Scott Woodward: On Purpose With Style

Though industries may have moved from analog to digital marketing, the truth that great brands are built on purpose remains unchanged. Purpose-driven marketing is core to an effective brand strategy, resonating with customers on a level that goes a few steps deeper than aesthetic appeal. Branding is not advertising in the eyes of leading enterprises, but a cultural participation with responsibility.

The Shift from Analog To Digital Marketing

Advertising is as old as writing, but the first examples in a modern sense may be found in newspapers, magazines, and gazettes. Later innovations in radio brought advertising to the airwaves, and the introduction of television gave rise to commercials. During this time, spending on advertisements increased dramatically.

With businesses quick to capitalize on technological advancements, it is unsurprising that the internet had advertising almost immediately. Emails carried commercial messages, while display and banner ads followed shortly after the advent of web pages. With the rise of social media and mobile devices, digital marketing rapidly came to dominate the modern advertising environment.

A Focus On Integrated Marketing

With so many established advertising channels, many of which had been invented within the past few decades, businesses searched for a degree of unification. This became integrated marketing: a strategic approach aimed at maintaining consistency across all brand communications. This way, companies can provide a seamless customer experience across platforms and channels.

Whether fashion marketing or retail marketing, entertainment or technology, the cultural branding provided by an integrated approach is difficult for businesses to overlook. However, integrated marketing is not an inherent solution to one of the more significant challenges facing modern advertising strategies: a lack of purpose.

Building Toward Purpose In Modern Marketing

Advertising is an undeniable necessity of modern business; though it may come in many forms, an enterprise cannot afford to rely on customers simply wandering to their physical or online storefronts. However, most businesses address this by adopting an integrated marketing strategy and disseminating as much information as possible. This might make a brand’s presence known, but it fails to define it.

Scott Woodward, brand marketing executive and chief creative officer at SEW BRANDED, argues that cause-based brand alignment is a very viable strategy to establish long-term cultural impact. Having personally navigated numerous industry disruptions, including the transition from analog to digital marketing, this approach has served to align the brands he works with for future relevance.

Whether an established brand executive or a Gen Z brand builder, purpose is the foundation of any enterprise. As such, it would follow that communicating a brand’s purpose is the prerogative of an effective advertisement. By establishing a brand’s story through marketing, that business may find opportunities to genuinely connect with customers in a manner that broad strokes would fail to accomplish.

Marketing For The Long Term

Brand building is a complex process, but it may be possible to achieve long-term relevancy through purpose-driven marketing. Through advertising, brands are met with an opportunity to shape culture responsibly, aligning themselves with contemporary values and leveraging visibility as the currency of positive change.

Woodward has worked with many household names over the course of his in-house creative marketing career and with his self-founded New York brand consultancy, SEW Branded.

BDG Media newsroom and editorial staff were not involved in the creation of this content.