Why Trinity Mirror wants to prepare you for death, Visa’s aims to ‘destroy’ fear & helping Asda solve an innovation conundrum – The Drum’s Do it Day
The Trinity Mirror Group wants to break down the "taboo" around death, Visa wants to help young people move past money fears to build business, and Asda needs ideas to help its “Asda Mums” save money and live better. These are just some of the challenges that The Drum will look to solve during its upcoming Do it Day event this November.
Do it Day, which will be proceeded by hack day Plan it Day in September, will see creative individuals, groups and businesses come together to show that marketing can achieve something amazing in 24 hours.
Speaking on a panel at a breakfast launch for Do it Day earlier this morning (3 June) Visa’s Europe’s head of digital and CSR Nick Jones explained why the brand wants creative ideas and input from the industry to help Visa “destroy fear”.
“We surveyed Europeans on [the subject of] Do you have an idea that you want to turn into a business,” he said. “Young people over indexed – they are much more hopeful, they’ve got ideas and they want to create businesses. But they also over indexed on the barriers that they have – they fear the numbers to a much higher degree than older people. So we want to overcome that barrier and help them feel equipped to handle money, get on with it, put it aside and create businesses.”
Joining Jones on the panel was Zoe Harris, group marketing director at Trinity Mirror, who said despite having the journalistic skills to address the difficult subject of the practicalities around death and dying, the media company wants to collaborate with agencies and creatives to drive real influence.
“What we want to do is to get our audience to do something they don’t want to do,” she said. “[It is] something quite practical that will actually improve their lives and tackle a subject that is taboo.
“We can write that content journalistically but really it’s about using collaboration and the brains that we can get to be part of it to really influence people to do something that they would much rather put off for another day.”
Asda meanwhile is this year focussing on its so-called “Asda Mums” and how the retailer can improve their lives and help them to save money. Asda has, by its own admission, so far struggled to come up with an idea internally that will aid that strategy but will look to “leverage the potential in the room” on Do it Day to find the right solution, according to said its digital innovation analyst Emily Ogilivie.
During the live Do it Day event a number of agencies will be on hand to run workshops to help teams tackle the issues and teach new skills. One such partner already signed up is IBM, and vice president of marketing, communications and citizenship, Alison Orsi, said that the brand will provide creative skills and facilitators and also act as a challenge partner to get those taking part to “help make STEM cool”.
Meanwhile The Drum co-founder and editor in chief Gordon Young explained the motivation for creating Do it Day.
“There is a lot to be said for getting people together, competitive collaborative and using that energy to do some really interesting stuff. The motivation for us is that The Drum really does believe that marketing is changing the world, marketing can change the world and will continue to do so. This project fits really well within in our editorial agenda and it’s a great opportunity to prove to the wider public that marketing will change the world.”
Brands, agencies and all those empowered by the possibilities of setting aside one day to do something amazing can find out more about taking part by contacting Patrick King patrick.king@thedrum.com. More details can also be found on the Do It Day website.