While most people would probably like to push the reset button on 2020 by now, a Greenwich entrepreneur is actually doing it ”” sort of.
“Covid-19, the economy, the death of George Floyd, the outages, the election that”™s coming up,” laughed Kathryn Minckler, founder and CEO of Wow to Pop, when asked about the impetus behind #2020TheGreatReset.
The social media program is out now in advance of the launch of Wow to Pop”™s first product, Actionnate, a web and mobile platform that seeks to encourage social good by matching and connecting people, brands and nonprofits.
Those three stakeholders will focus on three key subject areas: Social issues, corporate governance and product standards. The Actionnate database applies various metrics to support 55 consumer behavioral drivers ”” “Everything from recycled packaging to diversity at the board level to climate change,” Minckler said ”” which are then matched with corporations that are active in each consumer”™s stated areas of interest.
When a corporation subscribes, it completes a detailed profile that is vetted by a third party; thus can it promote its goals, objectives, recent certifications and so on.
While there is no direct interaction between a given brand and consumer ”” no haranguing a petroleum company for air pollution, for example ”” the idea is that the consumer, if so moved, will disseminate that information through their own social media feeds and other methods.
The concept revolves around corporate social responsibility (CSR) and environmental social governance (ESG), which have become buzzwords throughout the business world.
“CSR used to be ”˜a nice thing to do,”™” Minckler said. “Now it”™s in the ”˜must do”™ category.”
About seven years ago, approximately 11% of companies on the S&P 500 Index published a corporate sustainability report; today that number is over 90%, she said.
“It”™s driven primarily by millennials and Gen-Zers,” Minckler said. “These are the issues they”™re most interested in.
“But,” she added, “some of those reports can be 120 pages long, which are not very friendly. They don”™t give the average person the ability to understand what they”™re trying to say. We”™re offering an alternative to that.”
The idea behind Actionnate and Wow to Pop ”” which was founded in 2018 to develop market insights, intelligence and innovative communications products ”” actually sprung from Minckler”™s own “three very millennial daughters.”
The eldest daughter challenged her sisters and mother to not use any cosmetic products that had been tested on animals.
“I was very proud of her,” Minckler said. “Then I thought there should be some sort of service for consumers to match their ethical beliefs with different brands ”” but there wasn”™t.”
Corporate social responsibility and environmental social governance have become even more vital in the Covid-19 era, she said. The virus “added a number of new challenges ”” and then with the death of George Floyd, it felt like the world changed all over again.”
Minckler said, “We don”™t want to look opportunistic, but it was obvious that the conversations were evolving quickly.”
#2020TheGreatReset has been trending well, she noted, with actress Jennifer Garner one of the bigger names to employ it on her Instagram account.
The focus now is to formally launch Actionnate this fall.
“We plan to be in the marketplace by the holidays,” Minckler said. “We”™ve still got to get through all the noise of the schools reopening and the election!”
