Yesterday we had the privilege of being invited to share how our Social Business model works with the full team at the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising. We sometimes forget that Social Business as the new black has yet to take hold and be understood as a concept for the many. Our talk was designed to inspire others to take the model seriously, not as a philanthropic gesture but as a true commercial opportunity. Of course, Social Businesses come in a whole range of shapes and sizes, but they share a mission to use business to generate profit and to solve some of the world’s biggest problems. It’s encouraging that NatWest reports that the top 100 fastest growing social businesses worldwide achieved record-breaking 951% average growth in turnover in 2015/16 and recorded £1.3B in profits in the most recent financial year. (This of course far outstrips the sales growth posted by Britain’s top FTSE 100). It’s interesting too that the Social Business model is beginning to take hold in the media sector, with companies like oneOeight TV growing like topsy. We note with glee that the UK Government has recently (October 16) developed a cross-governmental strategy to position the UK as a global centre for the social economy. Our mission is to demonstrate that a Social Business in the brand communications industry can be profitable, mainstream and sustainable. It is rooted in the belief that there are big commercial prizes to match the social benefits offered by such a model. And by doing things holistically, with social value running through everything we are and do, this kind of model can also answer some of the problems our industry itself is facing. How can the industry reclaim its magnetism as having long term strategic vision, work-life balance and job security? How can a world that is overtaken by big corporate beasts offer a flavour to its clients that is not vanilla – and avoid being commoditised? How does the ad industry recruit, develop and retain the right new talent when millennials want to change the world and make an impact by doing something meaningful? And finishing on that note, perhaps we can inspire you by sharing some stories of our own – examples of how our profit share goes to fund young creative talent to make a difference in the world. How Billy the Rucksack has been given funding support to set up his new online Social Business, how Damiano the filmmaker is creating a conversation about hate crimes in the UK with our support, how we are helping Fatma to captured the attention of the design world with her creative work on female genital mutilation – and so on and so forth.