Provocation in the News

This week's updates include more on the newest wave of COVID-19 research from our insights team, NeuroLab's segmentation study, new work from Dove and the latest Weekly POV series.

When it comes to social justice, brands can't just talk

Wave 12 of our COVID-19 research focused in particular on how consumers feel about brand actions against racism:

Excerpt: According to Alexis Fragale (Director of Consumer Insights, Mindshare), consumers expect brands to do more than pay lip service to social justice. They are demanding that brands take "meaningful action" such as to make commitments to foster changed in society and to provide resources to help educate others about the issues. Companies also can promote Black-owned businesses, improve their hiring practices and make changes in their industry.

Read the full article in Forbes

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NeuroLab’s new segmentation study

Our NeuroLab team launched an emotional segmentation study, identifying people’s subconscious emotional states and perceptions of the future, as influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Excerpt: “…a new segmentation method clustering American consumers into five distinct attitude groupings that may have profound implications for both brands and society: The Trapped: The need to be gamified (or distracted). They’ll be most receptive to messages that show a return to normalcy post-COVID. The Defeated: The need to be inspired. Less receptive to social good/COVID relief messages, but highly receptive to fitness, beauty, and wellness brands and messaging.

Read further insights in MediaPost

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New work: Dove is part of the Crown Coalition

The CROWN Act was first passed in California, ensuring protection against discrimination based on race-based hairstyles by extending statutory protection to hair texture and protective styles such as braids, locs, twists, and knots in the workplace and public schools. In the past year, a total of seven states have passed the law; on Friday, Mindshare celebrated the one-year anniversary with Dove, with a big paid media blitz across TV, radio, digital, and Walmart.

Find out more about The CROWN Act

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The new world of omni-channel commerce and retail media

New report from Catalyst is a foundational study that includes perspectives from shoppers, marketers, retailers, and partners that reflects and addresses the opportunities and challenges of the industry going into 2021. Mindshare’s Riyaad Edoo, Senior Partner, Unilever U.S. Search and Ecommerce Lead is featured, providing insights on the state of omni-channel commerce.

Excerpt: “When retailers work with the search teams, it often changes the nature of the conversation. A search team's skillset will push conversation to the nature of the marketplace, buying functionality and sophistication, and how viable a path to conversion each tactic or placement is. Search teams will reference similar experiences from within retailer networks plus familiar marketplaces to protect brand budgets and drive performance, while pushing retailers to innovate.”

Download the full report from Catalyst

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This week's POV

The Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA) is Apple’s way to identify each iOS device allowing developers and advertisers to link specific ad impressions to app and browser actions. With the launch of iOS14, Apple will introduce the App Tracking Transparency framework, which will provide users with the explicit option to disable IDFA tracking before each app install. The changes were announced at last week’s Apple Worldwide Developers Conference. Read the details and implications.

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In case you missed it...

Future of Media: TV and Digital fireside chat with Annie Serlin, Executive Director and Unilever’s Rob Master at Brand Innovators’ Livecast series. They discussed everything from brand purpose (including programs like The Crown Act), to data, to avoiding east coast/west coast bias, and more. Watch the discussion here.

Juneteenth recap. Here are some of the things #TeamMindshare did in honor of Juneteenth.

The ReGroup video series with GroupM CEO Christian Juhl. He sits down with Mediacom’s Jox Petiza, who takes us through her career journey spanning Kuala Lumpur, London, and New York. Watch the interview.