What’s the connection between media and the effort to improve health, education and the environment? Aren’t “social good” projects typically funded through a company’s philanthropic arm, if at all?
Not necessarily. For our latest installment of View From the Top, I spoke to Paul Polizzotto, founder and President of CBS EcoMedia.
Polizzotto believes the advertising economy and social good can and should be intimately connected. He’s spearheading an effort to channel corporate advertising budgets to the the country’s most effective non-profits. EcoMedia has developed remarkable relationships with incredible brands and the nation’s most effective non-profit groups to produce unique programs that benefit both marketing objectives and the greater social good.
“At the highest level,” Polizzotto says, “EcoMedia is an ad model to fund non-profits, the nation’s most effective non-profits taking on the most urgent social issues of our time.”
How does it work?
EcoMedia uses a unique public-private partnership business model to direct dollars from corporate advertising budgets to help fund the nation’s most effective non-profit organizations. “We are going to corporations and saying look, I’m not asking you to spend more money on advertising,” says Polizzotto. Rather, “how would you like to do more of what you’re already doing with money that you’re already spending?”
Then, in collaboration with EcoMedia, these advertisers help fund important environmental, educational, and health and wellness projects, nationwide. EcoMedia produces a marketing campaign for each initiative imparting a lasting brand value not found in typical messaging efforts.
Eco Media is an unusual in-house hybrid amongst media organizations, combining Madison Avenue insight with cutting edge social entrepreneurship. Polizzotto believes that “advertising can be harnessed much like renewable energy can.”