32
2008
Toronto, New York
Social Impact
30
Underdog
What makes us “not like the others”? That’s fairly straightforward: profit with purpose. It’s our operating principle and we lead the charge on that front (more on that later in our submission). We are an independent creative impact agency helping courageous companies across North America put purpose at the top of the business agenda since 2008, so we firmly believe that companies everywhere can – and should – be a greater force for good in the world. This was a bit revolutionary when we started, but now we’re shepherding this framework forward in the modern, complicated context we’re finding ourselves in today.
Over the last seventeen years, we have helped organizations grow their brands while also improving climate solutions, health outcomes, employment opportunities, conditions for frontline health workers, reducing food insecurity, homelessness, drop-out rate, hate and discrimination, among many other issues. This is what we do and why we get up every day.
We break the “either/or” myth that as a marketer or brand, you can either sell products, or you stand for something. We’ve built an agency model and operating ethos around “both/and.” Our work proves you can raise money, sell products, move culture, and even change laws, sometimes all in the same campaign.
We also reject the idea that purpose is passé. The headlines may scream “anti-woke” and “ESG is dead,” but we’ve been at this since 2008, and we know better: sustainability is maturing, not disappearing. So while others whisper, we get louder and smarter in the ways we connect to the conscious consumer.
We’re proudly not like the others because we don’t treat purpose as a side hustle. For us, it is the hustle, the only answer. And we have a few examples of how this works.
At Public, “holiday season” doesn’t mean office Secret Santa or White Elephant gift exchanges, it means putting our creative muscle behind a nonprofit partner. Every year, our staff vote on one bold idea in July (culled from a list of passion projects/candidates), then bring it to life pro bono. No clients. No billable hours. Just pure purpose.
This reimagined holiday campaign was born in 2019 out of “gift fatigue” because nobody actually needs another branded water bottle headed straight for landfill. We figured if we’re going to spend the season giving, it should be on ideas that last longer than a client’s junk drawer. So we swapped swag for campaigns that create measurable impact and communications that stick forever.
Here’s what that looks like in action:
FU2020 – With the Mental Health Coalition, we turned a year everyone wanted to flip off into fuel for donations. Participants texted the middle finger emoji to 1-877-EFF-THIS to give in-app. On zero media budget, it racked up 15M+ views, $50K+ raised, 200 new monthly donors, and headlines in Fast Company, Adweek, and Forbes.
Deck The Stalls – Via PERIOD., we unleashed Crampus (with a C), a foul-mouthed holiday anti-hero on a mission to fight period poverty. Local volunteers “decked the stalls” of public bathrooms with free hygiene products, while Crampus stormed social feeds and news sites. Result: $500K raised, 200,000 products donated, and 12M+ views in four weeks.
It Takes a Village – With Roots of Empathy, we built a digital holiday village that challenged people to create a kinder future. The campaign combined video storytelling with an advent-style content series, raising $20K, generating thousands of views, and reaching nearly 1M people.
These campaigns prove a simple truth: when you mix cultural insight, creativity, and purpose, even the busiest time of year becomes a season for impact.
Our Public Code sets us apart. The Code: having the courage to stand up, stand out and stand together to accelerate change. We are intentional about this being our driving force and we live it in our weekly wins and shout outs, our performance reviews, our compensation plan (including bonus and profit sharing), our Imagine Better Day and our Public Days, days designed to give back directly within the communities where we we live and serve (ideally offline). We also publish an annual impact report, proudly our “Imagine Better” Sustainability Strategy, so this language and direction is shared intentionally with our audiences. Public Inc. is a proud B Corp, so transparency is our default setting.
Our vibe? Playful brains with serious hearts. We’ve built tampon-box Christmas trees, sent foul-mouthed holiday antiheroes into the world, and texted middle fingers at the year 2020. But we’ve also done leading work for the Obama Foundation, L’Oreal, Meals on Wheels, Canada Goose, WWF and so many more. That mix of rigor, rebellion, and ridiculousness could only exist in an independent creative social impact shop like ours.
We love using humour to engage people in issues that aren’t funny, and our agency independence gives us permission to take swings the big guys won’t. And as “underdogs” when we connect, the impact is real:
FU2020: With the Mental Health Coalition, we raised $50K+ and 200 new monthly donors on zero media budget — all by inviting people to text the middle finger emoji.
PETition: With The Body Shop, we mobilized 1M+ Canadians (8M+ globally), drove a 17% sales bump, and helped change Canadian law to ban cosmetic animal testing.
Conscious Consumer Report: Our proprietary research challenged how brands approach ESG, shifting focus from abstract ideals to immediate consumer needs like affordability and local impact.
End the Wait: With Meals on Wheels America, we exposed alarming facts around the reality that, due to funding shortfalls, many seniors have to wait for months – sometimes even years – for a nutritious meal and a moment of connection that programs like Meals on Wheels provides. So we partnered with MOWA on a 5-year platform, rallying donors,influencers, government officials, and local community members to pledge their support and ensure that every senior who needs Meals On Wheels gets it.
These wins aren’t accidents. They’re what happens when you pair indie freedom with a refusal to play it safe.
At Public Inc., purpose isn’t just talked about; it’s tracked, reported, and yes, even celebrated. As a certified B Corp, we start by being honest with ourselves: we measure social and environmental impact, share results openly with our team, and ensure every employee sees the tangible difference their work makes. Transparency isn’t optional, it’s the glue that turns engagement into ownership.
We bring that same ethos to our clients and partners. Whether advising on sustainability reporting, ESG initiatives, or nonprofit campaigns, we help organizations communicate outcomes authentically. Data is translated into stories, dashboards, and creative campaigns, so stakeholders don’t just see results, they feel them and see how it impacts a bottom line or shared objective.
By publishing wins, challenges, and lessons learned, we model honesty and accountability. Purpose here is a living, breathing practice: transparent, measurable, and impossible to ignore. Employees, partners, and communities aren’t just informed, they’re inspired to join us.
Public Inc. was born in 2008, just days after Lehman Brothers imploded and the global economy hit rock bottom. While Wall Street was melting down, our founder Phil Haid thought: what if we rebuilt capitalism and stakeholder activism differently? Not as profit versus purpose, but profit with purpose.
Back then, CSR (corporate social responsibility) was still called CSR and it was popular-ish, but it was still treated like the kids’ table at Thanksgiving – nice, but nowhere near the “real” business or key stakeholders or decision makers. We set out to flip that script. Purpose shouldn’t be a side hustle; it should live within the C-suite, the marketing brief, the supply chain, i.e. everywhere a company touches the world.
We believed then (and still do now) that sustainability and social impact aren’t distractions from growth; in fact, these principles are accelerators of it. Doing good is additive, not subtractive. It builds resilience, trust, and impacts bottom lines. Nearly two decades later, that conviction has become our trademark: measurable impact + bold storytelling that moves people to buy, donate, vote, and care.
In other words, the world had a crisis, and we responded by starting a bit of a crisis response, one where the antidote to broken systems is a little imagination, a strong guiding principle of creativity, and a lot of guts and humour, with purpose at the core.
Our earliest battle was convincing executives that profit with purpose was more than a buzzword or catchy phrase: it was the future of business. So while today, our biggest fight is the pushback amidst these current political headwinds, it’s also frankly a motivator, because we’ve seen the evolution of how purpose has become a real thing. We have confidence and acumen to fight back against the so-called “death of purpose.” Between DEI retrenchment, “anti-woke” backlash, and headlines declaring ESG over, it sometimes feels as though like the industry was bracing for retreat. And we feel it, but we’re pushed to work harder.
Our independence gives us the courage and runway to zig while others zagged. We doubled down on rigor, honesty, and wit, helping clients retool instead of retreat. We are relentless in our advocacy and thinking. Through our new Conscious Consumer Report, we demonstrate that sustainability is maturing, not disappearing, and that the brands brave enough to stay in the fight - albeit with smarter, more direct ways of communicating externally and internally - win loyalty, sales, and maintain cultural relevance.
Courage beats cynicism. Every time.
Independence is no longer the scrappy exception – it embodies the engine of progress in our industry. While holding companies chase quarterly earnings, independents like us have the freedom to stay bold, move fast, adjust on the fly, and push purpose beyond the buzzword. And then we scream about impact and results from the rooftops!
The next era won’t be about purpose for purpose’s sake, rather it will be about proving that sustainability and social impact add to business outcomes, not distract from them. It’s about results and impact and how you share these results. That’s where our independence shines: we can pivot, go our own way, and keep showing that the brands who double down on impact build deeper loyalty, stronger sales, and more cultural relevance.
At Public Inc., we’ll keep leading that charge: blending evidence with creativity, and strategy alongside wit, to make “profit with purpose” not just a philosophy or lovely mindset, but the future operating system for business. Because the future won’t belong to the biggest agencies. It’ll belong to the bravest.
