Start 2024 Strong with Our Top 10 Most Popular Insights of 2023

We navigated the emergence from COVID, consumer backlash to polarizing topics, a challenging economic climate, and much more. Throughout it all, the cultural transformation of the American consumer remained–and continues to remain–certain.

Throughout these changes, it’s clear that “the why” behind consumer behavior has never been more important.  In an America where consumers are vastly more culturally complex than even 25 years ago, brands cannot succeed unless they are willing to see consumers as people, for who they are, and where they are. This answers “the why.”

We know answering “the why” is easy to say, but hard to do. Understanding “the why” feels like it delays campaigns, requiring more time spent upfront connecting complex identities to what your brand truly stands for. But, this misses the efficiency that comes from avoiding costly and subpar optimization efforts once campaigns are in flight. Meanwhile, the most agile brands are figuring this out at the beginning of campaigns and running circles around less nimble competitors.

It’s imperative to realize that brand love no longer comes from activating around features or benefits— however awesome—and then relying on hit or miss optimization efforts to connect more deeply after the fact. The winners are grounding campaigns in deeper understanding of how cultural truths are driving consumers to choose their products. They start by meeting people for who they are, where they are. And most critically, they map what the brand truly stands for to the issues consumers care about as a function of who they are as people, and not just “what they want.”

Act now by reviewing our top ten most popular diverse consumer insights. And ask yourself: has your brand recognized these cultural truths and turned them to advantage?

1. Political Affiliation is Now a Cultural Identity

Within a landscape of political polarization, various brand action has been met with immense and often surprising backlash, leaving brands scrambling to respond. Our proprietary data and expert analysis from fall 2023 unveil the cultural values behind political polarization, demystifies backlash, and presents thematic approaches to steering through the modern minefield of social and political issues—key during an election year.

Key stats:

• 47% of Americans say their political views have become an increasingly important part of their identity over the past few years.
• Brands must speak to social issues to achieve growth: 72% (+14pp since 2021) of Americans think brands and companies should be involved in social and political issues in some way. 

2. Polarizing Topics Don’t Hurt Ad Performance

While advertising is one of the primary avenues for brands to take a stand, it poses significant challenges for marketers in today’s contentious cultural landscape, where social issues often spark polarizing debates. Our findings reveal that the solution is not to avoid challenging topics.  Instead, winning advertisers are engaging in ways that show understanding of consumers for who they are, not just what they want, bolding engaging with polarizing topics with emotional intelligent storytelling. Learn how differing opinions on an ad’s content, its emotional resonance, or the people and issues it showcases don’t inherently diminish its effectiveness. 

Key stat:

• Most Americans, at 72%, assert that brands should engage with social and political issues.

3. Top Brands Don’t Back Down

Marketing and insights professionals need to double-down on efforts to engage consumers on the issues their brand authentically stands for.  This could not be clearer than on one of the most contentious cultural issues of 2023 – support for trans people. Despite dramatic (and indeed impactful) boycotts, the majority of American consumers want to see brands take a supportive stand and not back down, on even these otherwise challenging issues. It’s no surprise that when brands do back down, they suffer double backlash.

Key stats:

• 88% of Americans support brands that support the LGBTQ+ community and Pride.
• 63% of Americans say a brand that has committed to Transgender messaging should stick with it, even through consumer backlash.