2/4/2023
P&G Brings Representative and Equitable Storytelling to the 2023 Sundance Film Festival
Earlier this year, P&G headed to Park City, Utah, for the 2023 Sundance Film Festival, where we worked to help drive awareness and industry credibility, and to enable growth and value creation, for our brands with multicultural consumers by creating connections to culture through powerful and resonant storytelling. According to a 2022 study from the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) and the Alliance for Inclusive and Multicultural Marketing (AIMM), cultural relevance and resonance can lift brand trust up to 81%, while contributing to 66% of a campaign’s sales lift. Together our brands and P&G Studios, including the signature program the Queen Collective, develop and produce stories that shine a light on under-represented voices, untold stories and acts of good that our brands support.
Officially kicking off our fourth year of the Queen Collective — our signature talent development initiative created in partnership with Queen Latifah, Flavor Unit Entertainment and Tribeca Studios set out to accelerate gender and racial equality behind the camera — had an inaugural debut during the 2023 Sundance Film Festival on Saturday, January 21.
The Queen Collective partnered The Blackhouse Foundation, a non-profit organization that creates new opportunities for the Black community in the film world and that encourages the creation of independent films based on people of African background. As part of Blackhouse’s series of events as official partners of Sundance, we collaborated to product a “Clips & Conversations” panel featuring five of our six filmmakers — Imani Dennison, Idil Ibrahim, Jenn Shaw, Luchina Fisher and Vahsni Korin. Each of these women showcased pieces from their films and discussed the creative processes they took in bringing their respective stories to life. P&G partner brands included My Black is Beautiful, Olay, Pampers and Crest.
The first two Queen Collective Films, In Her Element and GAPS, will air on BET Network Friday, February 24, 2023, at 9 PM ET.
P&G Studios also headed to Sundance to screen the feature-length documentary Fair Play. The film was a collaboration between Hello Sunshine and P&G Studios, as well as brand partnerships with Swiffer and Dawn. Written, produced and directed by Jennifer Siebel Newsom and inspired by Eve Rodsky’s New York Times best-selling book of the same name, it chronicles Eve’s journey to help rebalance the domestic workload between partners. The film can be streamed on Hulu and other video-on-demand rental platforms. Dawn, Swiffer and Hello Sunshine also recently announced the latest in their partnership journey to help Close the Chore Gap — Home Eq[uity], a curriculum for teachers and parents designed to equip the next generation with tools to run a home and divide tasks fairly. You can read more about the program here.
Tremendous potential exists to grow with multicultural consumers. “Data by itself is nothing if you do not drive insights and take action,” said Vasanthi Chalasani, Senior Vice President, North America Chief Information Officer & Consumer Insights at P&G, during a panel at Sundance’s first official AAPI House. The AAPI House was hosted by P&G’s strategic NGO partners, The Asian American Foundation (TAAF) and Gold House, in partnership with 3AD, Daniel Dae Kim’s production company.
During the panel entitled “Keeping It Real: Authentic Storytelling in a Global + Savvy Marketplace,” Vasanthi shared insights related to the growth opportunity of the AAPI consumer, which is the fastest of the fastest growing consumer demographic, and the importance of having content that resonates with and is relevant to them. Vasanthi also shared learnings from P&G’s film “The Name,” which elevates the importance of a name and how meaningful gestures — like pronunciation and understanding its meaning — can create a greater sense of belonging.
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