03 Apr From Variety’s Pages: Why Summer98 Might Be the Best Thing to Happen to Nonprofit Marketing

Most charity ads follow the same tired playbook. Sad music. Slow motion. A voiceover that makes you feel terrible about yourself until you reach for your credit card. It works, sort of. But it’s not exactly inspiring.

Todd Milliner and Paul Velten think there’s a better way, and they’ve built an agency to prove it.

The two met in Chicago in the summer of 1998, a pair of ambitious creatives with big ideas and complementary instincts. Nearly three decades later, Milliner is an Emmy Award-winning producer behind Grimm, Hot in Cleveland, and the Billy Joel documentary And So It Goes – and Velten is a seasoned advertising executive. Now they’ve reunited to launch Summer98, a cause-first marketing agency doing something the industry has been slow to figure out: treating nonprofits like the creative partners they actually are.

The model is smart. Instead of asking nonprofits to stretch their already-thin budgets on campaigns they don’t have the capacity to build, Summer98 brings the whole package. They connect mission-driven organizations with brands and creative talent that share their values, then build real, high-quality campaigns around those partnerships. Nonprofits focus on their causes (saving animals, advancing cancer detection, feeding children). Summer98 handles the rest.

And the secret weapon? Humor. Most cause marketing goes straight for the heartstrings. Summer98 goes for laughs, because an audience that’s entertained actually sticks around.

Their first campaign makes the approach clear. “Kevin Smith Talks Filmmaking with Dogs” pairs Much Love Animal Shelter with Hera the Dog Vodka, a brand that donates 50% of its profits to animal rescue. It launches on National Pet Day, April 11.

Kevin Smith owns rescue dogs. The vodka funds rescue programs. The shelter does the rescuing. Everything connects, which is exactly the point. This isn’t a logo slapped on a press release. It’s a campaign with a real creative backbone and a genuine reason to exist.

For nonprofits tired of being an afterthought in someone else’s CSR strategy, and for companies that want their social commitments to actually mean something, Summer98 is worth a close look.

Variety clearly thought so too.

Get the full story here-> Variety.