Meet our newest Champion For Good Ashley Holinger! Ashley is the Director of Strategic Brand & Programmatic Partnerships at Zynga, where she partnered with the Ad Council’s Recycling campaign. Learn more about Ashley's perspective on the gaming industry and why she loves working in the social good space.
Q: How have you worked with the Ad Council? What campaign(s) have you supported and what was the project you worked on with us?
AH: Zynga partnered with the Ad Council to build deep awareness around recycling. Through a fun Trivia Playable Ad, Zynga players were encouraged to test their recycling knowledge and learn how, where and what to recycle. The quiz helped to mobilize individual ownership and an emotional connection to recycling and drive our community to click to IWantToBeRecycled.org to learn more. We were thrilled to be involved with the initiative as we have seen time and again that our community of players love an opportunity to learn and ultimately give back.
Q: Social good ads pull at our heartstrings. What social good ad has made you cry or stand up and cheer?
AH: I’ve loved watching both the Ad Council and brands like Nike with sustainability and the environment, and Burger King with bullying, start meaningful conversations around pressing social issues. Seeing brands creatively use their influence to fundamentally play a role in shaping and advancing global culture makes me stand up and cheer.
Seeing brands play a role in shaping and advancing global culture makes me stand up and cheer.
Q: How do you or your team integrate social good into your work, or how do you think your brand is making the world a better place?
AH: At Zynga, we aspire to be a top destination for women in gaming and are dedicated to creating an environment where women of all backgrounds and disciplines can thrive and create gaming experiences that delight players around the world. We’ve extended this commitment outside of Zynga and last year partnered with the University of Southern California to fund class curriculum and an event series focused on the study of social mobile games, inclusive game production and advancing diversity in the industry. I feel fortunate that my day-to-day work, and my participation in our Women at Zynga Mentorship Program, contributes to a company that values developing my unique strength as a woman, and ultimately strives to help shape the next generation of diverse gaming industry talent.
Q: How has your organization improved or innovated the digital landscape in the last year?
AH: Zynga allows brands to natively interact with their consumers in a fun, playful and relevant way through creative integrations in games like Words With Friends 2, as well as “snack size” playable ad experiences created by our own in-house studio – Studio E. More broadly, we’re actively developing chat-based games on platforms like Facebook Instant Games because of its potential to drive innovation and create new gaming experiences, while also reshaping the accessibility and social nature of mobile gaming.
Q: What was the greatest piece of advice someone gave you?
AH: Make your bed. Everyday.
Q: What age would you want to meet up with your former self, and what advice would you give to that younger you?
AH: I would love to go back and chat with the me boarding the flight to New York to start my first job out of college. The advice: keep saying yes to the scary stuff – 9 times out of 10 it will be the most rewarding.
Say yes to the scary stuff! 9 times out of 10 it will be rewarding.
Q: Tell us what you hope to see more of or experience more of in the next year, using only emojis.
AH: 🔎🌏🌈✈️🚲♀️📈🙌