Ad Council Seeks to Expand Influence Through Corporate Partnerships and New Messaging

The organization that brought Smokey Bear to television viewers across America is now shifting its focus to meet folks on their social media accounts and digital assistants.

The Ad Council, the country’s first creator of public-service announcements, heralded a rebranding and an effort to expand its corporate partnerships with companies like Twitter and Amazon, which it hopes will help reach more people.

“For so long, it was Smokey Bear and ‘Love Has No Labels’ that really were out there in front,” said Paula Veale, chief marketing and communications officer. “This is an opportunity to really introduce the Ad Council.”

Many ad campaigns originate with a nonprofit’s board, but often the council meets companies where they already are on social issues, Veale said. Women in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) is one of those areas.

For its recent She Can STEM campaign, the Ad Council partnered with IBM, Google, Microsoft, and others to profile female employees from the companies and encourage more women to get involved in the field. The campaign was in partnership with Girls Inc., Girls Who Code, and other tech-focused nonprofits.

“They can be role models to young girls who want to become more involved with STEM,” Veale said.

The STEM campaign originated with the council’s advisory committee, made up of public policy researchers and issues experts.

“It was a parallel path,” Veale said. “They were the right partners for us at the right time for this campaign, and we also have nonprofits involved.”

All the corporate partners already had their own women in STEM efforts, but working together, with the help of the Ad Council, gave them the opportunity to reach more people.

“It’s the power of the collective,” said Ellyn Fisher, senior vice president of marketing and communications at the Ad Council.

New Logo and Innovations

Among the changes announced this week with the Ad Council’s rebranding is a new logo — a simple design intended to convey gravitas and that also works well with a “wide variety of content.”

Innovations like Alexa voice commands and custom Twitter emojis have helped reach people on platforms they’re already using.

Since launching in May, its voice commands through Amazon’s Alexa in partnership with Amazon and the National Resources Defense Council have garnered nearly 4 million utterances. Users say, “Alexa, tell me how to store asparagus,” and the digital assistant answers with information from the Ad Council campaign about wasting less food.

In 2015, the council’s “Love Has No Labels” public-service announcement was the second-most-viewed video on YouTube. The Emmy-winning campaign was sponsored by nine corporate partners including Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, and Wells Fargo.

The council has also launched an antibullying campaign called “Because of You.” One integral part is the hashtag #BecauseofYou, which has a custom emoji donated by Twitter, that is prepopulated when used on that platform. Twitter’s head of marketing, Leslie Berland, is on the Ad Council’s board.

But in getting messages to resonate with particular audiences, the council may be fighting an uphill battle. Trust in nonprofits fell 9 percent in the United States last year, although other institutions experienced steeper declines, according to this year’s Edelman Trust Barometer.

Through corporate partnerships, the council is hoping to reach people on platforms they already use daily, making sure, in turn, that messages are heard.

“We’re able to experiment and be a testing ground for a lot of those technology platforms,” Veale said. “We see this as a win for everybody.”