Over 30 social impact leaders and innovators attended the first ever Fuze Night event at Artistry on June 24. The event, loosely emulating what Web Wednesday is for digital folks, aims to bring together people from the social impact space for a relaxed evening of connecting and the opportunity to hear industry insights from a respected speaker in a particular field.
“A lot of agencies are into social causes when awards season crops up.”
Seema Punwani kicked off the evening with a humorous crash course in what non-profits could expect from an agency pitching for their work. She stressed the importance of finding like-minded partners that are passionate about the same causes.
“Being able to select the right communications partner is going to require the same work that any other relationship needs,” she explains. “Be very clear on what both of your expectations are and what you each want to get out of it.”
Punwani provided a very clear set of questions on which to evaluate a potential agency partners. And she should know. She now uses her 15 years of agency experience as a senior consultant at R3 Communications, a consultancy that helps marketers get effectiveness and efficiencies from their marketing and agency relationships. She has handled prominent agency reviews for clients such as BMW, Ferrero, Singapore Tourism Board amongst many others. She also volunteers her time for Transient Workers Count Too, the non-profit that addresses workers rights.
“A lot of agencies are into social causes when awards season crops up,” Punwani mentions without a hint of skepticism. “This is a perfectly valid reason, but it’s best to know this upfront.”
She cautions against “buzz worthy” ideas and campaigns that generate mass awareness but fail to have a clear follow-up strategy or even address the issue at hand. While everyone has heard of the Ice Bucket Challenge, even winning the advertising industry’s prestigious Cannes Award, she questions how much it has done for the cause at hand, ALS.
Punwani cites two of her favourite campaigns as examples of great creative ideas that address the root of the problem that causes face. Fundación ANAR’s billboard campaign tapped into the insight that it could deliver ‘secret’ messages exclusively for children below a certain height. She also mentions the Microloan Foundation’s Pennies for Life campaign which enabled passersby to a billboard to donate and see the results of the donation.
“The real challenge for the cause was donor apathy,” she explains. “One of the ways this worked really well for the Microloan Foundation is that it demonstrated their model of being able to show the impact a donation was making.”
Lastly, she offers advise on how non-profits and social causes can help give in return for pro-bono work.
“If you’re going to engage a creative for pro-bono work, find out what it is that you can offer them. Can you provide references for paid work?” she suggests.
After the talk, the audience was encouraged to network and intermingle with each other. This was also one of the main purposes of the event.
“A lot of great things can happen when you put some really cool people with great ideas together in room.”
“A lot of great things can happen when you put some really cool people with great ideas together in room,” remarks Simon Wong, founder of InHerShoes and the co-host of Fuze Nights.
The event is the brainchild of Nadim van der Ros, the founder of Be An Idea, and Wong. It is also supported by co-hosting organisations such as Jean Loo’s Logue and Serve Sondelijker’s Directgreen platform. The reason for so many co-hosts was a strategic play to consolidate potentially disparate events.
“I started talking about the concept of Fuze Nights to a few people and realised we all wanted to do something similar. So rather than have several poorly attended events, I thought it might be a great opportunity to collaborate,” explains van der Ros.
The evening wrapped up with a prize draw for the most inspirational initiatives that people had heard of through the evening of networking. The first prize was a 30 minute tour of Singapore in a Vintage Vespa (organised through VintageVespa.sg) while the second prize was a brand new Apple TV.
Joan Wong and Beng Lim, of Terra Creative, were the lucky winners of the Vintage Vespa tour. Rebekah Lim, founder of 50 for 50, won the second prize although she plans to donate her good fortune to someone else.
It was a good first showing for the inaugural Be An Idea Fuze Night. Look forward to more insightful talks and opportunities to connect every last Wednesday of each month at Artistry.
Join our LinkedIn Fuze Night group: Fuze Nights on LinkedIn
If you attended and want to give feedback on the event, please visit here: Fuze Night June Feedback
To find out more about Seema and R3: Speaker Info
To find out more about our partners: Fuze Night Partners