A cultural moment is defined as “a period where the community has a similar set of emotions, preoccupations, and meanings.” We live in a time wherein the entire world is preoccupied with the COVID-19 crisis and its consequences on our personal and financial lives.
The pandemic has hit almost everyone in the world right where it hurts—we lost so much. From losing loved ones to having to sacrifice our little freedoms, the health crisis has affected and hurt every single person in the world in one way or another. Now more than ever, brands need to be compassionate as the world navigates this new reality.
Suppose you want to create content that is sensitive, relevant, and speaks to the cultural moment. In that case, here are some tips and pointers to keep in mind.
Partner with marketing experts
No matter your business or industry, it will do you a world of good if you partner with marketing specialists. Experts are experts for a reason. They study this aspect of the business world to help brands reach their goals. A big part of that entails knowing how to speak to audiences in ways that are timely and humanizing.
Marketing firms like Care Marketing, for example, have mastered the art of coming up with content that is engaging, informative, and empathetic, especially since they specialize in helping home care facilities find patients who might need rehab, assisted living, or palliative care. Identify what kind of message you want to communicate to your target audience, and build a partnership with a marketing firm that knows exactly how to convey that message.
Keep your eyes peeled on rising topics of interest
The COVID-19 pandemic might be the biggest cultural moment of our generation. Still, there are other cultural moments that you need to pay attention to, especially in the time of social media and the internet. Here are some ways you can stay up-to-the-minute on rising topics of interest:
- Search data is your best friend in finding trending topics and other rising topics. With the help of this tool, you and your team will be able to find opportunities and issues before they even become trends. For example, if you want to create content regarding nutritious food, search data will help you identify which topics are being searched by audiences before they become trending topics. One example is the search around the keyword “gluten-free,” which has shown an impressive incline in the past few years, showing that consumers are interested in it and that there is a market for it.
- Related searches will also be your companion in finding other topics that are of interest to consumers. From here, your team of content creators will be able to cook up a content strategy that will be relevant to your target demographic and help them understand our current cultural moment.
Read the room
Since the pandemic began, there has been no shortage of brands, influencers, and celebrities who have committed the ultimate faux pas in their contents, and they all have one thing in common: They failed to read the room. They’re from Gal Gadot and her celebrity friends’ tone-deaf rendition of Imagine to brands using the #BlackOut hashtag in performative support for the Black Lives Matter movement.
Marketing teams can learn what not to do in the past year and a half that so many celebrities and companies have gotten it wrong by failing to address the systematic and institutional problems that cause consumers’ suffering in the first place. For many brands, it’s easy to default to platitudes and earnest optimism without action.
Here are some pointers for creating content that is poignant and sincerely speaks to the difficult circumstances of consumers from all walks of life:
- If you’re going to launch campaigns that are all about bringing comfort to consumers, back up your inspiring words with action. Consider promoting non-profit organizations helping those who were most affected by the global health crisis, or launch a charitable project of your own.
- Create content that aims to educate and fight information, and avoid using words that can potentially trigger your audience.
We live in a time when words without action will no longer fly. Gain a keen understanding of your audience, their hardships, and the systems that perpetuate those problems, and find ways to address the reality of their circumstances without downplaying it through meaningless platitudes. Partner with experts, read the room, and stay updated on viral topics before they even trend—and you will surely be on the way to creating content that is timely and relevant.
