Awards & Press
Ovative Group Named a Social Impact Finalist for the 2022 Microsoft Advertising Partner Awards
Minneapolis, MN March 23 – National firm Ovative Group has been named a Social Impact Community Response finalist for the 2022 Microsoft Advertising Partner Awards.
The awards celebrate excellence among Microsoft’s partners who help make Microsoft Advertising successful. The Social Impact Awards focus on highlighting inspiring solutions and celebrating change-makers who drive purpose and action in the community.
Ovative empowers its team to be change-makers through the Champions of Change program, which seeks to drive social impact within and beyond Ovative’s walls. Through the Skills-Based Partnerships pillar, Ovative team members provide marketing services to community organizations to increase access to digital media and improve the effectiveness of their marketing efforts.
In 2022, Ovative’s Champions of Change team directed pro-bono marketing and business strategy work for 16 organizations across the country. From increasing awareness around issues, improving access to resources and services, to understanding the business impact scaling marketing can have, the results were remarkable.
Ovative is in its second year of partnership with Special Olympics Minnesota (SOMN), which supports children and adults with intellectual disabilities. In 2022, they exceeded their registration goals by 27% for the Polar Plunge through the use of digital ads and new landing page experiences. Launching Microsoft Ads for Social Impact to reach audiences interested in corporate or group activities drove a 20% increase in site traffic, increasing the funding SOMN could apply toward its mission of creating an inclusion revolution.
Ovative also partnered with Emma’s Torch, a New York-based organization that provides culinary training and work to refugees, asylees, and survivors of human trafficking. Together, they increased site traffic by more than 70% by launching influencer marketing, understanding their customer lifecycle, enabling performance tracking, and utilizing advertising grants to own the top position for traffic interested in restaurant and catering services. Microsoft Audience Ads have been effective for Emma’s Torch, increasing site traffic by 70% and driving over 20% of conversions.
In total, Ovative provided an estimated $300k of in-kind services to community organizations nationally, with 18% of our team participating in this work in 2022. Other partners include the Planned Parenthood of North Central States, Patagonia Action Works, MAIA, Beta.MN, Northside Economic Opportunity Network, Minnesota Department of Public Services SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program), The BrandLab, and more.
ABOUT CHAMPIONS OF CHANGE
Ovative’s Champions of Change program seeks to foster a culture inclusive of all dimensions of difference, within and beyond our walls. We enable our team members to engage in driving social impact through four pillars: Cultural Agility Education, Equitable Operating Practices, Charitable Giving, and Skills-Based Partnerships. These pillars provide personal and relational learning opportunities, assess and increase equity of our internal operations, foster employee time and financial commitments, and provide pro-bono marketing services to community organizations.
ABOUT OVATIVE GROUP
Ovative Group is an independent media and measurement firm that helps clients drive and deliver measurable marketing performance. Founded in 2009 by Dale Nitschke, Ovative brings media, measurement, and consulting together under one roof to measure the holistic impact of marketing on clients’ total business using its proprietary metric, Enterprise Marketing Return (EMR). Ovative’s team of marketing experts serves as a trusted partner for its national world-class client base of marketing leaders across many industries. Ovative is recognized as an industry leader and has received awards including Star Tribune’s Top Workplaces, Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal’s Fast 50, and Inc. 5000. For more information about Ovative, visit ovative.com or follow Ovative on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter.
