June 17th, 2019: With the proliferation of advertisements in society today, Dr. Odekhiren Amaize, Professor of Advertising and Integrated Marketing Communications at Canadian University Dubai, has revealed how responsible advertising resonates with the youth, through a feature in an article released by the leading industry publication, Communicate Online.
The article, titled “Responsible Advertising to the Rescue?” explores this new approach to advertising, and how brands should be able to embrace “relevancy, convenience, and experience” in reaching out to their customers. It considers how tackling social issues to approach its audience and establishing its stance on worldly affairs can help to convey a brand’s values in an alternative way.
Acknowledging how responsible advertising particularly resonates with the youth, Dr. Amaize explained, “Understanding how brands have and can address audiences’ fears, dreams, anxieties, and hopes that results from such contradictions, particularly through cultural branding strategies, (is vital).”
Highlighting the leading role of millennials and Gen Z, the article reports a growing preference for supporting companies that stand for a cause, and those that talk about the issues their customers care about. Responsible advertisements, it suggests, foster “brand loyalty, improve brand recognition, and establish a brand identity.”
However, because this specific method of advertising tackles social issues, it is acknowledged that companies can also face backlash from customers that perceive different beliefs or stances that do not align with that of the brand. Dr. Amaize provides a solution, which is to “actively promote critical thinking skills and critical consciousness to perceive prevailing national ideologies along with social, political, and economic contradictions.”
Gallery
