In the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder, the need to call out microaggressions in the workplace and be an ally to people of color has never been more important. Countless headlines and empty promises from leaders later, it’s become clear that allyship is simpler in theory than it is in practice. For advice on how to be an effective advocate of people of color, the digital workshop at Advertising Week, “How To Be An Ally At Work” is a must-watch. Elaine dela Cruz and Gary Rayneau, co-founders of Project 23—a consultancy that helps organizations build diverse and inclusive cultures—along with Project 23 D&I consultant Hayley Bennett, share the dos and don’ts of being an ally at work.

The first step to becoming an ally in the workplace is ensuring the conversation about race is front and center. Research from BITC found that 38 percent of black workers feel it’s never appropriate to discuss racial bias experiences at work. For some colleagues, the topic of race elicits memories of traumatic experiences. For that reason, Cruz and Rayneau say it’s important that people don’t rely on people of color to speak up about microaggressions. Rather, keep white colleagues accountable to speak up if they hear or see racist behavior.

Speaking up also means being mindful of banter, which as the co-founders note can sometimes veer toward racist. Be it brazen jokes or subtle comments, microaggressions must be called out—and the earlier, the better. If you’re not sure where to start, carve out time to commit to self-learning around anti-racism, but make sure you follow through and apply what you’ve learned.

“Part of being an ally is being brave, admitting you’ve done something wrong and apologizing. Do extra learning if you need to and continue being an ally,” said Bennett.

A few different ways you can call out microaggressions are one, by asking someone “Could you say more about what you mean by that?”; two, by sharing your own learning with, “I noticed that you said X, but I have learned from my research that Y”; three, by removing the heat from the situation with, “I used to say that but I found out I should say it like X.” Bennett notes that if you find yourself on the receiving end of getting called out for racist banter or behavior, remember to not make it about yourself. Instead, think of the situation as an opportunity to learn from your mistakes.

Another critical ingredient of effective allyship is mentoring and sponsoring people of color. BITC’s data show that 31 percent of black employees want a sponsor compared with 12 percent of their while colleagues. For those in leadership roles, this means casting a wide net when looking for mentees then connecting them with relevant connections and helping carve out opportunities for them to progress.

Lastly, Project 23 advises to hold leaders accountable to the diversity and inclusion commitments they made at the start of the Black Lives Matter movement. For example, circle back with chief executive officers or supervisors who outlined efforts and ask them to provide an update on the progress they’ve made.

As for the diversity and inclusion goals companies should aim for, Project 23 says it’s important to choose something you can measure and go from there. For starters, measure how inclusive people feel your organization is. Or collect data on how people are progressing in recruitment stages and throughout the organization rather than solely focusing on how many people of color you hired.

The speakers also share the don’ts of being an ally at work. These include taking a job where all the staff are white; attending or speaking at events with all white speakers; assuming you know it all because you have a few black or brown friends; likening your hardship to that of someone who’s experienced racism; and directly referring to colleagues as BAME, or black, asian and minority ethnic, and POC, or person of color.

While the rise of the digital economy has put some retailers out of business, it has helped others exceed their performance goals. Two challenger retail brands that come to mind are Elvie, a British femtech company helping support women in all stages of their lives through smart technology, and Naked Wines, a direct-to-consumer wine business in the US that boasts 500,000 customers worldwide.

During a virtual panel at Advertising Week entitled “Against All Odds: The Challenger Retail Brands Thriving Amidst A Pandemic,” Beth Horn, Facebook’s head of industry, retail and ecommerce, hears from Aoife Nally, global marketing director at Elvie, and Jo Gunn, growth director at Naked Wines, on how they navigated the crisis and connected with communities amid the changing retail landscape.

Despite the pandemic, Elvie was able to launch digital-first in seven European markets this year. At the peak of the crisis, consumers showed an increased interest in the brand’s two products, a pelvic floor trainer and a silent wearable breast pump, given the items are focused on health, Nally says.

The brand still had its share of challenges, including updating its pre-pandemic tagline, “Pumping on the go,” doing more frequent forecasting and maintaining prudent cash management. For Elvie, this meant balancing the short-term health of its business while protecting its future growth, namely continuing investments in R&D and its workforce.

Leaning into digital community-building initiatives helped Elvie overcome some of these hurdles. To lay the groundwork, Elvie conducted a survey to understand how the crisis was affecting their target audience’s mental health. The results revealed that 51 percent of British moms were struggling with their mental health, 67 percent of which didn’t know where to get help. Based on these findings, Elvie launched a digital content series called #AtHomeWithElvie, which offered postpartum depression tips, comedy sessions, cooking tutorials and poetry readings.

Elvie’s research also showed that 48 percent of women were turning to exercise as a form of escapism. In turn, the brand teamed up with UK’s leading pregnancy charity, Tommy’s, to launch a purpose-driven campaign, #TheBigSqueeze, which involved a nationwide pelvic floor workout on Elvie’s Instagram Live. Participants were encouraged to follow the workout, share a selfie of themselves mid-squeeze, nominate friends and donate to Tommy’s. Elvie pledged to match donations in the first 48 hours, up to £5,000.

“The true winners need to have their finger on the pulse constantly, continue to grow their digital offerings and lean into data. So getting as close as possible to the customer, whether that means launching new target campaigns that focus on health and safety, adapting pricing and promotion based on customer feedback or reevaluating spend and optimizing what’s working,” says Nally.

Nally adds that in order to future-proof their brands, retailers must adopt a health-first strategy to keep up with the rise of conscious consumption.

For Naked Wines, the biggest challenge posed by the pandemic was serving its customers, or “Angels,” as demand shot through the roof across the board overnight, according to Gunn. So much so that the company had to shut everything down for a few days to ensure its warehouse and logistics were operating safely.

While some brands have observed a drop in consumer spending, Naked Wines has seen the reverse. Gunn notes that its customers are less price conscious, perhaps because lockdown life has inspired them to treat themselves to more affordable luxuries or because they’re happy to spend more to shop locally.

In addition, the pandemic helped Naked Wines attract a new demographic—wine drinkers in their early 30s who pre-pandemic didn’t really consider buying DTC wine. With unprecedented levels of demand and a better-than-usual return on acquisition spend (ROAS), Gunn says she’s been able to test and learn in areas that originally were too costly.

Cultivating community has also been top of mind for Naked Wines, according to Gunn. In the early stages of the pandemic, the company heard from its Angels that they were feeling isolated. To lift their spirits, Naked Wines hosted a “Thirsty Tuesday” wine night on Zoom. Thousands of people joined the call, and the activation became so popular that the company made it permanent.

Furthering its mission to give back, in April Naked Wines announced a $5 million support fund for independent winemakers worldwide affected by the closures of restaurants and bars. The fund was deployed to purchase stock that was previously destined for restaurants, tasting rooms and retail stores. The brand also gave winemakers who applied and were selected access to its 500,000 customers in the US, UK and Australia, plus the chance of a permanent listing.

For retailers, mastering COVID-19 means acknowledging consumers’ demands for more meaningful shopping experiences and brand interactions. In a virtual panel at Advertising Week, “Reimagining Retail for a Post-Covid Era,” Dr. Antonia Ward, global director of advisory services at Stylus, shares how brands can engage tomorrow’s customer by reimagining retail through the lens of racial and social justice, the current economic state and climate change—a necessary approach to empower communities and survive the pandemic.

The first step to cultivating community is thinking about how your brand can help consumers be part of the solution to achieving social and racial justice. Doing so will require retailers to change their localization strategies, as 63 percent of US Gen Z and millennials want brands to demonstrate local knowledge of their communities, according to Dr. Ward.

As far as brick-and-mortar retail goes, a more meaningful shopping experience starts with a store that has a point of view, says Dr. Ward. For example, in February Vans opened its first community-driven retail store in Downtown Los Angeles, a two-story, 11,500 square-foot space that celebrates Los Angeles’ skateboarding culture and community.

The ground floor features Vans shoes, apparel and accessories, as well as a dedicated shake shop with hard goods from other local brands. The second floor houses a gallery, lounge and workshop space called Studio808 where shoppers can experience hands-on art and design workshops, free of charge. According to Vans, Studio808’s aim is to educate and uplift underserved members of the community.

“It’ll be necessary to decentralize responsibility for brands to evolve from global to regional, from ‘cities’ to ‘communities’,” says Worth Darling, director of innovation at Vans, per Dr. Ward.

As consumers demand action beyond headlines and black Instagram squares, retailers can cultivate community by enabling conscious consumption. Dr. Ward points to Target, who achieved this by introducing a badge on its ecommerce site that indicates which brands are black-owned. Google, Yelp and DoorDash have all introduced tools for businesses to identify as black-owned as well. Plus, Glossier gave away $500,000 in grants to black-owned beauty businesses and $500,000 in donations to organizations fighting racial injustice.

A more data-driven approach has contributed to other brands’ success in delivering personalized experiences. For example, with the UK food market expected to grow 27 percent by 2024, Sainsbury’s in February opened its new digital-driven convenience store format where 90 percent of the stock is based on real-time analytics that monitor the preferences of local customers.

Another example of a retailer changing the way consumers shop is S Group’s Alepa grocery store in Finland. Earlier this year, Alepa introduced a hyperlocal digital initiative called “Alepa Block Wishes” to enable customers to request their favorite products to be added on the shelves of their local Alepa through a Facebook Messenger-enabled chatbot. Since launching, 70 percent of customers’ wishes were fulfilled within 48 hours and Alepa has expanded the program to over 90 neighborhoods.

As retailers look ahead, Dr. Ward advises that brands embrace COVID-19 and learn to be agile, view staff as community because consumers will judge them on their treatment of employees and invest in your handprint in addition to managing your footprint.

“This is a concept borrowed from sustainability where the idea of the environmental footprint, or the mark that you leave on the planet when you use resources, is matched with the handprint where you can do things to increase the positive as well as reduce the negative,” says Dr. Ward.