Entertainment executives Lori J. Hall (former SVP, marketing, TV One) and Jessica D. Lane Alexander (former head of digital & social content, TV One) have officially launched Pop’N Creative, a multicultural agency focused on digital and social content creation, and experience design. A marketing collective, Pop’N Creative was born as a result of the founders’ exposure to tone deaf pitches and witnessing brands fail miserably with diverse consumers throughout the years. With a collective 25+ years of experience, Hall and Lane Alexander have set out to help brands authentically connect with highly coveted multicultural audiences.
“We’ve seen too many brands offend Black consumers in their marketing, creative and social conversations, and we know they can do better,” said Hall, Pop’N Creative co-founder and head of creative. “As a result, we are dedicated to helping brands avoid the pitfalls of marketing in a multicultural world. In particular, as brands continue to speak in support of Black Lives Matter and pledge to fight racism, we want to ensure they offer more than just lip service.”
In light of recent protests demanding an end to police brutality and racial injustice, sparked by the horrific murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and Rayshard Brooks, Pop’N Creative created free directional guides–a Response Guide to Discussing Racial Injustice and an Action Guide to Dismantling Racism–to help brands craft a response that is authentic and supportive of the most recent traumatic events currently happening in the United States.
“As racism in America is an extremely nuanced and multi-layered issue, we want to remind brands this is a fight for equality and demanding institutions protect and serve Black people and our communities like they do for other communities,” said Lane Alexander, Pop’N Creative co-founder and head of digital content and marketing. “Our free response and action guides are available to any executive, small business or brand that needs them. We know attacking racism is uncomfortable, but to create change–you have to be honest, willing to do the work and open to assistance.”
Hall and Lane Alexander want brands to show Black consumers they value their lives and not just the dollars they spend. And even though racism in America is a tough and sensitive topic, they don’t want brands to be scared into silence. Brand voices must unite behind the consumers they serve and value, which is why Pop’N Creative created their free Response Guide to Discussing Racial Injustice on how to discuss and address racial injustice in America. Some brands are getting it right, but too many are getting it wrong.
For brands committed to challenging and calling out racism, the agency followed up with their free Action Guide to Dismantling Racism to encourage action, such as elevating and promoting Black employees to boardroom and upper management, committing and hiring diverse vendors and suppliers, creating and implementing real and lasting change in workplace equity, and donating money to racial justice organizations.
Pop’N Creative knows Black Americans want to spend their money with brands who genuinely care about them. Brands who speak up authentically during this tough time will see a positive effect. Brands who don’t will be in the hot seat.
Specializing in masterful storytelling and crafting campaigns and content that give people a reason to genuinely laugh, cry or share, Pop’N Creative is also obsessed with the intersection of pop culture, marketing and technology. The agency’s approach is to use these as tools to build strong brands people want to like, tweet, text and talk about. A sampling of their work includes: Freeform’s original social series Black People Like… and the original digital and social series Unsung Live.
Online forum Reddit will join the influential and closely tracked S&P 500 index
Reddit will join the S&P 500 next week, giving the wide-ranging online forum a boost in prestige and investments.
Joining the S&P 500 is considered an achievement for a company because the index is a widely followed measure of the broader U.S. stock market's health. A company is selected for the index based on several criteria that demonstrate stability, including market size and consistent profitability.
Reddit's stock surged nearly 14% around midday Friday.
Aside from status, inclusion means more investments. The index tracks 500 of the biggest U.S. stocks, and trillions of dollars in investments benchmark themselves against it. Those investments include mutual funds and exchange-traded funds. Essentially, those funds will have to buy the stock once it becomes part of the index that the fund is tracking or mimicking.
Investors are depending more than ever on funds that simply mimic indexes such as the S&P 500. It's a lower-cost way to invest, allowing savers to keep more of their investments. Partly because of that, such index funds have usually proven to be better performers than funds that try to pick and choose individual stocks.
Reddit will join the benchmark index as of Tuesday. A stock must trade publicly for at least 12 months to join the S&P 500. The operator of the index, S&P Dow Jones Indices, stuck to that guideline recently when it declined to fast-track SpaceX into the index after the space exploration company's massive initial public offering in June.
Reddit's inclusion comes weeks after it posted strong financial results for the second quarter. That included its highest-ever quarterly revenue. The company has been posting profits almost every quarter since it went public in... Read More