What Is Equitable Storytelling?
Authenticity and cultural relevance have been top of mind for people in our industry. However, agencies and brands alike have struggled…
If you’ve looked into the origin story of Hue House then you know that “equity” is one of the founding principles of our business. While the textbook definition is rooted in impartial fairness; culturally the term has evolved to represent something greater. From my perspective, it has a connotation of restorative justice, ownership, and agency for groups who have previously been excluded from processes and opportunities.
We started our company as a solution to a local opportunity however we quickly realized that the same opportunity persisted in the industry we found ourselves inhabiting. Since the inception of marketing and advertising as an industry consumers have been guided to make specific decisions based on subsets of quantitative and qualitative data. Brands are left hoping that information from focus groups, surveys, and consumer trends can be translated by their creative partners into something that will resonate with who they believe their core customers are or who they wish their core customers to be. Sure, the rise in technology and the use of social media has provided some more immediate insights and made those processes more nimble but for us something still felt off.
We asked ourselves; How might we truly close the gap as a strategy and creative partner? What could we do differently to help the people we work with be more adjacent to the people they want to be noticed by or sell to? For us the answer was very clear - We infuse the right PEOPLE into the process. We’ve found by hiring people who have creative skill sets along with the insights from what we call “cultural and artistic practice”; we add a much-needed level of equity to the process. We help partners and clients plant a seed of good faith into consumer groups BEFORE asking them to pledge brand loyalty, before attempting to inspire consumers to join a community, or before attempting to sell them goods and services. In recent decades authenticity and cultural relevance have been top of mind for people in our industry. However, agencies and brands alike have struggled to get closer to hitting the mark, from our perspective, their efforts lack equity for and perspectives from their end consumer.
Life is a practice, similar to a creative discipline, as we live we learn. Our strategists and creatives are in a position to leverage what they have learned and the skills they have earned. This brings an innate level of authenticity to the consulting, creative, and community we do as a company. I want to challenge you to take a moment and reflect on whether your business, brand, or movement has a contemporary definition of equity in its processes. One thing is for sure - the work you produce and the environment it’s produced in tells all. You all have a great month and we’ll talk again soon!
