Ad Age is marking Black History Month 2025 with our fifth-annual Honoring Creative Excellence package. (Read the introduction and all the essays here.) Today, guest editor Lucien Etori turns the spotlight to Darrell Booker, corporate affairs specialist at Microsoft, who writes about how brands that give first—authentically and with purpose—are the ones that get the most love in return.

I’m a Xennial—born in the analog age but fluent in digital culture. Back in my day (cue groans), understanding the world’s problems meant thumbing through a crinkled newspaper or sitting through the nightly news, sandwiched between weather updates and a weirdly enthusiastic sports anchor. Then came the internet—and later, social media. Suddenly, the world’s issues were no longer distant headlines; they were live, inescapable and hitting younger audiences faster than ever before.

This shift has created a consumer base that is hyperaware of social issues and deeply invested in solutions. Gen Z and younger millennials aren’t just shopping for the flashiest ad, trendiest product or hottest influencer. They’re asking the big questions: What does this brand stand for? How is it making a difference in the world? How does this benefit not just me, but the people I care about?

Here’s the kicker: Brands that give first—authentically and with purpose—are the ones that get the most love in return.

I’ve been fortunate to work on campaigns that exemplify this. Take Disney and Marvel Studios, for example. Ahead of the “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” launch, they wanted to address the underrepresentation of Black youth, particularly young women, in STEM fields. With Letitia Wright’s Shuri stepping into an even larger role, it was the perfect time to act.

I pitched an idea: a drag-and-drop coding tutorial using Black Panther characters and themes to teach basic computer science and game development skills. Disney and Marvel didn’t just greenlight the concept—they leaned all the way in, giving us unprecedented access to Letitia Wright for social content encouraging participation. The result? Over 170,000 people worldwide coded their first video game.

Now compare that to the other movie collaborations we often see—the pajama lines, the limited-edition fast-food tie-ins. Cute? Sure. Impactful? Not so much.

The brands we truly love are the ones that pour into us, enrich us and empower us. They move beyond selling us stuff and start offering us substance. Today’s consumers don’t just want to buy into a brand—they want a brand to buy into them.

So here’s my advice to marketers: Stop asking What can they do for us? and start asking What can we do for them? Because when brands show up for people, people show up for brands—and that’s the kind of influence no ad buy can replicate.