It’s culture, stupid

It’s one of those things that seem so ridiculously obvious that there’s no point saying them. 

Cultural relevance builds sales. 

Duh. How can anyone expect to build sales if they’re not relevant in our culture? Do those marketers hope that some waif of a consumer, lost down some winding road littered with the dust-covered remains of also-forgotten brands, will happen upon theirs and immediately appreciate them enough to buy them? 

Except it’s not ridiculously obvious. There’s no easy formula to work the actual ROI out (we know, we tried). There’s not even a fixed definition of what makes something ‘culturally relevant’. It’s nebulous, a truism that seems simple but underneath is remarkably complex. It’s the sort of thing we all want to harness but leaves us asking — what is it and how much is it actually worth?  

We at Newsworks decided advertisers needed answers. After a Herculean amount of spreadsheet wizardry and collaboration with the brilliant minds at Trajectory, what we found across 80 leading brands in four major sectors was a remarkably stable figure that appeared time and time again.  

15%. 

That’s how much being culturally relevant added to sales. Think that sounds small? Calculate its claim on consumer spending and you get a whopping £147 billion. 

If it’s so complex, how did we get there? 

We started off by surveying real consumers and industry experts about what it meant to be culturally relevant. We saw five key themes emerge: authenticity, aspiration, timeliness, visibility and credibility. 

We then asked consumers to map these onto brands - with fascinating results. Some are more authentic while lagging on visibility; others might be very credible but lack in timeliness. Every one of our 80 brands received this treatment, getting an overall ‘cultural relevance’ score.

After that, we used what the brains call a ‘category regression analysis’. For us mortals, that’s a scientific way of seeing how much each influence on a particular purchase contributes to the sale. The model compared brands’ cultural relevance scores to everything from ad spend and earned media coverage to how many outlets a brand had nationwide. After all that, we found our magic 15%.  

Once we figured out what cultural relevance was and what its effect on sales were, our next question was: does media environment matter? 

Absolutely. With an ROI of £3.97, news brands’ effectiveness was a real stand out among the media mix. While paid advertising alone drives sales of £3.52 per pound spent, cultural relevance adds an additional £0.43. Compared to the average, news brands’ boost was double. 

Of course, we were chuffed to see news brands’ overall effectiveness, but we weren’t surprised — other studies say the same about news brand ROI, particularly Thinkbox’s Profit Ability 2. However, when we thought more about the specific boost culture brought to advertisers in news brands, it made complete sense. 

Consider journalism’s relationship with everything that culture entails. With new trends, new artists, new looks pumped out by all sizes of digital creator with every swipe of a screen, it’s journalism that steps into its long-established role as the discerning, authenticating curator. Its massive audience brings a niche aspirational life hack to mainstream culture at the height of its relevance. Its trusted relationship with readers brings it credibility. 

Simply put, culture is everywhere and news brands sit right in the middle. 

We set out to prove being relevant in culture drives sales. We did. We’ve always known news brands sit right at the heart of culture. We’ve now added to that evidence. 

As the ways we consume media multiply, advertisers need to harness far-reaching cultural powerhouses more than ever. News brands are more than up to the task.