In the wake of George Floyd’s death at the hands of police in May 2020, protests against police brutality and racial injustice broke out across the US. In response, many of the world’s biggest brands issued statements of solidarity with the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement and, while the sentiment was all good and well, many people have called these companies out for making generic statements that ring hollow. Today’s guests are Melanie Trottier and Leah Sookoo, resident Social Media Lead and Creative Copywriter respectively at Arcade Studios. This episode will hopefully serve as a guide for brands and companies to show their support for Black and marginalized communities in real, actionable ways, rather than putting out statements of support that ring hollow. Tuning in, you’ll hear about the importance of the language that you use from Leah, and how she saw brands either detract from or contribute to the discourse around racial injustice in 2020. She also talks about the dangers of virtue signalling, gaslighting, and staying silent, and shares her advice for starting from a place of humility, being well versed in the issues you’re addressing, and never being afraid to vocalize your values. Melanie shares her perspective as a brand manager and talks about the importance of being specific about the issues that affect your customers. She also emphasizes why racial equality should be part of every company’s brand pillars, vision, and mission, highlights the importance of being available for queries on social media, and advises brands to include more diverse voices in their social media marketing and hire a professional to manage it. All this and so much more in today’s important episode, so make sure not to miss it!

Key Points From This Episode:

• Melanie shares who she is and what her role at Arcade as social media lead entails.
• Learn more about Leah’s background and her role as the resident copywriter at Arcade.
• Why a lot of marketing ultimately comes down to communication and language.
• Leah talks about her side hustle: writing about fashion and sustainability, writing poetry.
• How the work Melanie does outside of her nine-to-five revolves around social media too.
• Melanie shares her perspective as a brand manager on how brands responded to the killing of George Floyd.
• How Leah saw people detract from or contribute to discourse in the digital response to BLM.
• How both virtue signalling and silence are problematic; what are you actually doing?
• Your audience is observant and they remember what you promised to do as a brand.
• Having the opportunity as an agency to be a leader and demand action from brands before helping them with their messaging.
• The importance of being specific about how an issue affects your customers.
• While many of Melanie’s clients wanted to be told what to do, there is no magic answer.
• Though it was not an easy or comfortable process, Leah believes it was a productive one.
• Why racial equality should be part of every company’s brand pillars, vision, and mission. 
• Looking back and learning from how brands responded in 2020 as a freelancer or marketer.

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Melani

Big Things with Mitzi (@mmmitzi) and Mike (@mmmiiike).

For more from Arcade, follow us on Instagram and TikTok @helloarcade. https://www.arcadearcade.ca/

Production by Morgan Berna, editing by Oliver Banyard.