In our final episode of the year, we reveal the results from our very own Word of the Year survey of communicators. Dino Delic, Meltwater’s director of enterprise analytics and insights, joins us for that conversation and then goes on to highlight how purpose-driven some of the biggest and best-known brands have been in their pandemic-era communications. And for the Red Questionnaire segment, we chat with Bukola Garry, Havas’ manager of diversity and inclusion, about how to make strides toward eradicating racism after this tumultuous year. She also tells us what she considers to be an emotional superpower, and shares the personal mantra that keeps her invigorated for life—spoiler alert: it’s a great one.

Quotes:

“To me, the word that would describe [2020] is backlash. It's a negative word. So I don't love it for that sense, because I do think of myself as a little bit more hopeful and optimistic about 2021… But backlash to me, of course, has been political backlash about governments not doing the right thing with COVID, or doing things too strongly, or not enforcing things. … But when a company or a corporation or a brand was involved in a backlash and not a political figure, it was usually because they were trying to do something that they felt like was the right thing to do.” —Dino Delic, Director of Enterprise Analytics and Insights, Meltwater

“There is so much pressure on companies to do the right thing, and the right thing is so subjective.” —Dino Delic, Director of Enterprise Analytics and Insights, Meltwater

“First and foremost, I would say authenticity [is required of brands who navigate successfully through a crisis]. If they're doing it just to address a challenge, or if they're doing it to avoid a backlash, or if they are doing it just because they think that that's what people want, that's when they've typically gotten themselves into trouble.” —Dino Delic, Director of Enterprise Analytics and Insights, Meltwater

“In an effort to try to help customers navigate through this tricky concept of injecting purpose into a brand, we try to take what is squishy or qualitative and make it quantifiable and measure the things that are typically subjective. And we found, like other times when we've developed metrics like this, it's entirely possible to do so.” —Dino Delic, Director of Enterprise Analytics and Insights, Meltwater

“There’s a great quote that says, ‘When you’re accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression.’ And I just think that the temptation with uncomfortable conversations or topics is to try and push past them. Like we try and flick a switch or move on to something you know. But in reality, there are people that are constantly being retraumatized and made to feel less than … The reality of racism is just that it's a reality. And until we're all triggered by it, I think real change is still so far away.” —Bukola Garry, Diversity & Inclusion Manager, Havas

“There have recently been more moments and moments in time when we were having to check into our humanity… so many opportunities for us to really do some self-reflection, to ask ourselves, ‘How do I be more of an ally? How do I be more of a supporter, and how do I kind of recognize and validate, and learn about experiences that are different from my own?’” —Bukola Garry, Diversity & Inclusion Manager, Havas

Connect with Red Havas:

Follow Red Havas for a daily dose of comms news: 

- Twitter

- Facebook

- Instagram

- LinkedIn

Subscribe:

Don’t forget to subscribe to the show using your favorite podcasting app.

- iTunes

- Spotify

What Did You Love? What Would You Like to Hear About Next?

Remember to Rate and Review today’s show; we’d love to hear from you!