Walk the Walk and Talk the Talk — Will Your Brand Shift-to-Lift?
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Impact investing as we now know it started in the mid-2000s as investors recognized their role to invest in the future they want for their families. Almost two decades later, the world is watching. Literally.
Adults spend almost 12 hours a day connected to some type of media or platforms inundated with advertising. Audiences are cynical about the drive to buy more and consume more.
The Call to Redistribute $300+ Billion in Advertising Dollars
The expectation now is for brands to walk the walk, not just talk the talk. With $300+ billion in advertising spend on the table — projected to grow to $1 trillion by 2025 — advertisers find themselves walking in investors’ footsteps with a growing expectation to invest deliberate dollars in authentic campaigns and commitments, with a consumer-first approach in a narrative-shifting, behavioral-lifting experience.
Less Talk, More Coordinated and Curated Action
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Walking the walk and talking the talk is precisely what General Mills Canada did when it invested the advertising dollars of its popular on-the-go yogurt, called Yop, into a creative project.
The “For the Better” campaign, which includes four co-branded videos in French and English, was created by agency Cossette and Vice Media’s Montreal office. It’s a mini-documentary series that “highlights youth like Evelyn Sifton, a 23-year-old transgender cyclist and LGBTQ activist, Sarah Fournier, a 22-year-old special education teacher and boxer, and Jerimy Rivera, a 24-year-old Montreal-based ballet dancer.”
“At a time when there is a lot of negativity and divisiveness, Yop wants to be a brand that empowers youth to be the change they think that the world needs,” Desiree Brassard, associate director of New Ventures Group at General Mills, says. “We know that Generation Z, in particular, is defining themselves as less talk, more action, and we wanted to stand behind [them].”
According to Brassard, the campaign's brand grew by 11% in two months. For every view the films rack up, the brand donates $1 (up to $500,000) to a #ChangeDestiny fund that will benefit organizations that support women in pursuing their destiny.
The Shift — Beyond the Rewrapping Advertising Dollars
reGEN media is a 100% Indigenous-owned and female-led media impact company in Canada asking the question, “What if we brokered impact media deals like we do any other business deal?”
reGEN media is out to shift the advertising industry with a new category design where impact advertising will follow in the footsteps of impact investing in this decade.
“reGENerative media will do for the advertising industry what impact investment has done for the world of finance: Make us better,” Charlene SanJenko, 2x founder and impact producer, says. “Impact investing ensures companies working toward solving today's problems are well-funded. Regenerative media fuelled by impact advertising will ensure today's problems don't follow us into tomorrow.”
SanJenko is an expert at exploring and disrupting traditional funding and diverting it into innovative, well-curated and creative narrative-shifting projects. reGEN is an innovative business model that matches brands and businesses with artistic endeavors that tell transformative stories that deliver target returns.
“The time has never been better for innovative partnerships between progressive brands with advertising dollars, investors with vision and artists with transformative stories about the human spirit,” SanJenko says.
SanJenko represents a stable of artists and artistic projects from film, documentaries, theatre and other forms of transformative storytelling. Each of these projects represents key values and attributes identified as the most important elements of a purposeful brand. They include fair treatment of all people, advocacy for important and current social and environmental causes, a diverse and inclusive culture, issue advocacy, and the creation of new job opportunities for artists, writers, songwriters, performing artists and filmmakers with a focus on BIPOC (black, indigenous and people of color) individuals.
SanJenko sees a future of marketing and advertising dollars reinvested in curating “global-shifting art”. But not just any art. “Art that will impact and rewrite our future’s narrative by supporting values and actions that shift behaviors, elevate mindsets, and remind us to be good ancestors for today and future generations,” SanJenko says.
Learn more about regenerative media and the company leading this new category design in the full article here.
50 Fabulous Brands to Fuel our Flow of Impact
Are you one of them? reGEN media is conducting market research industry interviews regarding priorities and pivots into more progressive advertising practices. Please reach out to charlene@regenimpactmedia.com to participate and be invited to our Coming Attractions virtual showcase event on 22 September, from 6:30-8 p.m. Pacific Time, and meet our first nine regenerative media projects.
