The Challenge

Sports Illustrated Swimsuit (SI Swimsuit), an analog publication with outdated perceptions, desired to evolve its brand and community to showcase their commitment to pushing women’s equity forward.

SI Swimsuit was looking for a brand act that not only evolved their story, but also created lasting impact for women.

The Strategy

This was more than an advertising solution; this was a brand transformation. Together with SI Swimsuit, we created Pay With Change, the first ever media buy that is paid for with change rather than money. From now on, only advertisers creating progress for women – big or small – will be able to buy ad space.

Pay With Change opens the aperture of what it means to support, promote, progress and change the world for women, and it reimagines the publishing industry to create a new business model that leads to real change and a better way to do business.

This new platform transformed SI Swimsuit from just a publication into the first-ever responsible publisher.

The Execution

On the 58th anniversary of their first print issue, we worked with SI Swimsuit to announce the Pay With Change initiative through a multi-channel communications approach. This execution strategy was anchored in an anthem video, which was leveraged across SI Swimsuit's digital and social channels.

The team also created social media content, deployed a full-homepage, digital takeover of the SI Swimsuit website, crafted highly-visual print ads for the upcoming SI Swimsuit Issue, engaged Influencers and past models, like Chrissy Tiegen, to promote the campaign and conducted an earned media push to secure top-tier coverage.

PRESS COVERAGE

• Ad Age: Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Wants Gender Equity Ads
• Marketing Brew: Sports Illustrated Swimsuit only letting brands that ‘drive gender equality forward’
• Media Post: Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Puts Its Money where Its Model is