Ketchum at 90: celebrating our future
We’re celebrating Ketchum’s 90th birthday today with almost 3,000 colleagues around the world in 130 locations. Here’s our boss Rob Flaherty telling the story of the agency’s first 90 years via one of his fantastic stop motion drawings.
"Ninety percent of our focus is on the future as we celebrate the 90th anniversary of the founding of Ketchum. That’s fitting because if there was ever an industry focused almost entirely on the future, on what’s next, it’s the public relations business," said Flaherty.
We’re commemorating the milestone with two philanthropic initiatives: a series of 90 creative brainstorms in 90 days for non-profits around the world, and funding to support 90 young women in the Morogoro Region of Tanzania and a region in India to complete secondary school through Ketchum's pro bono partner Room to Read.
90 brainstorms in 90 days For the next 90 days we’ll be leading and participating in brainstorms to assist a local non-profit in overcoming a challenge that the organisation is currently facing.
The range of organizations covers research foundations like the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (supported by Ketchum, New York), foreign aid organizations like Born in Africa (supported by Ketchum, Belgium), and social service agencies like Diakonie Jugendhilfe Oberbayern (supported by Ketchum Pleon, Germany).
Room to Read: supporting 90 young women This year also marks Ketchum's fifth anniversary with Room to Read, a global organisation focused on transforming children's lives through literacy and gender equality in education.
Ketchum and its employees have committed to donating the money needed to empower 90 girls who are enrolled in the nonprofit's Girls' Education program to graduate from secondary school and develop the skills needed to succeed beyond the classroom. The money raised will be a combination of agency and employee contributions.
"The big take-always from our past are that a culture of respect and integrity matter, that there is real business value in creative storytelling and advising clients on how to do the right thing, that keeping our focus on serving clients and responsibly building their brands has helped us to create our own sustainable brand," added Flaherty.
