The VIA Agency Supports Small Minority-Owned Local Businesses with Timely Initiative

The VIA Agency has shared new initiative called 'RESURGAM' as the world begins to emerge from quarantine. VIA partnered with the Portland Press Herald to develop free advertising for small, primarily minority-owned, local businesses who were affected by the pandemic.

VIA will create ten poster ads for small businesses ranging from the local coffee shop, a college and even a knitting restaurant. 'RESURGAM', which is Latin for 'I shall rise again' and is also Maine’s motto, aims to rebuild the small, tight-knit community of Portland.

Bobby Hershfield, CCO of The VIA Agency, said: "This really is a special project for us. We loved partnering with the Portland Press Herald to help fill ad space and we loved turning that ad space into a vehicle to help small businesses around town. It just felt important to us as a way to support our community doing what we do on a daily basis."

This creative, community-inspired campaign is a nice diversion from the heavy news cycle of layoffs and declining quarterly sales. Through this unique partnership with a local newspaper, the VIA Agency was able to use its talents as a force for good.

"One quality of Maine I love most is our sense of community. The opportunity for the Press Herald to partner with a preeminent Portland based company like The VIA agency to support local businesses who would otherwise not be able to advertise during this time is a beautiful illustration of that sense of community", said Courtney Spencer, group vice president, Masthead Maine/Portland Press Herald.

Courtney continued: "VIA’s thoughtful, dynamic and creative ad design combined with our distribution platform feels like a natural partnership in support of our local businesses and shows the power of combining forces. This project opened our eyes to the potency of collaboration and we feel confident we will explore future partnership opportunities with VIA in support of our shared community."

Danielle Graffius, founder, Rwanda Bean, added: "Our business feels grateful to have had the VIA agency and the Portland Press Herald reach out to offer to use their creative talent and audience reach to promote our business...when every single transaction makes a difference. We really love the ad that was created for Rwanda Bean."

Danielle continued: "We also found it so thoughtful and important that they chose to highlight the homeland of our founder, Mike Mwenedata and the coffee farmers that cultivate the wonderful coffee beans we are able to provide here. It really felt like they were able to capture the importance of our mission in an artistic way."