MAL\FOR GOOD (MFG), the TBWA\Media Arts Lab social impact agency launched in 2014, has hired Wieden+Kennedy and Nike veteran Julia Porter Plowman as its managing director.
“Julia’s career has been about innovation, purpose and making a difference. “She also has an incredible resume working for some of the world’s top consumer brands. She is a perfect fit for MFG,” TBWA Worldwide president and CEO Troy Ruhanen said in a statement. “We’re building an agency that is staffed with some of the best, smartest and most talented people in the industry and we’re bringing all that to service causes and organizations that do good in the world. Our super powers are creativity and strategic thinking, and if we can use those to make positive change, that’s a good thing”
“Our working model is to offer world class creative focused on social impact,” added Plowman. “We’ve got a clear vision, the social enterprise climate is ripe and we’re backed by TBWA, a global network. MFG is all about helping brands and organizations find and spread their good in an authentic way in order to make the impact they want.”
Plowman arrives at MAL\FORGOOD from Providence Health & Services, where she spent over two and a half years serving as director of service integration and communications. She spent over a decade with W+K, serving as a global group account director for the agency’s Portland, Tokyo and Amsterdam offices while working with clients including Nike, Coca-Cola, Old Spice, Microsoft, Audi and Electronic Arts. In 2007 she left W+K to lead strategic and creative development on Nike’s “The Girl Effect” campaign. Two years later she left Nike to become chief operating officer of nonprofit World Pulse, and then joined startup design firm Context Partners as managing director two years later.
MAL\FOR GOOD also released a manifesto outlining its “Be Good. Do Good.” philosophy and unveiled its first website.
“As a social impact agency with an extraordinary pedigree in serious brand building and culture creation, MFG has been in a class of its own,” MFG global creative president Duncan Milner, who joined MFG last October after serving as chief creative officer at TBWA\Media Arts Lab, said in a statement. “Today we proudly announce that we are stepping out with a reinforced leadership team, a stronger vision, a new look and naturally, a new website. We’re here to be good and do good, and do it differently.”
“Today, brands need to have more than just a point of view on what’s happening in the world,” TBWA/Media Arts Lab chairman and global director Lee Clow added. “A brand’s values need to be part of their brand behavior and message. Julia and Duncan leading MFG, uniquely positions us. They combine a deep understanding of ‘Social Impact’ marketing with a world-class history of brand building and storytelling. They’ll do good.”
Photo L to R: Lee Clow, Julia Porter Plowman and Duncan Milner