Robyn Streisand on the ‘ROI of love’

Ad Age is marking Pride Month 2023 with our Honoring Creative Excellence package, in which LGBTQ+ creators revisit some of their favorite projects. (Read the introduction here.) This week, our guest editor Lisa Sherman turns the spotlight to Robyn Streisand, founder and CEO of The Mixx and Titanium Worldwide. Here, Streisand writes about working with Chase on the “Freedom to Be” campaign.

Trust, relationships, impact: My agency’s three values have always lived with me and are ingrained in every aspect of our work. For me, great work comes from forging genuine relationships with those we work alongside. This approach leads to meaningful conversations which, in turn, become the foundation for the outstanding work and the impact we produce together with our clients and partners.

Our work with Chase is one such example of investing in how our agency values helped create a relationship of championing urgent causes for change.

After many conversations with the Office of LGBTQ+ Affairs, we found an opportunity to do something that would turn out to be a highlight in my career: Take Chase’s first-ever consumer campaign to market directly engaging the LGBTQ+ community for their Freedom Unlimited card.

Relationships: Check.

Chase has always been an ally to all cardmembers—but realized an opportunity to really show out.

Before I knew it, we were kicking off the project with the Chase Freedom team, whose members placed immense faith in us to create something that authentically and genuinely spoke to the community.

Trust: Check.

And so was born the “Freedom to Be” campaign, communicating to Chase’s audience that everyone has the right to live as their true selves. We engaged queer influencers David Yi and BLK MKT Vintage to share their “moments that matter” to reward all that you are—both in purchasing and in celebrating all of life’s little moments.

They say it takes a village, and this was no exception. My certified-diverse agency partners under Titanium, led by our Mixx creative and account teams, brought the goods—sourcing talent and casting the shoot. The campaign was powerful in that it featured an entirely queer cast, led by three LGBTQ+ agencies, sharing their stories for the whole world to see—and they did!

The work speaks for itself, and the results showed a community appetite for Chase turning up the right way—the campaign successfully surpassed every stated benchmark. But more important to me is our like-minded values and being able to live those through this incredible partnership with Chase.

Impact: Check.

In my own career, I talk a lot about the “ROI of love.” The trifecta of getting paid to do great work, for people with their hearts in the right place, all while helping a vital cause through a national brand platform is the living and loving expression of my life’s mission. People often think you have to choose one—my legacy says otherwise. Now, more than ever, we need exceptional clients such as Chase willing to take a chance on small, independent, diverse shops to produce work celebrating all communities, and not let fear get in our way of doing what’s right.