Perspective 06 · 6 min read
Building Credibility with Skeptical Audiences
How do you earn trust from an audience that has learned to discount corporate participation in its culture?
Robert Vincent Hébert
How do you earn trust from an audience that has learned to discount corporate participation in its culture? For nearly a decade I led cultural marketing for a national telecommunications company, and this was the question behind one of the most instructive programs I built.
The brand had shown up in Pride for a decade, but visibility had stopped moving preference among LGBTQ+ households. The community had learned to distinguish presence from participation, and was grading brands accordingly.
The Strategic Insight
Belonging is a design problem, not a marketing problem. The brand had to build the room before it could host a party in it, investing in artists, community organizations, and civic infrastructure before asking for cultural credit.
The Decision
We retired the annual campaign cycle and built a multi-year cultural platform. Investment moved upstream, into artists, community organizations, and civic partners, and the brand agreed to be credited last.
We reframed Pride participation as multi-year contribution rather than annual sponsorship. We moved investment upstream, credited the brand last, and held the program to standards employees would defend inside the company.
The Work
Turn Up the Love ran on an annual cycle, original music, a live production platform, employee programming, retail activation, and grants to LGBTQ+ community organizations, coordinated on a single strategic calendar.
Why This Matters
Multi-year growth in consideration among LGBTQ+ households, measurable lift in employee sentiment, and industry recognition across Cannes, Effie, and Shorty Awards. The program became a category benchmark for corporate participation in culture.
Brand perception rose 43 points, consideration rose 27 points, and the platform drove $40M in lifetime value from new subscribers. It became a category benchmark for how a corporation participates in a culture that is not its own.
What This Taught Me
The most durable brand programs are the ones a company would be embarrassed to stop running.
A closing thought
What belief about your brand would have to change for the business to grow?
Next perspective
Be Bold. Or Be Forgotten. →
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