A New Effie & Ad Age Blog to Highlight GoodWorks
When we redesigned our Advertising Age business
cards last year, we each added a favorite quote,
favorite movie line or a goal that expressed our
personalities or something we believed in. My quote,
“With great power comes great responsibility,” comes
from the movie, “Spiderman,” which I saw with my
son, Max.
While there are personal lessons to take from the quote,
I’ve always thought it had great resonance for our industry
and corporations in general. As marketers and media
companies, we have a unique and significant ability to
connect with consumers and effect positive change in
our world.
In a bad economy, with a laser focus on the bottom line,
it is easy to push this notion aside and relegate charitable
initiatives to the “nice-to-do” list. However, consumers
aren’t having it — and technology has given consumers
a very powerful voice.
The lines between brand marketing and a company’s
reputation are blurring. Those that lead with a strong
social conscience through the likes of sustainable
business practices and philanthropic initiatives will win.
To highlight this notion that you can do well by doing good
and that great branding and good deeds are increasingly
interwoven, Advertising Age has launched Good Works —
a blog to highlight developments in corporate social
responsibility and cause marketing as well as recognizing
individual good works. As we move into a challenging
new age where socially responsible business practice
goes hand in hand with corporate profitability, there will
certainly be missteps. Ad Age’s Good Works will not always
be an area of celebration; we will showcase the bad
along with the good. By creating an open forum, we
hope to host a constructive dialogue designed to
successfully usher us into a new era.
Our industry has long recognized its ability to promote
causes and effect positive change, and through the
Ad Council’s Public Service Announcements and the
grass roots efforts of the local ad clubs, we have touched
the lives of many. But with the evolution of globalization
and consumer control, the importance of socially
conscious business will grow greater within each
corporation. Amazing initiatives will be undertaken
and wonderful progress made as we embrace our
responsibility and the power we have to commit
good works, which also makes good business sense.
We look forward to watching and recognizing all
of your efforts. Join the conversation at
www.adage.com/goodworks and enter your
initiatives in the Good Works Effie competition.
Allison Arden
VP-Publisher
Advertising Age | Creativity Magazine
As part of our Good Works’ initiative, we are also excited
to announce an expanded partnership with Effie
Worldwide. Together we have created the Good Works
Effie in order to recognize and reward the most effective
examples of corporate social responsibility coming
from marketers each year.
