Girl Scouts of the USA have announced the launch of CircleAround Powered By Girl Scouts, a media brand and online destination targeted to meet the needs of today’s women. CircleAround’s mission is to present a compelling, inspiring and trusted content site for women that is grounded in the values women share with powerful content tailored for women with specific messages of commonality, positivity, and usefulness.
CircleAround will curate content pieces covering Inspiration, Wellness, Work, Money, Parenting, Relationships, and News. Content in the forms of articles, long and short form blogs, videos, podcasts, and sliding galleries will be centered on usefulness and holistic viewpoints, from multiple perspectives.
CircleAround is operated by a wholly owned for-profit subsidiary of Girl Scouts of the USA. Revenue is generated through partners who advertise on the site. Revenue distributions are then made to GSUSA so they can further their mission to build girls of courage, confidence and character who make the world a better place. CircleAround content is grounded in Girl Scout values — such as Service, Honesty, Courage, Respect — while helping all women honor those values in adult life. The rest is reinvested in company operations to continue to generate revenue to fund the Girl Scout Movement.
Girl Scouts of the USA worked in partnership with Rogers & Cowan PMK, the preeminent integrated marketing and communications agency in global entertainment, to create CircleAround. R&CPMK’s Strategy & Transformation practice collaborated with GSUSA on all stages of development of the media company, from brand conceptualization and strategy to execution. The partnership is a fixture of R&CPMK, and parent company IPG’s, continuing mission of inclusivity and ongoing support of women through D&I initiatives.
CircleAround will deliver engaging content for its current members and its inherently loyal Girl Scout Alum network of 50 million adults. Girl Scouts alums are an incredibly dedicated, successful group of women. More than half of female business leaders are Girl Scouts alums and that list of alums also includes celebrities such as Taylor Swift, Venus Williams and Katie Couric.
While CircleAround is powered by Girl Scouts of the USA, it is designed for adult women with an overall age demographic of 25-54. Additionally, the content and brand itself are rooted in Girl Scouts values, which studies have shown are the everyday values of women today, including Service, Honesty, Friendship, and Respect.
“We are proud to be disrupting the media space for women and ensuring our adult alums and women in general have content relevant to them,” said Sapreet Kaur Saluja, Chief Strategic Partnerships and New Ventures Officer, Girl Scouts of the USA. “CircleAround fills the current gap in the marketplace by providing a one-stop destination for content rooted in usefulness with a holistic approach that’s inclusive of the diversity of perspectives and interests of our readers.”
Shutterstock and Verizon Business join CircleAround as signature launch partners. Shutterstock is a creative platform for compelling content and innovative tools. Shutterstock is committed to being a champion for women through every point of life, from youth through adulthood, providing meaningful and inspirational visual content for CircleAround. Verizon will also be joining as a signature launch partner to support female-owned businesses through one-to-one mentorship, industry-specific panels, and content celebrating the achievements and lessons from female small business owners. Formal partnership details to be released in the coming days. Additional media and signature partners are set to be announced in the coming weeks.
“Girl Scouts of the USA is one of the most trusted brands in the United States and we are confident that with CircleAround, we will provide adult women with a continued sense of community and support in the form of an online media content destination,” said Chris Butler, COO, CircleAround. “We look forward to partnering with brands like Shutterstock to give our audience relevant, useful, and relatable information that can be applied to daily life. Shutterstock’s vibrant collection of more than 300 million images provides us with fresh and visual content to amplify our stories.”
“Shutterstock’s mission is to empower creativity and storytelling through high-quality, diverse content,” said Candice Murray, VP of Editorial, Shutterstock, Inc. “Partnering with CircleAround will allow us to further this mission and we are thrilled to support a content destination that offers different perspectives and is a true representation of women and girls around the world.”
Commenting on the partnership, Tami Erwin, CEO of Verizon Business said, “We’re excited to be one of the inaugural partners of CircleAround and are proud to stand behind their mission of supporting and inspiring women. Especially now, as many face-to-face interactions are difficult in the wake of the pandemic, the content and the community that the CircleAround platform will provide is essential.”
CircleAround will launch in public beta on June 30, 2020, with a full launch in early July 2020. At the July launch, the site will contain original content and will continue to share 150 new pieces of content per month. The platform will include personal stories from everyday women, as well as prominent influential individuals and live on circlearound.co.
CircleAround is rooted in Girl Scout values that are authentic, everyday values of women nationwide. Girl Scouting builds girls of courage, confidence, and character, who make the world a better place. These girls will grow into women and have a content destination filled with resources on CircleAround that will give back to the organization that gave them a strong foundation.