Levels of cooperation between marketing and public affairs teams in Latin America exceed those of their global counterparts. Responsible marketing and brand purpose are the main areas of collaboration.
Within the framework of the Latin American Regional Meeting of the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA), held recently in Buenos Aires, the results of the research “Reducing the gap between marketing and public affairs LatAm” were presented.
The World Federation of Advertisers survey found that 84% of public affairs professionals and 63% of marketers in the region say collaboration has “increased” or “increased significantly” over the past 5 years. Despite this, many teams still feel that they need to develop even stronger cooperation. One in four (28%) marketing professionals still believe they do not work very closely or at all with public affairs teams. At the same time, half of public affairs professionals believe that the current level of collaboration is below ideal (51% believe that teams could collaborate more or that teams collaborated too little).
The general trend is, without a doubt, towards greater cooperation. LatAm marketers and public affairs professionals agree that collaboration will continue to increase, with 72% of public affairs professionals and 65% of marketers saying they expect to collaborate more or much more in the future. This is well ahead of global results in public affairs (72% LatAm, 33% global).
“The WFA has long called for greater collaboration between the marketing and public affairs teams. It is encouraging to see this happening throughout LatAm. As regulations in key areas become more complex, it will be increasingly essential for the two parties to work together. Political thinking must be integrated into the marketing process and smart marketers will find ways to do this within their own organizational structures,” said Stephan Loerke, CEO of the World Federation of Advertisers.
In LatAm, both parties agree on the need for collaboration to develop responsible marketing policies and codes, with 48% of public affairs professionals and 42% of marketing professionals placing it as one of the main areas where greater collaboration will be necessary, along with environmental sustainability, brand building, and reputation and risk management.
Latin America also scores much higher when it comes to brand purpose. 55% of marketing professionals think that the contribution of public affairs teams to the brand and company purpose is essential, while only 33% of their colleagues in other regions agree. And 74% of public affairs professionals say they always or often contribute to brand purpose. The number of marketing professionals who say public affairs never or rarely contributes is half of what is seen in global research (24% for LatAm vs. 52%). As for public affairs professionals, while more than 30% of them globally say they never or rarely contribute to brand purpose, this is only the case for less than 5% in LatAm.
Where there are significant differences between the two parties is in the environmental sustainability statements and ecological claims. Close to two-thirds (59%) of public affairs respondents see a need for collaboration in this area (54% for global public affairs teams), but only 33% of marketers in LatAm (50% for world level) agree.
Latin America is also at odds with global visions regarding current events and politics. While political events are seen as more relevant than ever globally (with only 8% of public affairs professionals and 6% of marketers saying they are not relevant to marketers), globally In the case of LatAm, 29% of marketing specialists and 25% of public affairs professionals think that political events are not relevant to marketers.
The global version of the Bridging the Gap study was released during Global Marketer Week in Toronto earlier this year. For more information, visit: https://anunciantes.org.ar/wfa-bridging-the-gap/