SINGAPORE – UM, the strategic media agency within IPG Mediabrands, downed-tools on 60-plus offices across 40 countries on 19 July 2018 for Impact Day, a part of UM’s Better World philanthropic initiative.
Impact Day, which started two years ago, is part of UM’s Better World program. The initiative, is an umbrella brand for acts of volunteer community service undertaken by UM staffers in their communities. The Better World name was inspired by UM’s core client offering of ‘Better Science. Better Art. Better Outcomes.’
Kasper Aakerlund, President UM APAC commented, “Being environmentally and socially conscious, finding ways to use our time, talent and resources to give back and help create a better world; these things sit at the very heart of our company values at UM. I’m proud to see our people across the Asia-Pacific region and the globe work together in unison to make an impact to their local communities.”
More than 1000 UM staff across APAC participated in Better World, with planned activities spanning the region, making an impact to local communities across multiple sectors including but not limited to; mental health, Alzheimer’s, under privileged communities, homelessness, seniors, children’s safety, and environmental preservation.
Some highlights include:
INDIA: After months of determined effort Lodestar UM managed to attain permission from Brihan Mumbai Municipal Corporation to redevelop Saki Naka in Andheri, an industrial area that generates a lot of garbage. To sustain a cleaner, greener surrounding meant that the whole community had to think different and act differently, changing the behaviour of people from all the offices, restaurants, hospitals, housing societies in the locality. The construction work started weeks back, with UM arranging the distribution or garbage bins and collection of rubbish from local businesses. All efforts culminating on impact day, where over 200 employees of Lodestar UM and other companies came together to transform the area. They cleaned the roads, and scraped and painted the walls, creatively transforming them into an open classroom with Marathi alphabet letters painted in bold vibrant colours on one end, and a large blackboard on the other where people could doodle to learn and play.
The UM Delhi and Bangalore offices adopted the theme of “Say No to Plastic” partnering with a client, to develop a series of vibrant ‘save marine life’ glass water bottles to distribute and replace plastic water bottles on desks. Large corporates across both cities agreed to participate in the program including Whirlpool , IndusInd , Viacom , BMW, Times of India, SAIL, IOCL, McCann, Cheil, FCB, Wipro, Exide Life Insurance, Air Asia, Duroflex, and Amante.
SINGAPORE: The UM Singapore office partnered with Willing Hearts, a soup kitchen that is open every day of the year to cook over 5,000 meals for the under-privileged. It’s a non-profit that relies on volunteers to support them each day. At 5am on 19th July, over 60 UM staffer assisted with various activities including chopping meat, cooking rice and vegetables, as well as preparing the food packs for distribution to over 45 locations in Singapore.
MALAYSIA: The UM Malaysia team organized 100 people to work on briefs from Malaysian Mental Health Association (MMHA), the Alzheimer’s Disease Foundation Malaysia (ADFM), and Yellow House KL; all groups which address urban issues and challenges faced by Malaysians. The UM team worked to create advertising and media campaigns to promote brand awareness, drive traffic towards fund raising activities and build branding and e-commerce platforms. Over a 24 hour period, teams received briefs, met their pro-bono clients, ideated, and presented ideas to a panel of media owners, internal Mediabrands judges, and the respective heads of the non-profits.
AUSTRALIA: In Canberra, UM staffers were cooking for a cause for the residents of HOME in Queanbeyan. UM partnered with a series of NFPs across Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney – Wesley Mission, Sacred Heart Mission and 3rd Space. In Sydney, to help live the spirit of ‘Better Together’ and ‘Goodness’, the agency held ‘Christmas in July’ events across six sites raising $2,000, plus additional support from clients and media partners through donations. Eighteen Melbourne UM’ers worked in Sacred Heart Missions charity stores with activities ranging from visual merchandising to testing goods for sales. In Brisbane 14 UM people helped cook a delicious Christmas lunch for more than 150 homeless people, provided more than 100 bags of home-baked treats, donated bags of non-perishable food and delivered some amazing game prizes including cinema and live-sports tickets.
CHINA: UM China partnered with 宝贝爱蓝天 which means ‘Children Love Sky’. The Shanghai UM office collected and recycled the old jeans working together to handcraft these into pencil cases for children.
JAPAN: Over 130 people across UM Japan participated in 7 activities throughout the day including volunteering at local schools, giving a library and play room a make-over, helping elementary school children cross the street safely, and bringing local gardens to with trees and flowers, volunteering at a local senior care home, and last but not least through a collaboration with Second Harvest Japan, they hosted a food drive throughout the month of June, culminating on Impact Day. Our UM Japan teams helped to pack food and books donated by our people, and customized with handcrafted messages of kindness.
THAILAND: Our UM Thailand team donated houseware and medicine to people in need and served lunch and ice cream to more than 400 children. They invited “Toy” Pathompong Ruenjaidee, “Off” Jumpol Adulkittiporn and “Gun” Atthaphan Poonsawas three of Thailand’s most popular teen actors from GMM TV to join the better world intiative, helping to prepare and deliver food, as well as entertaining children with disabilities at the Children of the Rajawadee Foundation.
HONG KONG: The Hong Kong UM team came out in force to support the Hong Kong Red Cross Blood Transfusion Service. Downing tools to visit the center and donate enough blood to save 27 lives.
PHILIPPINES: UM Philippines in partnership with The Plastic Solution (TPS), shutdown their laptops on impact day, and did some “plogging” (picking up plastic waste while jogging. The day’s activities began with an education and awareness drive of the negative environmental effects of excessive plastic consumption and waste in the Philippines. They built eco-bricks from the plastic bottles and trash collected, which can be used to build stools, benches, and tables for less fortunate communities. The team also sealed their commitment to lessening their plastic foot-print, by pledging to use and to sell metal straws and wooden utensils to colleagues, families, and friends in the industry, with all funds donated to TPC.
