Hidden in the lower end of Old Street in London is a hive of young, female, diverse creative teams, film-makers, authors, script-writers and product innovators that defy the balance found elsewhere.

This is Freeda Media, a social media publisher aimed at millennials and Gen Z women and non-defined gender to deliver positive change and a caring, understanding platform for today’s modern women.  Their home-grown talent doesn’t come from traditional creative agency up-bringing but a new generation of (mainly) female creatives wanting to make the internet, particularly social media, a more positive, better place.They blend editorial with branded content, video with illustration and social posts. They work in pairs, in groups and as a whole team.

Freeda Media was founded in Italy by two young Italians: Andrea Scotti Calderini and Gianluigi Casole, but they now have expanded to Spain (and wider to Latin America) and now are building up their publishing reach to the UK and wider to North America and the rest of the English speaking-world.   Their reach is up to 10m in the UK and a further 15 million in the US and Canada and growing.

Shifting the lens

The unique approach of their young female talent and an internally built data-rich AI approach that optimises every post, video and ad, means they have the highest engagement rate of any digital publisher.

This has led to many brands collaborating with them on branded content, seamlessly integrated into their editorial posts, ahead of their traditional competitors.  Freeda helps brands to become relevant for the new generations, using social media as the key driver, to have a positive impact while growing their business.

The posts and videos you see in their social feed (Instagram, Facebook and now Tik Tok and YouTube) are not the obvious ones.  They can be amateur and uncomfortable, but it is what this generation wants and is scrutinised by the diversity of the teams and the data signals at it’s core.

Adidas, having worked with Freeda in the UK over 3 previous campaigns and seen significantly better results, and are now increasing their activity with Freeda for their Gen Z social media campaigns.  They work in the UK with brands including Jimmy Choo, Barbara Sturm, Nike, Converse, Warner Brothers and Michael Kors.

Freeda and it’s creative teams now work with brands across the full funnel, from Listening to the customers and what they want at the top of the funnel (working as consultants with the brands and creative agencies in equal measure) as well as end production, through to engaging with branded content and owned media, to advising and executing at lower funnels transactions relevant and authentically to the young female audience – using data, creativity and commerce.

Their offerings are across the full funnel to include branding and audience engagement,  video content production (they have impressive studios in their London offices as well as producing up to 15 outside broadcasts a week with their in-house team of directors, cameramen and women, talent finders and producers), editorial posts, product placement, illustrations, coupled with consultancy and strategy advice.  They predominantly do social posts, but their success with this audience means they have expanded that to TV and outdoor ads (they recently used their social creative that worked so well in Italy leading to double the engagement rate, that they went on to advise client and creative agency to produce the adaptations of TV and outdoor for KFC, as well as experiential (they have worked with Coca Cola in Italy to do outside broadcasts and interviews with key influencers in the city centre), and AV content.  They also offer lower funnel more transactional shoppable based solutions. All with a unique female, diverse approach.

The name Freeda hints at their original ethos.  When going round to get investment originally, the two young male founders explained the proposition and their female investors noted that the empowerment and overcoming adversity in their intended approach summarised a unique Mexican painter named Frida Khalo.  She was disabled by Polio as a child which caused her lifelong pain and medical problems. During her recovery, she returned to her childhood interest in art with the idea of becoming an artist.  She overcame adversity, continued spine pain and personal problems to become an international success.  This very much reflects Freeda’s approach to creative and content.  This coupled with the value of Freedom that is at the Gen Z and Millennial core, rose to the combination of Frida and Freedom to form Freeda.

Freeda is now the number one young female publisher in Italy and Spain and extremely well known.  They hope to take this approach in the UK to develop the brand to the same impact and deliver positive change in their editorial and brand partnerships in the same way in the UK and US.

And all this while developing and giving opportunities to the next generation of female creative talent.