Words by Susan Horsburgh
Offering pro-bono advertising, scholarships and column inches, purpose-driven media companies are out to change the world, one piece of content at a time.
When Chiquita “CK” King left the network agency world to set up an independent advertising company with Ant Melder, the co-founders vowed to do it their way – and that meant stitching generosity into the business plan from the start.
Five per cent of Cocogun’s net profit each year would fund a UTS scholarship for Indigenous creatives, they decided, and five per cent of their workload would be pro bono. Admittedly, when Cocogun started five years ago without an office or a single client, that was “five per cent of f**k-all”, jokes CK, but now it’s a substantial cash boost for the young people they support. One student said the help had been a “lifesaver”.
With the scholarship, CK and Bangladeshi-born Ant wanted to encourage more diversity in their industry. Scholarship winners score not only a cheque from Cocogun, but a ready-made professional network.
Growing up in South Africa with a mum who struggled to pay the bills, CK relied on small
acts of kindness to realise her potential. “It doesn’t matter who you are,” she says. “When somebody makes you feel seen, it makes a difference. It’s like, ‘Maybe I’m going to be somebody.’ That’s what we want this scholarship to do.”
Far from being unappreciated “women’s work”, the pro-bono gigs are embraced by the Cocogun team. “We’re definitely not a charity agency,” says CK. “There’s real job satisfaction in being able to pour your talent into something that makes a difference.
“Creativity is a powerful tool for growth, but it’s equally an incredible tool to leave the world better off. If we’re going to work with a not-for-profit, we don’t compromise. We go all-in.”
More and more, it seems media companies are viewing social-impact work as a win-win. According to the recent UTS/Leo Burnett report The Good Study, 65 per cent of Australians think a company’s role isn’t just to make money, but to have a positive impact on society. Employees want to work for socially conscious companies, and generosity breeds goodwill among clients and customers who can be quick to shun tarnished brands.
“Increasingly, consumers are expecting the brands they feel loyal to, to be doing good work,” says Are Media CEO Jane Huxley. “That’s becoming more of an expectation of humans. When I think about my own consumer behaviour, I’m probably going to gravitate towards the [company] that I think is doing more with the money I’ve spent than just focusing on their bottom line.”
Are Media launched the Change AREgenda in 2018 as a way to unite the content company’s magazine titles behind a single cause. Each year Are Media – which has 32 brands and 23 million social followers – surveys 13,000 readers, asking for the issues they care most about, and chooses one to amplify. Last year it focused on women facing homelessness, and this year it’s the Cost of Caring campaign.
Jane went to Canberra earlier this year and met politicians with Carers Australia CEO Annabel Reid to kick off the year-long campaign, lobbying for carers to receive superannuation. With advertising and editorial content, Are Media has promised to push the cause to the tune of $5 million.
A call for support was recently on the back page of The Australian Women’s Weekly (“That’s really powerful real estate,” says Jane), along with stories in Who and Marie Claire. “Each [story] speaks in the voice and character of that brand,” explains Jane. “It’s not just one thing that we reuse – it’s carefully curated by the writers of each title, and then those stories get amplified on digital and in social.”
The campaign topics can make for strong content, too. A story on homeless women ran in the Weekly last year, says Jane. “We got so much feedback from readers: ‘Oh my god, that could be me’.”
The campaign goals have to be specific and measurable – GST removed from sanitary products, coercive control criminalised – “otherwise you’re just putting content out into the world,” says Jane.
“I do think there’s a tendency in corporate Australia sometimes to just align behind these causes because it’s like, ‘That’s topical. Let’s just get on that bandwagon’.”
Social-impact work can’t be just virtue signalling, stresses Corinna Fawls, the head of History Matters, a division of communications agency History Will Be Kind. When the agency presents clients with a comms strategy, a significant environmental, social and governance component is imperative – for reputation and risk reduction. “It’s almost like you can’t not be doing this stuff,” says Corinna. “Every organisation is having to stand up and be good in some way; understand what their purpose is and impact is – and communicate that.”
History Matters consults with a panel of industry leaders in sustainability; diversity, equity and inclusion; and First Nations, to uncover authentic, meaningful opportunities for clients. Working with Celebrity Cruises, for example, they launched the first open-source diversity-focused image library in Australia, free for anyone in the travel industry to use. Tourism Australia has used pics from the library in a global marketing campaign, featuring travellers with disabilities – and Celebrity Cruises is seen as a champion of inclusive travel.
Cocogun, a certified B Corporation, donates five per cent of its time to work with not-for-profit organisations, especially Anti-Slavery Australia and MissingSchool, which helps sick kids stay connected to their school communities.
Giving makes good commercial sense, but motivation is also often personal. When CK was a kid in apartheid South Africa, her mother was an activist who could never abide by social injustice. Four decades later, CK runs her agency guided by the question her mother would so often ask: “If you can help, why wouldn’t you?”