Here's How Ben & Jerry's is Using Programmatic Advertising to Drive Social Change

Big brands are best positioned to lead the charge when it comes to social change. With their influence, financial weight, and marketing power, these companies can affect real progress when it comes to supporting the worthwhile causes they believe in.

Earlier in this series of articles, we showed how American Express was putting the weight of its programmatic marketing behind this year's WorldPride event in New York, helping spread the message of equality to its audience. However, there are many other causes out there which are equally worthy of promotion. By backing these causes, brands can not only further their objectives, but also raise the image of their company in the eyes of socially conscious audiences - especially important given how Millennials and GenZers tend to gravitate towards these kinds of businesses.

Ben & Jerry's has always had a reputation for socially conscious brand messaging. Now, it's putting the weight of its programmatic budget behind this ethos.

Ben & Jerry's

The popular ice-cream brand's mission statement lists its social responsibility of playing a positive role in society right next to making innovative desserts and growing as a company, meaning that its desire to benefit such causes is (half) baked into its DNA.

"It is really a company-wide statement and comes into everything we do," said Ben & Jerry's Head of Activism for Europe, Ed Shepherd. "All employees have targets across all three of the missions regardless of whether you are in R&D, in marketing, in social listening. It really goes far beyond being a brand and being an idea that you are a company that stands for something."

One such cause which Ben & Jerry's threw its weight behind recently was that of veganism. The number of people choosing to follow a vegan diet and lifestyle has risen sharply over the last few years, and events such as Veganuary (where people temporarily try veganism for the whole of January) have also grown in popularity.

Ben & Jerry's recently launched a range of its most popular flavors in vegan-friendly versions and was looking for a way to promote both the products and the cause of veganism in general.

Programmatic with a Conscience

For this endeavor, it chose to partner with popular media platform Buzzfeed. The ice-cream brand was able to purchase advertising space on relevant BuzzFeed videos, posts, and quizzes in the form of special badges as well as on pre-roll ads on BuzzFeed's Twitter video content.

"Ben & Jerry's integrated campaign was initiated to drive awareness of its vegan ice cream line," said BuzzFeed Campaigns Manager, Ailbhe Malone. "It was commissioned off the back of the successes that editorial has had connecting with audiences through vegan content. We decided to develop this into a vegan-themed week which allows us to do a deeper dive into the topic and provide a wealth of articles and videos."

Programmatic advertising allowed Ben & Jerry's and BuzzFeed to ensure the adverts for the vegan products were aligned with content which would be relevant and of interest to vegans.

Ben & Jerry's has a long history of campaigning on everything from climate change to marriage equality, and is also focusing on migrant rights, working with the Lift the Ban Coalition to campaign for asylum seekers' ability to work while waiting for their claims to be processed. The company is using programmatically-acquired banner ads to help promote this message alongside specially branded products.

"There's a thing our old CEO used to say, 'do 10 things and talk about three of them' and I think that actually getting out there and doing activities alongside other things you are talking about is important," added Shephard. "You need to be outward looking when planning your campaigning - the idea of movement building is critical for us. What we try to do is to align our goals with the goals of a wider movement. When companies try to create social impact, they really need to talk to people who are the experts."

Final Thoughts

One of the great strengths of data driven programmatic advertising is that it helps make sure brand messages are getting to the people most likely to be receptive to them. As Ben & Jerry's have demonstrated in their partnership with BuzzFeed, there's no reason why your brand cannot simultaneously promote its products and help drive social change while you're at it.

"We come to you as a trusted friend serving the whole person, not just an audience segment," said Senior Vice President of Strategy at BuzzFeed, Brant McLean. "We invite brands to come to us with their toughest challenges and together we will create meaningful impact."