SCA Embrace, the company’s national charity initiative, has provided more than $110 million in-kind for its partner charities, The Smith Family and Beyond Blue, over a two and a half year period.
The charity program, which wrapped up its latest partnerships at the end of June, works in two-year cycles, with SCA providing in-kind advertising campaign support for its selected charities, while also encouraging its teams to get behind charity-based events and activities.
SCA extended its traditional two-year partnership by an additional six months due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Smith Family and Beyond Blue received more than $110 million in in-kind radio and television advertising, along with digital, social, creative and research support.
SCA’s people were actively involved in content creation and promotional activations, including Triple M’s No Talk Day, which encourages men to talk about mental health, and coverage of the NRL and AFL Beyond Blue Cups.
Team members also volunteered at charitable events, including The Smith Family’s Annual Toy and Book Appeal nationwide, as well as providing work experience programs and participating in mental health sessions.
The charity partnerships saw SCA provide the organisations with a combined $111,560,040 of in-kind advertising and marketing support – a figure SCA CEO Grant Blackley said demonstrated SCA’s enduring commitment and the success of the program.
“We are enormously proud to have partnered with two exceptional charities Beyond Blue and The Smith Family for the past 2.5 years. The advertising support we provided enabled the delivery of key messages for both organisations along with important research development for the not-for-profit sector, and pleasingly, our people truly embraced the relationships through various experiences,” he said.
“Both charities have played an important role nationwide in recent times, particularly during the country’s bushfires, floods, and COVID-19, so to be able to use our media assets and expertise to deliver information and support on the importance of mental health and children’s education during this challenging period has been a privilege.”
Some of the most impactful connections between SCA and The Smith Family included students on the charity’s Learning for Life program gaining real-life access to the world of work to inspire their career pathways. The Smith Family and SCA also co-created the charity’s Breaking Poverty podcast, which examined the state of child poverty in Australia and how education breaks the cycle of disadvantage.
The Smith Family Acting CEO, Judy Barraclough, said the organisation was extremely grateful for SCA’s support.
“The Smith Family is committed to improving the long-term educational outcomes of young Australians living in disadvantage. And thanks to SCA’s donation of more than $55 million of in-kind advertising support across its radio, television, and digital networks, they have helped us increase awareness of child poverty in Australia and raise much-needed funds for young people in need,” she said.
“SCA’s tremendous generosity went beyond in-kind advertising support too. They also allowed us to work with their radio talent, creating pro-bono commercials, and provided numerous opportunities for on-air interviews, among other contributions.
“Our vision is to create a better future for young Australians experiencing disadvantage, and thanks to SCA’s generous in-kind support, many more Australians understand how critical this work is – for young people today and for generations to come. It also meant our organisation could focus more resources on our core work – reaching more children in need with our life-changing educational support.”
Beyond Blue CEO, Georgie Harman, said the partnership with SCA had made a significant positive impact across Australia.
“We have been overwhelmed with the support we have received from SCA over the past two and a half years through the SCA Embrace program,” she said.
“The $55 million advertising support exceeded all expectations and has helped us massively amplify our mental health and suicide prevention services, campaigns and information to people and places. SCA’s support meant we could redirect expenditure into services to the community.
“When we commenced our partnership in 2019, we didn’t realise then what would lie ahead and how much our collective mental health and wellbeing would be challenged.
“We have partnered through drought, bushfires, floods, and a global pandemic, and through our partnership we have been able to respond in a timely and targeted way to meet community need.
“We also saw firsthand SCA’s own commitment to the mental health of their community with the creation of Triple M’s No Talk Day, a day dedicated to supporting men’s mental health.
“Our research has shown a marked increase in SCA listeners’ awareness of Beyond Blue, how we can support them, and the likelihood of them using or recommending our services over the past two years. We know that this partnership has made a significant difference in the lives of people in Australia, and we can’t thank SCA enough for embracing Beyond Blue and supporting the community during this time.”
SCA will announce its 2022 charity partnerships later this year.