CSR Messaging Drives Success for HP

In a time when distrust of institutions and corporations is rampant, navigating the landscape of audio/news media sponsorship can be risky for brands.

In fact, 76% of consumers in the US say “in recent years, it has become harder to trust what companies say and do”. How are brands working to combat audience disillusionment? CSR campaigns have become a major tool for companies seeking to engage audiences with their work toward social accountability. A company’s commitment to corporate social responsibility and to driving strong business performance are not mutually exclusive. In fact, when done right, they can and should complement each other!

Last year’s HP campaign is a premium example showing the power of a CSR campaigns for brands. HP worked with NPM Creative to produce a custom audio campaign highlighting several CSR initiatives that the tech brand has been working on:

• Repurposing Ocean-Bound Plastics | The story behind the HP Elite Dragonfly, the world’s first notebook laptop made with recycled ocean-bound plastics.
• The HBCU Business Challenge | Astory featuring Kyron Bonner, who participated in HP’s first annual HBCU Business Challenge and is now a business analyst at HP.
• HP’s PRIDE Business Impact Network | The story of the HP PRIDE Business Impact Network, one of the first LGBTQ+ employee resource groups in the country, formed over 30 years ago. 

The NPM team tested HP’s messaging with Veritonic, an objective, third-party research tool utilizing extensive user-testing. Overall, the HP spots scored above benchmarks for technology brands in most areas. After listening to the mid-rolls: 

And when compared to Veritonic’s industry benchmark for Technology companies, the mid-rolls were scored as: 

To learn more about how brands can tell an authentic story with CSR and custom audio, check out our presentation from Veritonic’s Audio Intelligence Summit. 

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