doomsaying memes, we are awash in warnings that we are almost out of time. But the climate crisis is outpacing our emotional capacity to describe it.”

Today’s consumers are clamoring for the brands they support to be a part of creating a better, more sustainable future. This is readily apparent when it comes to the beauty industry, which after decades of creating countless enemies and being one of many major contributors to the climate crisis, has undergone a period of serious self-discovery and a very public, consumer-driven transformation journey.

A quick Google search will tell you that in 2021, customers are different. They have different priorities, different concerns and higher expectations. Those differences significantly affect the customer journey, or the total sum of experiences that customers go through when interacting with your company and brand. 

In the fall of 2020, we were fortunate enough to sit down with Joe Giallanella, the Team Lead of the Growth Incubator at Seventh Generation, a global consumer product goods company and veteran B Corporation. At the time, and amidst the unprecedented circumstances of a global pandemic, Joe’s team had just finished up the successful launch of Zero Plastic Homecare, an innovative new line of products aimed at eliminating plastic entirely from home care product packaging. The successful launch only served to further prove the resilience and humanity that underlies what it truly means to be a B Corp.

To say that a lot is happening in the world to inspire change right now would be an understatement: a call for social justice, an all-out last-ditch effort to gain a sense of normalcy back from the hands of COVID-19, and more momentum than ever before to take action against the effects of climate change and reverse the impact of centuries of environmental damage caused by waste generation, overconsumption, and rampant pollution. 

All around us, we are seeing change happen on a massive scale. But if there’s one thing we know from years of working to trigger individual behavior change, it’s that small choices add up to create impact over time. Choosing to use reusable bags over plastic, switching out a fossil fuel heating system for an electric heat pump, opting to compost instead of trashing food waste, taking the first step to learn about community solar, or even making the effort to purchase clean beauty products over those with potentially harmful and toxic ingredients… all of these choices add up in the long run, even if, at the most individual level, it doesn’t seem like that big of a deal.

Last week we introduced the topic of pushing past fear to authentically and clearly communicate your brand’s values, discussing the power that fear holds over us and why, in actuality, fear is a liar. This week, we’re continuing the conversation, taking a deep dive into the “how” of pushing past fear to effectively message your brand’s mission.

As a marketing agency we oftentimes experience our clients shying away from risk and being unwilling to put their values front and center despite those values being authentic to their brand.

After all, the fear of uncertainty leads us to seek out security, causing us to make decisions that are risk averse. Fear is a primal, base instinct that is intended to protect us from things as uncertain and heart pounding as the fear of failure.

But fear? For all its power and its hold over us, fear is a liar.

And with all the uprooting and life-altering events, milestones and discussions that occurred in 2020, and the years leading up to it, consumers are clamoring for the brands that they support to clearly take a stand for the causes and beliefs that impact them. The power of doing so has a number of both tangible and intangible positive benefits that vastly outweighs the risks posed by not acting out of fear.

A study from Accenture found that more than half of consumers who are disappointed with a brand’s words or actions (or lack thereof) on a social issue complain about it, with 47% walking away in frustration and 17% not coming back at all.

And the Edelman Trust Barometer recently found that “80% of consumers agree businesses must play a role in addressing societal issues; they want a company to take actions which... improve social conditions and make the world a better place."

This sentiment plays out in the real-world example of Lyft’s Cities Talk Back Campaign, which was brought to life as a follow up to additional actions Lyft took following former President Trump’s immigration ban in 2017, when he announced an immediate block on all refugees, while also denying U.S. entry to citizens of seven predominantly Muslim countries.

When Uber failed to offer support in response to protests against the 2017 ban and received further significant negative attention from customers for the CEO’s role as an economic advisor to the former President, Lyft stepped up in a big way, despite the risks and fear of backlash from customers. The company donated $1 million to the ACLU and elevated the voices of those affected by the President’s actions.

The result? Lyft, for the first time ever, surpassed Uber in the Apple App store for downloads as customers deleted their Uber app and downloaded Lyft in droves.

As the calendar flipped from December to January, all of us at KSV did a little celebratory dance. Yes, a tough and chaotic year had come to an end, but we were celebrating for slightly different reasons: for our agency, the calendar flip meant a fresh look and a doubled-down commitment to fighting for a more sustainable existence through purpose-driven work and meaningful community partnerships.

Happy New Year!