Bringing equitable opportunities to Canada’s underserved writers

 

The Challenge

Audible, one of the world’s leading content producers and distributors, is on a mission to improve the lives of those with less privilege wherever it operated. In Canada, Audible’s platform is growing in popularity, bringing audio entertainment to all corners of the nation. In order to ensure it was living to fulfill its mission, Audible Canada engaged Yulu to help identify some of Canada’s most prevalent challenges and the communities most affected by these, before helping it to build a platform to engage and support underserved audiences nationwide.

The Solution

Yulu worked with Audible on a 6-month research project to identify and explore Canada’s greatest social challenge and impact themes – from affordable housing to mental health, clean water to Indigenous rights. Coupled with this research was a set of stakeholder interviews with a difference. Rather than speaking to the Audible Canada team about communications opportunities, Yulu dug deeper. We connected with members of Audible globally to explore what it means to truly Activate Caring in the community – Activate Caring is a global social responsibility commitment within Audible which guides and informs its give-back and impact work.

The Impact

Through the strategic process of stakeholder interviews and research into issues where Audible could truly make a difference, Yulu came to a recommendation of Audible – bringing equitable opportunities to underserved groups, especially Indigenous Peoples. Once this impact theme was identified, Yulu moved into its next phase of work. Audible and Yulu are currently building a nationwide mentorship and writing program for emerging Indigenous writers which will connect participants with well-known and established First Nations, Metis and Inuit writers and creators, learning from them and building their skillset and platform. At the end of the program, depending on what stage each writer has progressed their creative work and how they choose to share their writing, participants may have the opportunity to explore recording with Audible.

“Yulu’s global expertise and skillful execution of IWC in CA was essential to the success of the program, which we attribute in large part to their talented team, thoughtful approach, and commitment to cultural authenticity.”