By Scott Beaudoin, Global Director, PurPle, MSLGROUP Americas

Chicago is well known for turning its river colors to celebrate Holidays and special occasions. Tonight, Wednesday, May 30th, 2012, the city was turned PurPle.

Every year, for the last ten years, taste makers from around the U.S. and Canada convene at the U.S. Cause Marketing Forum to celebrate leaders and best-in-class campaigns in the areas of cause marketing, corporate social responsibility, sustainability and non-profit marketing.

To celebrate 10 years of innovation and category growth, MSLGROUP Americas sponsored the anniversary party, turning the ballroom purple and asking people if their companies and organizations are PurPle.

We agitated a conversation about moving our minds from traditional CSR (corporate social responsibility) to CSI (collaborative social innovation). Because, building and communicating purpose-led business strategies today must put people and co-creation at the center.

The People Element

Purpose on its own is not new – it is a brand or company’s reason for being and is often communicated through philanthropy, responsible practices, and reporting of sustainability goals. Yet, the element of People is often missing. People are vital to informing strategies, engaging with others and inspiring action.

Tomorrow’s successful PurPle companies and brands will be those that drive rapid and meaningful change through collaboration with stakeholders to deliver on shared value and a common purpose in society.

Tonight, over 150+ taste makers learned about our new global PurPle offering and another 500+ will experience PurPle at our booth over the next couple of days.

I am thrilled that our vision to launch a global purpose-led offering has come to fruition and that we all were guided by great visionaries and leaders in Pascal Beucler and Gaurav Mishra.

Through collaboration with colleagues across our global network, we will develop smarter, more-thoughtful purpose-led business strategies for our clients.

Scott Beaudoin is SVP, practice director for MSLGROUP Americas’ New York-based consumer marketing practice where he oversees business that also includes P&G, UL, General Motors, Heineken, Ferrero Rocher, Outback Steakhouse, PUMA, Kellogg’s, amazon.com and Brother. Through his work, Scott has received top industry honors including: PR Week Campaign of the Year, Public Relations Society of America Silver Anvil and PR News Platinum Award for Cause-Related Marketing.

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PurPle = Purpose + People