How Accompany’s work with Target spawned mission-led initiatives for many brands

Purpose has been at the heart of Accompany Creative since its early work for Target supporting global artisan communities and fair-trade cooperatives. See all of the 2024 Small Agency award winners here Since then, mission-led product development that makes brand values memorable and personal for consumers has been a hallmark of the agency’s work. Founder and CEO Jason Keehn said the core inspiration for the agency springs from the ethical fashion brand he launched at Target. “If we can capture the heart of a cause, and package its beauty and meaning in its most inspiring form, and translate that through a branded commitment and experience, that’s when we begin to change the world,” Keehn said. “By using the emotional pull of purpose and impact to generate consumer demand, we can steer the commercial activity and storytelling toward the communities and causes that need it most.” The idea is to transform brands into change agents and change agencies into brands. Accompany Creative’s client/change agent roster has included Nespresso, Nature’s Bounty, Levi’s, NBCUniversal, Searchlight Pictures and the YMCA of Greater New York. For Nespresso, that meant developing a social impact platform to financially support local communities. Accompany turned to Nespresso’s employee resource groups to understand what they care about. That led to a program to support the Ali Forney Center, which protects LGBTQ+ youth from homelessness, a problem they’re eight times more likely to experience than other youths. Nespresso employees selected LGBTQ+ artist Justin Teodoro and members of the center to design limited-edition coffee cups, saucers and accompanying graphics, with 100% of the $500,000 in proceeds supporting the center. The campaign also generated 300 million in earned media impressions and a 70% increase in foot traffic at Nespresso’s flagship SoHo store. For Universal Pictures, Accompany Creative helped give the movie merchandise machine behind “Jurassic World: Dominion” a social purpose. The “Movie Merch with Mission” effort included a fair-trade line of homewares and accessories for adults and children that were handcrafted by nonprofits in India and Nepal. All items were inspired by the film’s narrative around a sustainable future. Supporting the collection launch were videos featuring Indian and Nepalese artisans demonstrating the ancient techniques used to create the product line, backed by the signature soundtrack of the Jurassic franchise and punctuated by the sound of Tyrannosaurus Rex stomps. See all of the 2024 Small Agency award winners here

How Accompany’s work with Target spawned mission-led initiatives for many brands

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