Working Around The Way Things Are
I had the privilege of speaking with Professor Daniela Molta about the More Movement with Marketing concept. Daniela is a professor at the Syracuse University Newhouse School of Communications–bringing her experience from the digital media agency side and brand side of the business. I was eager to pick her brain on the more movement model.
Echoing the conversations to date, Daniela had great input that included encouragement and constructive discussion around the challenges. One challenge in particular got me thinking…
Daniela pointed out that the More Movement with Marketing model includes a benefit of bringing diverse talent into the process to either partner with existing agencies or submit concepts against the chosen brief/social issue as an individual contributor. While this helps create an entry point to the marketing industry for creative talent, it does not directly address the full-supply chain.
“I’ve been thinking about the back-end of what makes advertising work. We have to do a lot of work in the supply chain, to make sure that it is [also] diverse in nature,” Daniela said. “Sharing the love of advertising money that goes through our industry.”
This key point on the entire supply chain of advertising got me thinking about the difficulty of systemic change overall. It’s a challenge that has been brought up in a number of these conversations. I’ve heard multiple times in only the early conversations about this idea that it will be tough for both agencies and brands to embrace because it’s just not how things are typically done.
Rather than let myself go too far down the rabbit hole of considering how to get the marketing industry to think more expansively so we can ignite a movement that helps the general population think more expansively, I thought first of the work around. It will need to be done at some point, but for now I focused on an immediate solution to the hurdle... Not over, but around.
I started wondering, does support for this issue need to be a combination of using the world’s massive and influential marketing platform, talent and supply chain to create the message–but also consider how dollars outside of the brand marketing function might help fund it?
If the goal is to raise general population awareness of the facts around the world’s most pressing ESG issues, should the funding come from the newly created impact and sustainability functions within organizations? It’s a division that is still new enough to not be stuck in a “this is how it’s done” mindset. A function that is actively and openly exploring how to help their companies invest in and fulfill their ESG objectives.
This is a key question I’m now looking forward to posing to both brand and impact leaders. If we work with the Chief Impact Officer to fund more movement messages, can we work around the challenge that “It will be hard to find brands willing to do something outside the structure of the way things have been done”?
