For years, Sports Illustrated Swimsuit has been part of an industry that objectified women. More recently, they’ve transformed into a platform that breaks stereotypes and beauty standards, representing all women. But the world didn’t see, or believe, that they were truly a brand for women.

SI Swimsuit asked for a campaign, but we knew talk wouldn’t cut it. There were too many brands whose support for women was just a splashy campaign. Instead, we presented a business idea that would change how we did business—and how the world saw us. To prove our brand purpose, we were willing to lose millions of followers and millions in revenue.

The objectives set aside bottom lines and subscription numbers, and instead focused on positively impacting the lives of women. Letting the world know that SI Swimsuit is not just a magazine, but a platform for women’s empowerment, diversity, and inclusion.?

We created Pay With Change: the world’s first media buy based on progress, not profit.

Pay With Change was not just a creative idea, but a business model that transformed the SI Swimsuit brand and business.

This new business model meant that any brand that wanted to advertise or partner with us had to commit to making progress for women. Progress could mean internal policy changes or external causes; it could be an existing initiative or a new commitment.

They were then eligible to advertise with us in print, digital, and social, as well as partner for events and sponsorships.

Any brand can try to make a difference. But by creating a model that unifies brands for women, we created sustainable, scalable change.

Pay With Change became a business model that modelled change in the industry, media, and the world.?

For our B2B audience, we knew simply asking them to make progress for women wouldn’t cut it. But we had something they all wanted.

Each year, the SI Swimsuit issue gets over 20 billion in earned impressions across a global audience of over 10 million. Advertising on our platform would mean global attention and persuasion.

So, we made change for women the key to unlocking our platform. We made Pay With Change the gate through which all potential advertisers and brand partners had to pass before getting access to our billions of impressions and millions in audience.

We knew it was risky to gate our biggest, most important revenue stream. But we had faith that our platform would be compelling enough to attract our B2B audience for profit, if not for progress. ?

We announced Pay With Change in February with an anthem film, launch page, organic social media, and media appearances with Editor-in-Chief MJ Day. The timing coincided with Super Bowl, attracting audiences and brands.

Our open letter asked all brands to join us. We created content for the annual magazine as well, like a double-page about Pay With Change. We even left an ad page blank as a statement to show that we’d rather have blank pages than accept ads from brands not committed to women.

We dedicated our magazine’s back cover to women—each of them. We created an AR experience whereby anyone could place their image on our cover, becoming this year’s cover model.

And starting this year, SI Swimsuit will donate a percentage of every issue’s ad revenue to create the SI Gender Equity Fund, to further support women.?

We risked our entire business to create progress for women through Pay With Change. And it paid off. We gained advertisers, audiences, and accolades.

The launch of the program generated 86 media placements with 2.8 billion impressions and 10.4 million in earned social impressions. As a result of our purpose-driven platform, we also saw a 122% increase in positive social sentiment from women.

In addition, our open letter and AR experience was included in the annual issue, on average generating 20 billion earned impressions.

Brands also joined our cause. We saw a 47% increase in brand partnerships in the first three months. Best of all, this means more brands committing to this important progress. And together, we can truly make the world a better place for women.?