What Are Impact Brands and Why They Are Important?

In case you haven’t noticed, times are changing.

In every industry, companies are waking up to the fact that consumers are becoming more and more conscious about their consumerism.People expect more from the brands they buy from. They expect a certain level of empathy, compassion, and a commitment to the social good.

In other words, they expect companies to be making a positive impact on the world around them. And we couldn’t be more excited about this. At Token Creative Services, we’ve recently been examining our strategies and values. What we’ve realized is that while we love working with socially-conscious companies, it’s time we cement into this our corporate identity. Moving forward, at the heart of everything we do, will be a commitment to one thing… impact.

Before we move on let’s make sure we all understand what we are talking about:

• Im·pact a·gen·cy | adjective \ˈɪm.pækt ā-jən(t)-sē\ – An agency that supports brands making a positive impact on the world. We solve problems for businesses that promote environmental or social stewardship to their community, and the planet, in a measurable way. We exist to shift collective thoughts through conscious and ethical marketing.
• Im·pact mar·ket·ing | adjective \ˈɪm.pækt märkədiNG\ – A form of marketing strategies used to promote a positive impact on communities, and the planet, in a measurable way. Campaigns that address social issues and shift collective thoughts through consciously ethical marketing.

Where we’ve come

Since the beginning, we’ve always looked to work with clients that inspire us. Our #1 thing since starting Token has been about helping people. We love helping clients that love helping others, but until recently we didn’t have a name for that special category of clientele. In the past we’ve often found ourselves striving to be like those companies we admire so much. Essentially, we’ve always emphasized working in a way that matches the good intentions of the clients we enjoy working with the most.

But we haven’t ever taken the time to think about what that really means. Which is why we’re making a public statement about who we are as a company and who/what we stand for. From now on, we’ll only be working with impact brands.We’re going to be going over our entire business and looking for ways that we can do more for the world, be it reducing our carbon footprint as individual employees, or looking at our business practices to make any improvement we can.

We’ll talk about that in a minute. But first, let’s explain what makes someone a client we want to work with.

What is an impact brand?

Lots of companies are beginning to adopt a more impact-centered business model. It’s just the way the world is moving— and for good reason! So what does that mean? What does an impact brand look like? What are their needs? We see there being three things we always look for when signing new clients:

1. Positive Influences ✅
   Impact Brands have a positive effect on the world. They are out in the community solving real-world problems. Driving outcomes and positive impact on the world around them.
2. Ethical 💙
   Impact Brands understand their role in creating a better world. They are conscious about their business practice,they make equitable hiring decisions, and they focus on diversity and inclusion to ensure all are made to feel welcome.
3. Innovation 🚀
   Innovation isn’t just a word, it’s a way of life. In our experience, companies who make the largest impacts are also those that focus on creative solutions to the worlds’ biggest problems or challenges. It’s not just about

Putting our money where our mouth is.

Listen, we’re not perfect. But we don’t want to just talk the talk— we’re ready to walk the walk. As we push forward with this transition to becoming an impact agency, we’re going to be making a few major changes. And since we’ve rewritten our playbook to focus 100% on impact, we’re realizing that there’s plenty more we could be doing. In the future, we’ll be working on:

• Reducing carbon footprints and going 100% paperless
• Changing service providers to more sustainable companies or products
• Helping clients with recruitment and building remote teams
• Continuing to scout for clients who are changing the world with diverse and inclusive hiring practices
• Focusing on internal promotions, professional development, and hiring employees for life

Becoming an impact agency is just one of the many ways we are trying to bring our team to the next level. If there’s a company that you know that has an amazing idea and could use support from a team like us, share this with them and tell them to get in touch. We’d love to learn more about them and how we can help!