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The Power Of Purpose: How Kin Helped Mailchimp Launch The #SupportTheShorts Film Festival

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Kin is a new breed of creative company using kinship to unleash business and culture as forces for good in our world. Founded in 2019 by Kwame Taylor-Hayford and Sophie Ozoux, Kin pushes the boundaries of creativity and innovation to channel purpose for brands including Mailchimp, Delta Airlines, Emerge, Conservation International and The Leadership Conference on Civil & Human Rights.

When the SXSW Film Festival was cancelled, Kin was called in to help Mailchimp find alternative ways for film-makers to get the word out. Oscilloscope and Mailchimp (along with Code + Theory) have created a digital home for an incredible slate of short films so these filmmakers can still share their visions with the world. Films from the festival lineup will be available to stream globally starting Wednesday, March 25 at 12 p.m. ET / 9 a.m. PT at www.mailchimp.com/presents/SXSW

I caught up with them to find out more about their work philosophy and this project.

Afdhel Aziz: Kwame and Sophie, welcome. Please tell us about why you decided to co-found Kin together, and what your purpose and philosophy is?

Kwame Taylor-Hayford and Sophie Ozoux: After many years at some great agencies and brand side, we wanted to put our collective experience to work in service of creativity, innovation and purpose. We saw kinship... true partnership, collaboration and friendship... as the missing ingredient in most relationships so we've set out to address that. Creativity alone is not enough. Kinship is a critical ingredient to address the world’s biggest challenges.

Aziz: I couldn’t agree more! Tell us about how you discovered and articulated MailChimp's purpose?

Kwame and Sophie: The truth is Mailchimp as a company has always had a clear purpose and focus. From its inception both Ben and Dan, the children of entrepreneurs, wanted to help small businesses get past survival and achieve self reliance. It's with that as a core value that they grew Mailchimp, an impressive company that does so much for its customers, employees and community. Our job was to help further clarify their citizenship efforts and develop a strong, smart, communication platform to share their impactful work with the world.

This project is perfectly aligned with Mailchimp's purpose and commitment to champion small world changers, who in this case are the talented filmmakers and their incredible, inspiring short stories.

Aziz: Ok cool. And how did the idea for the film festival come about? 

Kwame and Sophie: It came out of a desire to be useful. Useful to the filmmakers who lost their big opportunity to showcase their work. Useful to their incredible stories that needed a home and an attentive audience. Useful to the film lovers trapped at home who would value something entertaining to watch.

When SXSW cancelled it’s festival due to concerns about coronavirus, they left a lot of short filmmakers without an opportunity or platform to share their hard work with the world. Mailchimp gave us a call and we were excited to jump on board and help them execute the idea very quickly.

Aziz: And what did you guys do with it?

Kwame and Sophie:We developed the idea to naturally extend from the corporate citizenship platform we've been working on for Mailchimp, celebrating small world changers who in this case, are these short film makers. #SupportTheShorts is a call to action to see the 2020 SXSW Official Short Film selections online.

It was important to us that the filmmakers and their communities play an active role in the project to support their films and get the word out about #SupportTheShorts. Mailchimp agreed so we developed a toolkit of digital assets, including a few lightly branded elements, that the filmmakers could use to appropriate the platform for themselves by customizing content to share on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. It will also be a very welcome distraction from the current news cycle, one we can all use right now.

As #SupportTheShorts evolves, we’re discussing with Mailchimp the best ways to create a lasting, positive impact on these filmmakers and their communities. How can we get them more opportunities to create and showcase their films? How can we ensure they have the support and resources they need? How can this platform become a catalyst for their careers? These are a few questions we’ll be debating in the coming weeks.

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