Geneva, September 16, 2019 – WhatRocks Foundation and Epic are teaming up to offer brands the opportunity to leverage their advertising budgets to create simultaneously business value and social value.
As consumers shift their business, their loyalty and their love towards brands that share their social and environmental values, WhatRocks Foundation helps brands show their financial commitment to the funding of social change by adding the WhatRocks™ label to their digital ads ─ a US$335 billion global industry with an 18% year-to-year growth rate.
Rocks™, the cornerstone of a giving economy funded by advertising
When users see or click on WhatRocks™-labeled ads on the Internet, they will know that the brands concerned have converted a fraction of their advertising budgets in blockchain tokens called Rocks™ to reward them financially. This money will automatically land on their personal WhatRocks™ mobile wallet where they can make donations to the non-profits of their choice. To fund their charitable activities, non-profits resell their Rocks™ for dollars to brands that need to reward users exposed to their own WhatRocks™-labeled ads. In this circular giving economy, account opening and transactions are free of charge* to keep donations untouched.
Njara Zafimehy, Founder & President of WhatRocks Foundation says: « For every dollar spent in CSR (Corporate and Social Responsibility), brands spend an average $750 in marketing and advertising. Until now, they had this huge financial power at their disposal to create social impact but they didn’t have any solution embedded in their advertising activities in a simple and systemic way to put it in action. The WhatRocks™ label does just that! »
A strategic partnership with Epic for a world premiere
This unique concept will be experimented in a world premiere Proof of Concept (POC) in partnership with Publicis Media, L’Oréal, Nestlé and Verizon Media Group in Q3 2019. As part of its mission to identify ground-breaking solutions to generate more donations, Epic and its Giving Lab took an early interest in the WhatRocks™ label and will also join this Proof of Concept.
« Given the magnitude of the social challenges we are facing, we urgently need to establish additional sources of sustainable revenues for non-profits. Impact advertising is not only a promising innovation for our portfolio organizations but will also set the norm for a new giving economy where donations are paid by brands », underlines Alexandre Mars, Founder and CEO of Epic.
About Epic
Founded in 2014 by serial entrepreneur and philanthropist Alexandre Mars, Epic is a global non-profit start-up headquartered in New York, and present notably in Paris, Brussels and London, which fights to change the lives of disadvantaged youth. Epic removes obstacles to giving and focuses donations on innovative and carefully vetted social organizations to scale their impact. Epic also brings and promotes new ways to give and re-imagine pathways to purpose. Epic's services are free and 100% of the money received goes to Epic portfolio organizations.
About WhatRocks Foundation
WhatRocks Foundation is the overarching non-profit organization of WhatRocks™, the first social impact label for digital advertising.
In the WhatRocks™ community, brands reward users financially when they see or click on their WhatRocks™-labeled ads across the web with blockchain tokens called Rocks™. Users redeem their Rocks™ to make donations to their non-profits of choice. These non-profits fund their charitable activities by selling their Rocks™ to brands that need to reward users exposed to their own WhatRocks™-labeled ads. In this circular giving economy, account opening and transactions are free of charge* to keep donations untouched.
WhatRocks™ is more than a label: it’s an international community of engaged individuals, brands and non-profits taking action together to fund social change.
More info at www.whatrocks.co
*conditions apply
Press contact for Epic
Max Colas
Chief Operating Officer
max@epic.foundation
Press contact for WhatRocks Foundation
press@whatrocksfoundation.com