An ad agency is trying to urge brands to dive head first into cultural hot-button issues

Pepsi

• Ad agency DigitasLBi is dedicating its entire NewFront presentation this year trying to convince brands to take a stand on social, political and cultural issues.
• The company is roping in a range of high-profile speakers and brands to further its point-of-view, including Pulitzer prize-winning New York Times journalist Jodi Kantor.
• Plus, PepsiCo president Brad Jakeman will get to defend the infamous Kendall Jenner campaign.

Touching on hot-button issues like race, gun violence and protests can often backfire badly for brands. Just ask Dove, Pepsi and most recently Starbucks.

But Publicis-owned ad agency DigitasLBi thinks that the benefits of aligning with causes outweigh the potential risks, and that these missteps shouldn't deter brands from taking a stand.

So it is putting up a whole elaborate show to try and convince them.

The agency is centering its NewFront presentation this year around the theme of brands aligning with social causes, calling it the "The #Boycott NewFront," and wants to drive home the point that brands can - and need to - stand for something in today's climate of tremendous political, social and cultural upheaval.

"Brands need to reflect their values because marketing can't be an extension of a brand - it has to be another expression of it," Scott Donaton, DigitasLBi's chief content officer, told Business Insider. "These things matter more to people when they're making decisions between brands, and values can be a differentiator that matters."

DigitasLBi helped found the NewFronts as digitals answer to TV's upfronts more than a decade ago - during which networks like ABC introduce their upcoming shows to advertisers.

Typically, the NewFronts are a week's worth of similar presentations during which companies ranging from Twitter to Oath introduce lineups of web video series brands can sponsor.

But instead of focusing on pitching content opportunities to media buyers, DigitasLBi has tried to show off what it sees as a history of being a provocative leader in the industry.

Rather than sell shows, DigitasLBi wants to use the NewFronts to tell its own story

In 2016, for example, its theme was "Skip Ads," where it urged marketers to stop making intrusive, interruptive ads with self-centered messages unless they wanted their audiences to continue to skip them.

"We need to constantly challenges ourselves, our partners and our clients to do better things," said Donaton.

To that end, the company is roping in a range of high-profile speakers and brands on this year's stage who have successfully pushed the envelope as far as highlighting or giving voice to such issues is concerned.

Digitas will showcase brands that have gotten issue ads right - and very wrong

For instance Pulitzer prize-winning reporter Jodi Kantor - who broke the Harvey Weinstein story and inspired the #MeToo movement - will appear with The New York Times CEO Mark Thompson, as the Times itself has been vocal about the importance of objective truth in its own ads. (Business Insider's parent company Insider Inc. will also appear on stage to present research about millennials).

Executives from Dick's Sporting Goods and REI will also take the stage, as both brands have taken strong stands on issues that reflect their values. Donaton will also be interviewing former PepsiCo president Brad Jakeman, who was at the helm last year, when the Kendall Jenner fiasco broke out.

"The focus is on how storytellers of all kinds are changing their approach and giving voice to those whose voices maybe haven't been heard and people whose stories haven't been told," he said. "There's a reason we have both a Pulitzer-winning reporter from the New York Times and the company CEO."

'A matter of what side of history these companies want to be on'

While the approach may have worked for The Times, REI and Dick's - which stopped selling assault-style weapons and more recently decided to destroy all unsold inventory in the wake of the Parkland high school shooting - it can end up going very badly. But done right, it can really boost the overall performance of a brand, said Donaton.

"We apply rigorous measurement to the impact of content; but taking a stand isn't a marketing strategy," he said. "It's just being who and what you are, and reflecting that in the stories you tell."

Many, including Chris Allieri, principal of crisis communications firm Mulberry & Astor, are of view that brands don't necessarily have a choice anymore. "It's not about left-leaning CEOs tweeting on the coasts, but what the words as well as deeds and actions of these companies are," he said. "It's a matter of what side of history these companies want to be on."