SINGAPORE — UM, the global media agency network of IPG Mediabrands, today announced the kick-off of its fourth global Impact Day. Originally launched under Better World, UM’s corporate social responsibility initiative, the agency’s annual day of service represents two of its core values: Care and Community.
UM employees around the world will be sharing Impact Day content on social media using the hashtags #UMBetterWorld and #UMImpactDay. For the second year running, many UM Impact Day initiatives will be held virtually due to the COVID-19 challenges.
“We are excited for our second virtual Impact Day, as the sum of our individual micro-actions collectively makes a macro impact in our communities and around the world,” said Eileen Kiernan, Global CEO, UM.
Volunteer activities for UM Impact Day 2021 have been organised around the unifying theme of solidarity. “There are many systemic issues that our world continues to face, and tackling these challenges requires us to work together, in solidarity,” said Anthony Hello, Senior Vice President and Global Chair, UM Better World. “This year, we’re inviting our employees to share what ‘solidarity’ means to them, and to let that guide them in their choice of volunteer activity.”
UM employees across the Asia Pacific region will participate in solidarity projects which have been devised to help bring positive impact and support to their local communities. “I am so heartened and excited by the truly impactful solidarity initiatives taking place across our APAC region” said Kasper Aakerlund, President UM APAC.
Aakerlund continues, “In the past year, we have seen our APAC markets grappling with different stages of challenges and recovery, and it’s simply incredible to see thousands of UMers around the region, and across the world, volunteering their time to stand together in solidarity with people in their communities.”
Here are some examples of the UM Impact Day solidarity work taking place today across the APAC region:
- As Malaysia continues to face prolonged lockdown conditions, among those hardest hit have been SMEs and local businesses. This Impact Day, the UM Malaysia team stand in solidarity with their community – those who have lost their jobs and are working independently, those in food services, entertainment, fitness, and a multitude of other everyday stores and services. UM Malaysia are helping to shine a spotlight on 50 such local businesses, by sharing their stories, promoting their products and services, and helping to drive sales through all-day live stream across the Friends of UM Facebook page.
- The Lodestar UM India team has organized an employee donation drive across Mumbai, Gurugram, and Bangalore to purchase essential supplies for NGOs working in support of children, women, and the elderly. The list of supplies was prepared in consultation with the NGOs to ensure help reaches where it is needed the most. This will include medical supplies for the senior citizens living at old-age homes, nutritional food kits and internet packages for children studying in government schools, and grocery and domestic supply kits for destitute women and their families. The UM Impact Day donation drive launched today and will continue to run for the next two weeks. Lodestar UM has also committed to match the grand total of all donations raised to help double the impact!
- This Impact Day, UM Taiwan stands in solidarity with their medical professionals who are providing frontline support to the community, by treating, researching, and diagnosing Covid-19, working night and day throughout this tough period of heightened alert. In a show of support, gratitude, and encouragement of these medical heroes, the UM Taiwan teams have banded together to prepare and deliver meal sets to Taipei Medical University Hospital.
- In Korea, UM has organized the collection and donation of goods and items to be delivered to the Goodwill social organization for people with disabilities in Korea. The collected items are to be used as sales products by people with disabilities working for the social organization, to help create more gainful employment experience and charitable profit.
- In China, the UM team is showing their solidarity with Chinese youth in need of corrective heart surgery. With the rallying cry of a good heart in exchange for a healthy heart, they are working with a Shanghai-based charity organization ‘Heart to Heart’ helping to raise funds to provide much-needed surgery to children from all over China who are suffering from congenital heart disease and whose parents are unable to afford the corrective surgery.
- The Australia team will be coming together virtually this Impact Day to hear directly from their charity partners about how they are bringing solidarity to our world, and how UM can help support them ongoing. UM Australia will also be hosting an Impact Day idea hackathon for their mental health charity partner batyr to launch and raise awareness of batyr’s new OurHerd app, which will enable them to support even more people by empowering young people to share stories about mental health, identity, and relationships in a safe environment.
- In Singapore, UM teams reached out to communities most impacted by the pandemic: SME owners, migrant workers, and those less fortunate by helping to create and share social media content to promote local hawker vendors and SME’s, and by providing volunteer support to two key organisations working in solidarity with the local community; Krisna Free Meals, an organisation working to aid migrant workers, and Willing Hearts, a volunteer-led operation that prepares, cooks, and distributes approximately 9,500 daily meals in over 40 locations island-wide and all year round in support of people in need.
- This Impact Day, UM Thailand is collaborating to raise funds for Operation Smile, an international non-profit medical charity that aims to provide safe surgery to underprivileged children and young adults at no cost to address facial deformities. The UMers are taking to social media to help raise awareness and support for the program by sharing their individual ‘smile’ messages.
- The UM Japan team is showing solidarity to their local youth and elderly populations this Impact Day by volunteering their services to provide translations for the card game developed by Free The Children Japan (FTCJ) and Fairtrade Club to experience the life cycle of children who live below the poverty line. The game has been used in many schools across Japan, and by helping them to translate the game it will be taken to schools overseas. In addition to this, the UM Japan team is making cards for Make-A-Wish Japan to be sent to their wish children and elderly homes. The team is also collecting and donating books and goods to their local charitable organisations.
- In recognition of the detrimental effects of ongoing pandemic challenges in the Philippines, the UM team is working to raise donations for a local Mental Health Center this Impact Day, and this will also tie in with the launch of their own mental health and well-being program.
UM Impact Day expanded globally in 2018 when, over the span of 36 hours and six continents, nearly 5,000 volunteers across the world gathered within their respective communities to restore and revitalize local communities, support local small businesses, and protect and assist those in need. The Better World platform unites UM’s global workforce to inspire each other, share best practices and create connections across borders that can help build a better world.
