At the agency, we believe business can be used to improve lives. An idea that is much bigger than us. So, we launched MARKETPLACE: A digital platform to help socially conscious companies succeed, even though technically they could be considered our competition.

The platform allows consumers to shop in entirely new ways; such as by cause or region they wish to support. It gives these brands an opportunity to tell their stories and sell their products to a much larger audience, and thus to grow their businesses and help more people in need.

To get the word out, traditional media such as Out Of House & print were used for the first time in our company's history (even though it wasn't really for us). We also promoted these companies and their products in our popular catalog and in our store - even at the expense of selling our own products.

An extremely ambitious project, first we built the digital platform made up of an initial 30 like-minded companies, to help promote them, their products and their causes.

Then, for the first time, we used traditional media (billboards & print) to get the word out about Marketplace.

Next, we gave up prominent space to these companies and their products in our popular catalog (circulation approximately 2-3 million) and in our flagship store in Venice Beach, CA.

We also turned over our social media to these brands to amplify their voice to our sizable community. (2 million+ fans on both Facebook and Twitter.)

And we promoted the Marketplace via our robust email marketing (reaching approximately 2-3 million people).

*Since the launch, Marketplace has added 7 more companies and 3 more causes (Women, Social Justice, and Animals) to its roster.

Every last company had great things to say about the impact Marketplace has had on their business.

One company on Marketplace, The Giving Keys, said they tripled their web sales from the previous holiday season.

Another company, JOYN, told us “We’ve grown about 30% from our partnership with you.”

The Base Project told us “Beyond the obvious financial impact, we received higher-level coverage and media attention.”

Not to mention, every company's social media following increased, many quite drastically.

As for the agency, because of the products sold on the Marketplace:

-12,000 meals were provided to children.

-Over 1,500 people had their hearing restored with hearing aids.

-800 children in Ethiopia received books, school supplies and uniforms.

-Meaningful jobs were created in Uganda, Rwanda, Peru and India.

This is just a fraction of the results and just the beginning.

And momentum is building for a more socially-conscious way of doing business.