[Top Agency Series] Unlocking Inclusive Marketing Magic With Matthew Tsang of AndHumanity

Matthew Tsang is Co-founder of AndHumanity, an integrated, inclusive marketing and communications agency with a mission to serve people-first brands. Over his 15-year career in marketing communications, his work has been featured in numerous prestigious platforms such as Marketing Magazine and the Global American Marketing Association. Matthew is also the Principal and Growth Director at My Loud Speaker, an international award-winning full-service marketing agency based in Vancouver. He champions systemic change in the advertising world and believes in marketing’s responsibility to humanity.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

• [03:54] Matthew Tsang discusses the justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion (JEDI) principles in marketing
• [05:26] Matthew’s personal story and its impact on his career choices and marketing approach
• [11:41] The genesis of AndHumanity and what it does
• [15:10] How AndHumanity acquired clients
• [21:29] How AndHumanity evolved from My Loud Speaker and adjusted services to meet market needs
• [25:11] The community-focused projects at AndHumanity that Matthew finds most rewarding
• [29:31] The importance of brand congruence with internal company values for effective employee engagement
• [32:02] Navigating and valuing the sibling dynamic in a family-run business
• [34:43] Navigating the recent backlash in DEI
• [41:53] Matthew’s perspective on representation in media and the importance of equity-focused initiatives

In this episode…

The transformation of an agency into a force for inclusive marketing is a story of resilience, adaptability, and passion for long-term change. So, how does a marketing agency evolve to focus on inclusivity and justice while navigating challenges in the industry?

Matthew Tsang, a marketing guru, shares how he’s championed inclusivity in the marketing world. He explains the philosophy behind using “JEDI” — justice, equity, diversity, inclusion — to reshape marketing strategies that represent diverse communities. Matthew recounts his sister’s story, demonstrating the deep psychological impact of underrepresentation and how it inspired their mission to build a more inclusive media landscape. By engaging with underrepresented communities and prioritizing their voices, his agency has fostered authentic connections and delivered impactful insights that other brands had previously overlooked.

In this episode of the Inspired Insider Podcast, host Dr. Jeremy Weisz sits down with Matthew Tsang, Co-founder of AndHumanity, to discuss inclusive marketing and community engagement. Matthew discusses the JEDI principles in marketing, the genesis of AndHumanity and its evolution from My Loud Speaker, and the recent backlash in the DEI space.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Matthew Tsang on LinkedIn
• AndHumanity
• Authentically Inclusive Marketing: Diverse Lenses, Emerging Approaches by Tammy Tsang, Adeline Huynh, Majid Khoury, Sonia Thompson, and Sabre Pictou Lee

Special Mention(s):

• Tammy Tsang on LinkedIn
• Bullet-Point by Denis O’Sullivan
• The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
• The Remains of the Day: Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature by Kazuo Ishiguro
• Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain

Related episode(s):

• “[Top Agency Series] Navigating a Merger and Becoming an End-to-End Digital Partner With Kevin Hourigan of Spinutech” on the Inspired Insider Podcast
• “[Top Agency Series] Most Valuable Advice When Selling Your Agency With Todd Taskey of Potomac Business Capital” on the Inspired Insider Podcast
• “Triggers, Toll-Free Triumphs, and Tales From a Marketing Legend With Joe Sugarman” on the Inspired Insider Podcast

Quotable moments:

• “Justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion: marketing should systematically change the advertising world, focusing on humanity’s responsibility.”
• “Equity is not about creating a new imbalance, it’s about righting the ship of historical injustice.”
• “Vulnerability is not weakness, it’s strength — a necessity to build trust with your employees.”
• “’Nothing about us without us’ ensures research is done by those with lived experience.”
• “Personal relationships always take precedent; we will always have the foundation of love.”

Action Steps:

1. Embrace justice in marketing: Build a foundation for genuine, impactful marketing strategies.
2. Engage underrepresented communities authentically: Implement the principle “nothing about us without us” by involving individuals from underrepresented communities in the creation of marketing strategies that target them.
3. Align internal practices with public messaging: This alignment helps avoid perceptions of being performative and strengthens brand integrity.
4. Adapt marketing strategies to reflect demographic changes: This proactive approach positions your brand to better connect with a changing consumer base and future market leaders.
5. Leverage fiction for creative insights: Fiction can provide unique narratives and emotional depth, inspiring innovative approaches in storytelling and engagement strategies.

Episode Transcript

Intro 0:01

You are listening to Inspired Insider with your host, Dr Jeremy Weisz.

Jeremy Weisz 0:22

Dr Jeremy Weisz here, founder of inspiredinsider.com where I talk with inspirational entrepreneurs and leaders today, is no different. I have Matthew Tsang of And Humanity. You can check them out at andhumanity.co. And before I formally introduce you, Matthew, I always like to point out other episodes of the podcast people should check out. Since this is part of the top agency series, some other cool agency ones, I had Kevin Hourigan on who runs Spinutech. He started his agency. Matthew, 1995 okay, so it was really interesting to hear kind of the evolution of the Internet business and agency life as he went through the different decades, and he shared some really good lessons there. There’s another one, Todd Taskey. Todd Taskey helps pair agencies with private equity. So he helps sell agencies. He’s got the Second Bite Podcast, which is phenomenal. I’ve listened to every episode, but he’s found that he’ll help sell the agency to private equity. They’ll roll some equity in the private equity sell again, and sometimes those founders make more on the second bite than they do on the first. So just interesting valuation, Space Agency, space and everything like that. So check out that and more on inspiredinsider.com. And this episode is brought to you by Rise25.

At Rise25 we help businesses give to and connect to their dream relationships and partnerships. How do we do that? We do that by helping you run your podcast. We’re an easy button for a company to launch and run a podcast. We do the strategy, the accountability and the full execution. So Matthew, we call ourselves kind of the magic elves that run in the background and make it look easy for the hosts, so they can create amazing content, amazing relationships, and most importantly, run their business. For me, the number one thing in my life is relationships. I’m always looking at ways to give to my best relationships, and I have found no better way, over the past decade, to profile the people and companies I most admire and share with the world what they’re working on. So if you thought about podcasting, you should if you have questions, you can go to rise25.com or email us at [email protected]. We have a lot of free episodes, actually, on every question we’ve gotten. So you can check them out, look them up on the podcast as well.

I’m excited to introduce Matthew Tsang, he’s the co-founder of AndHumanity, as I mentioned, andhumanity.co. They’re an integrated, inclusive marketing and communications agency with the core purpose of serving people-first brands that want to leave a legacy of belonging. So I know he looks young, but over his 15 plus year career in marketing communications, his work has been featured on a lot of different platforms, Marketing Magazine, Global American Marketing Association, AMA conference and more and AndHumanity has actually authored a book on inclusive marketing featuring certified Jedi experts. You’re gonna have to explain who the Jedi experts are, and are also founding members of the Global Inclusive Marketing Alliance. So Matthew, thanks for joining me.

Matthew Tsang 3:28

Yeah, thanks for having me. And thank you for saying, I look young. I would repeat that to my partner later on. She always says that, hey, you got another old spot here. You got another wrinkle here.

Jeremy Weisz 3:39

No, no, I don’t think so. Anyone who’s looking at this will verify. Certified Jedi experts. So we’ll talk about AndHumanity and what you do. But start there with the book and some of the lessons from the Jedi experts.

Matthew Tsang 3:54

Yeah, absolutely. So JEDI, first of all, stands for justice, equity, diversity, inclusion. You may have heard of DEI, EDI, DEIA, etc. We use JEDI for two reasons. The first, more philosophical reason is that justice, equity, diversity, inclusion, the J at the forefront kind of talks about how marketing and advertising and communications as an industry tends to unfortunately, you can say utilize DEI performably in the sense of greenwashing, pink washing, whatever it may be. And what we’re trying to do by focusing on the J is systemically change the way you can say the agency world or the advertising world, operates because we believe in a responsibility to humanity, which I can touch on a little bit later on. But the J focuses on justice, which means focuses on fixing the system. The second reason for using the J is that I’m not a huge Star Wars fan, but Jedi rolls off the tongue really nicely. And as someone who works in marketing, I love things that roll off the tongue. It’s not that I don’t like Star Wars listeners, just to be clear, I just haven’t watched it. And it’s one of those things that it’s been so long I feel like, if I start now, it’s gonna take me forever to get through.

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