It is hard to believe that Lucky Forks is coming up on our official one year anniversary in two months. Early on, I knew that I wanted leaders in the advertising industry involved to guide the company on our various services. When we announced GiveMe5 in April, one of the first executives I met with about the idea was Steve Williams at Essence. While he offered a lot of valuable advice during our meeting, one comment kept repeating in my mind for days after our meeting – “You need to think bigger. This is a good initiative for our industry.”
Shortly after that meeting, I knew I wanted to form several groups that would each have a voice in our GiveMe5 efforts. One group that I wanted to form was an agency advisory with representation from a leader across agencies within WPP, Omnicom, Publicis, IPG and Dentsu. This group would be responsible for helping the Lucky Forks GiveMe5 initiative, including voting on the nonprofits we partner with, participating in various events, and helping us recognize the companies that are acknowledging the relationship between purpose and profit.
Today, I am pleased to officially announce the GiveMe5 Agency Advisory: Steve Williams, Global COO at Essence, Erin Matts, CEO of Hearts and Science, Chris Boothe, CEO of Spark Foundry, Amy Armstrong, US CEO of Initiative, and Jeremy Cornfeldt, CEO, Americas at iProspect. With this announcement, we asked each member of the advisory to provide perspective on a more purpose driven industry and why they think GiveMe5 is important.
“Chad and the team at Lucky Forks have found a very smart way to layer in a collective social conscience into our sector. They are a ‘plug-in’ social responsibility platform that I hope, in time, will help train our industry to care a little bit more, and do a little bit more to support communities around us that need our help.” – Steve Williams
“Just as ‘purpose’ has become essential to a brand’s offer to consumers, it is also a critical component of who we are as a company. At the core of Hearts & Science’s purpose is a commitment to giving back to the community – empowered by our people, and enabled by our partners. As an organization that recognizes the power of people uniting under a shared vision, GiveMe5 is providing a platform for the type of purposeful action that we seek to achieve.” – Erin Matts
“I think virtually everyone I work with in the advertising and media business wants to make the most of the unique opportunities this business gives us, and to find a way to share our good fortune with others. Now, with GiveMe5, we finally have a streamlined way to do that, and to make a real difference.” – Chris Boothe
“Lucky Forks is doing something much needed in our industry…making all of us in the agency world fully accountable on our collective promises of giving back. GiveMe5 provides us at Initiative with an organic way of weaving purpose into our social events…something that benefits everyone – from the community around us to our own agency culture.” – Amy Armstrong
“Although agency life can be a challenge, all of us are very fortunate. We’re fortunate to work in such a fantastic industry and we are fortunate to be at the cutting edge of communications. Because of this, it is our responsibility to give back. To give our time, our skills and our warmth to those less fortunate. It’s our responsibility.” – Jeremy Cornfeldt
We are reflecting over the past year in several ways over the coming months. With Thanksgiving right around the corner, we are personally thankful for many things this year, and one is this group of individuals that also believe in our mission for the industry. Thank you for taking steps to help us evangelize how fortunate our industry is and how we can use that to create social good in the world