You can’t be inclusive without empowering marginalized voices and encouraging diversity of thought—but to even get that far, businesses must first create environments where marginalized people feel safe in voicing their experiences and concerns.

“Community is really important in any form—queer, black, brown—and it’s important to have a network of supportive, loving and friendly people who look out for you, especially at work,” says Rebecca Brooker, a Senior Editorial Designer at MediaMonks. That’s why she and a group of other LGBTQ-identifying Monks in the Buenos Aires office created a Slack channel that offers a safe space to chat, share advice and just be themselves. Because the channel is private, LGBTQ+ Monks in the office are free to have a frank and open dialogue without fear of repercussion, homophobia or transphobia.

Outside of MediaMonks, Brooker is also Co-Founder of the Queer Design Club, a community of designers and creatives whose “mission is to promote and celebrate all the amazing work that happens at the intersection of queer identity and design worldwide.” But it’s also shed important insight on the LGBTQ+ experience in the creative field through its 2019 Queer Design Count survey, which offers insight on LGBTQ+ designers’ experience in the creative field.

Only 60% of gender-diverse participants felt their jobs were relatively stable, for example, compared to 70% of men and 60% of women. Overall, 9% of participants sought another job because their current one wasn’t queer-friendly. The numbers demonstrate the importance of inclusivity and of groups like the MMBA LGBTQ+ Group that strive to foster that sense of belonging.

Creating a Space for Connection

“The story of the group parallels with the story of MediaMonks Buenos Aires,” says Brooker, tracing its trajectory from a private social circle to a group that would push forward initiatives toward a more inclusive work environment. Before the group came to exist about two years ago, there were just a small handful of people in the office who were out.

While the office had a Ladies Group in which women could discuss their own experiences in the workplace, there was no dedicated space for LGBTQ+ employees. “One day there was a conversation among all the women in the office where we were talking about issues, and I mentioned how it’d be great to have a safe space just for LGBTQ+,” says Brooker. Making a private Slack channel was a simple way start building that environment. “I just made it and sent it to HR, who could let people know about it if they wanted to join.”

“A lot of people in our group lack that community outside of the workplace,” says Macarena Roca, Project Manager at MediaMonks and member of the channel. And that’s an important point, especially during the pandemic when people have become more reliant on their colleagues when it comes to day-to-day social connection.

“A gut reaction from some is: why is a group like this acceptable for the workplace—why do you have to bring your sexuality into the workplace?” Brooker says. “But if you can’t be your whole self at work, you can’t bring your whole self to work.

A Growth in Membership and Influence

Initially a space to socialize more openly with a like-minded group, early conversations on the channel were fairly casual. “We just wanted to be in contact with one another–it started with silly things like RuPaul memes,” says Fernando Viñas, Events & Office Support Coordinator at MediaMonks and member of the channel. But as the group grew, so did its importance, hosting discussion on broad issues as members sought advice from others.

“You can find advice on anything LGBTQ+ in the group, whether it’s about someone exploring questions about their gender, polyamory and more,” says Viñas. “People can say, ‘Hey, I’m having thoughts on this.’ It’s like a therapy group in that way.” But it also became a space to examine microaggressions and other LGBTQ-specific difficulties experienced in the workplace, which inspired discussion on how to change and mitigate homophobic and transphobic behavior, whether intentional or not.

For example: the team once noticed that a new transgender hire was assigned an email address that reflected the legal name that they no longer go by, also known as a deadname by the LGBTQ+ community. When Brooker saw this, she intervened. “I flagged it to HR, who fixed it right away without making it an issue,” says Brooker. The group has since pushed for small yet impactful changes in the recruitment and hiring process that validate new hires’ identities as soon as they’re onboarded. Internal emails that announce new Monks, for example, include preferred pronouns, helping normalize nonbinary gender identities.

ERGs Deserve Support—But Shouldn’t Act Alone

While the MMBA LGBTQ+ Group has the full support of HR, they also have the autonomy to organize their own local initiatives and advocacy. Mentioning the group’s PROUD Talks—discussions and presentations focused on building awareness of LGBTQ+ concerns across the Buenos Aires team—Viñas says, “Something that’s important is that these initiatives didn’t come from HR or the company itself. We made them, and HR gave us the freedom and voice to do what we wanted.”

Brooker offers a word of caution for those looking to amplify impact and inclusivity: “There’s a fine line between a business showing support and asking marginalized people to do all the work.” The challenge of striking this balance became especially apparent across industries at the height of the Black Lives Matter movement this year, as some felt that corporate initiatives essentially dumped the burden on employees of color.

Still, raising your voice and organizing a safe space is a powerful move. “I’d like people to feel motivated to join or make their own groups in their offices or their own workplaces,” says Brooker, who’s watched the channel she opened grow from a private support group to a force that drives more inclusive practices on the local level.

Through this trajectory, the MMBA LGBTQ+ Group in BA serves as a good model on how employee resource groups can make an impact, both in everyday interactions in the workplace and on a policy level. “In the end, everything is about being respectful to other people,” says Viñas. “It’s about being eager to learn how to treat each other respectfully.”

Havaianas is a brand for everyone, owing its early success to the working class. But over the decades, Brazil’s biggest fashion export really has delivered on its promise that there’s a pair of flip flops for everyone, upscaling the affordable yet durable traditional pair into a wide range of footwear with broad appeal.

While the brand has achieved icon status in Brazil, Havaianas is a brand with a significant global reach. Circus Marketing, who joined our monastery earlier this year, has greatly supported and enhanced Havaianas’ efforts to accelerate success around the world, helping audiences everywhere come to know the brand like the Brazilians do: a truly democratic brand that stands for the people.

Circus and Havaianas march in perfect sync thanks to their close connection in Havaianas’ internal creative team, Hana. Hana is built for digital, and was established after Havaianas realized the opportunity to increase their digital investment to make creative more effective. While Hana is an internal team, its efforts are accelerated and supercharged by Circus–at home and around the world. Here’s how.

Legitimizing the Brand Story through Collaboration and Activation

A lot of what makes Havaianas such an iconic brand is through its marketing—not just in the messages it puts out, but even in how it produces work internally to live up to the brand image.

Speaking at a Brand Innovators event presented by MediaMonks and Circus centered on multicultural marketing, Havaianas CMO Fernanda Romano said, “By design we’ve made it a rule internally that we need to bring representation to the table. Our partners know…don’t even bother to bring a bid to the table if you haven’t bid with all sorts of people.”

The brand is further transforming itself to support marginalized communities: most recently, Havaianas launched its “All Love is Welcome” platform to celebrate LGBTQ+ pride. This is more than just a campaign: it’s a year-round commitment that demonstrates the brand’s role in supporting the LGBTQ+ community in an impactful way.

In addition to launching a Pride-themed line that will sell year-round, Havaianas is allocating part of product net income to All Out, an organization that operates locally and globally to advocate for the community. Havaianas will also cease categorizing by gender and will increase the size range for designs to make them more inclusive. “We made a point that representation wasn’t a checkmark to tick off,” Romano told the Brand Innovators audience.

To help launch its “All Love is Welcome” platform, Havaianas worked with Circus to host a virtual celebration of love. Three couples—and their guests—virtually came together to marry, renew vows and celebrate the spirit of Pride at home. In addition to real marriage officiating, couples were treated to serenades from Flutua and Johnny Hooker, who belted out an anthem to inspire and celebrate the LGBTQ+ community. In addition to the hero video that captures moments from the virtualized event, Havaianas is rolling out documentary-style shorts that dive deeper into the lives and stories of the featured couples for a global audience.

Depicting real stories was key to the campaign’s success and spoke to the challenges that LGBTQ+ people face in lockdown. “One of the creatives who worked on the campaign said that one of her friends had just come out to his mother because they were living so closely together now,” says Luciana Haguiara, Executive Creative Director at Circus. “Some people are arguing but many are becoming much closer with their loved ones, are starting to accept things and being more careful with one another’s feelings.” She notes that Sao Paulo has one of the biggest Pride parades in the world, a claim that the Guinness Book of World Records has confirmed from 2006 to at least 2016, making it incredibly important to still offer that celebratory space virtually.

Making the Pivot to Virtual

The Pride campaign is just one example of how Havaianas has rapidly virtualized to offer the brand’s trademark fun, summery spirit. Its Mother’s Day campaign, which depicts mothers in recognizable situations at home (keeping their kids entertained, being separated from family and more), was built out of insights gained from the brand asking how mothers feel during COVID-19.

Perhaps more excitingly, the Hana team also quickly pivoted its content strategy to host virtual events that provided its audience fun and comfort while at home. Havaianas very much represents the outdoor lifestyle, so the challenge became: how do we activate the brand while the majority of its customers are indoors and at home?

Circus’ idea was to help Brazilians continue to enjoy life through a series of livestreamed, at-home concerts featuring Marília Mendonça, Thiaguinho and Big Brother Brazil star Manu Gavassi. In Mendonça’s performance alone received over 11 thousand likes, three thousand posts from viewers showing off their Havaianas, and three million simultaneous viewers—a YouTube record that hasn’t been beat.

And as Havaianas continues to expand around the globe, the brand is focusing on virtualizing commerce as well. Its “Let’s Summer!” campaign and new Tmall store in China exhibits how the Havaianas really is for everyone, no matter where they are in the world. The store serves as a best-in-class example of how a brand can modernize and optimize its digital storefront by following the full customer journey.

Havaianas was integral to normalizing flip flop use out of the home in its early days in Brazil, and has met a similar challenge in its expansion to APAC and China, where wearing flip flops in public isn’t common. Moving past this is the first test before engaging more deeply with the local culture. “The challenge was to establish a flip-flop culture in China, first and foremost by making people fall in love with the Havaianas brand and what it stood for: the colorful, fun and lively Brazilian summer spirit which is core to their brand DNA,” said Brandon Tucs, Creative Director at MediaMonks.

Achieving this was a truly global effort, connecting talent from Shanghai, Los Angeles and Brazil. “Since this was the first MediaMonks job with the Havaianas, we helped them understand the positioning, the challenges going global and translating their spirit to such a different market like China,” said Caio Del Manto, Managing Director at Circus. “In the end, this is the part of the brand’s main goal: to become a global lifestyle brand that carries this easy-going spirit so famous among Brazilians.”

We established master pages for the Home and product pages, making it easy for the brand to plug in content based on brand guidelines our team had established, ensuring the digital store looks inviting in any scenario.

A writeup in Marketing Interactive noted how useful digital investment was for the brand to emerge successfully through the COVID-19 outbreak. “During COVID-19 when stores were closed in most of the APAC countries, Havaianas invested disproportionally behind digital media to maximize its brand visibility. It also set up stronger social commerce platforms and built a relevant influencer strategy with local brand ambassadors, such as Luna Maya in Indonesia or Nelydia Nik Sen in Malaysia.”

In celebration of the launch of the brand’s new shape–the Japanese-inspired Tradi Zori, signalling Havaianas’ goal to take the streets with an urban audience–the Brazil team at Circus set up a global campaign of unboxing videos from influencers in the streetwear space. These included Leo Mandella (@GullyGuyLeo), Kofi McCalla (@Icykof), Enrico Cardoso (@EnricoCardoso) and Suyane Ynaya (@Suyane_Ynaya), whose content portrays the diverse ways that the Tradi Zori enhances personal style.

From virtualized commerce and events to driving real-world, societal impact, Havaianas has used digital to move the needle in several ways around the world. By establishing partners upstream in the planning process (like Circus’ involvement with the Hana team), the brand is able to quickly pivot campaigns without losing focus of long-term goals and tasks. Through this approach, it’s no surprise that Havaianas has achieved so much success in its march to digital.