Take a quick scroll through your LinkedIn feed — every post you see probably relates to the COVID-19 outbreak. Whether it’s people expressing their anxiety surrounding the situation, to someone sharing tips on how to keep busy at home, or even businesses explaining how they’ve pivoted to get things done from remote environments. One thing holds true across each of those instances: brands live at the center of these interactions. Whether it’s the products we use at home, or the services we lean on in our daily routine; most brands are beginning to realize they have a role to play in doing their part during these unprecedented times. They’re evaluating how they can bring purpose into people’s lives.

And the brands who are putting purpose into action, or using their powers for good, are those who will likely thrive for the long term.

It’s clear the value of purposeful brand behavior has been recognized across culture in the last few years. In fact, 63% of people prefer to buy from purpose-driven brands. 77% even say they feel a stronger emotional connection to these brands over traditional companies, and 73% would actually go as far as to defend them.

However, these last few weeks have put an entirely different onus on brands to think about exactly what their purpose is, and how they interact with their audiences during this crisis. And interestingly, something feels inspiringly different right now. We’re seeing brands activating purposeful behavior — and serving their audiences, not just selling them products during this time of need.

It’s time for brands of action.

Saying you believe in something and actually doing something are two very different things, and now is a moment of truth for brands to build sustainable behaviors that embrace the latter.

After all, 89% of consumers believe ‘purpose’ is demonstrated through how brands benefit society. And they want to consistently see it — they’re sick of the woke-washing.

There is clearly no blueprint for today’s reality. As always, it’s a bit of art and science, but with some smart thinking and sacrifice, there are ways brands can serve their customers in ways that go beyond their product.

We’ve seen brands give us outlets for entertainment:

• Disney announced it was releasing content on its streaming platform a few weeks early so people have enough content to binge-watch.
• Twitch hosted a “Go Live To Save Lives” live-stream with celebrities and talent from its platform to provide more forms of entertainment for its audience, while simultaneously raising funds for COVID relief.
• Audible released a free library of children’s books to take the load off parents
• Scholastic has launched a free online learning hub where students can continue their education in their homes.
• Netflix enabled a chrome extension so people can stream and enjoy content together remotely.…AND taking it one step further, it found a way to give back to its own community.

We’ve seen brands dedicate a helping hand to those on the front lines of the crisis:

• Nike, Eddie Bauer, and Gap are beginning to produce medical masks as hospitals face severe shortages in medical equipment. The MLB is even contributing material needed for its jerseys to make additional masks and gowns.
• Four Seasons is providing free rooms to healthcare staff working around the clock to combat the virus.
• Crocs are donating free pairs of its shoes to healthcare workers in need.
• Starbucks is providing free coffee to aid workers on the front line of the crisis.
• Bauer started producing medical shields out of the same material they use for hockey helmet visors.

Brands (and agencies) are launching platforms to help keep small businesses and individuals afloat:

• Twitch is teaming up with Bandsintown to help artists host (and sell) virtual concerts to fans
• Our agency launched a platform that gives local restaurants a place to earn revenue during a time they’re forced to close their doors.
• Slack is helping newly remote teams get up-and-running with pre-built workflow templates.

The list is endless and continues to grow as this crisis shows no signs of slowing. But, as these times of uncertainty continue to unfold on what seems like an hourly basis, we think there is a speck of optimism to pull out of the situation: we all have an opportunity to embrace purposeful actions that can have a lasting effect, and begin to permanently define our brand’s behaviors.

There are a lot of questions we all need to ask today, but more importantly, continue to ask as we move past these uncertain times. Brands need to dig deep and ask questions about how they can root themselves in behaviors inspired by purpose; behaviors rooted in serving beyond the product.

How do we make this type of behavior stick, not only in times of crisis but how it can sustainably become a part of our DNA? How can we continue to make a positive impact in ways that align with our business? How can we become problem solvers?

Its clear actions are speaking louder than words right now.

We hope the demand for that carries well into the future.

There’s a lot to be said for walking the walk.