Objectives

The Asian Pacific community is the fastest-growing racial group in the US, yet they continue to be vastly underrepresented and grossly misrepresented in mainstream media, reinforcing pernicious stereotypes and resulting in erasure from the cultural zeitgeist, detrimental socioeconomic outcomes, and recent surges in racism and hate crimes.

As a countermeasure, Gold House created the A100—the definitive award for the 100 most impactful Asian Pacific leaders in American society and the only award to consistently receive mainstream coverage. The list is essential to distilling Asian Pacific contributions and leadership for the masses and celebrating Asian Pacific brilliance and joy.

The 2023 A100, selected by esteemed multicultural judges, span across Activism & Journalism, Business & Technology, Entertainment & Media, Fashion & Lifestyle, and Sports & Gaming. Honorees included:

• Creative and Cultural Leaders: Iman Vellani, Joanna Gaines, Ke Huy Quan, NewJeans, Saweetie, Shay Mitchell, Taika Waititi, and the cast of BEEF, Turning Red, and Joy Ride
• Business Executives: Founders and C-suite leaders of Marriott International, Meta, The New York Times, Starbucks, The Walt Disney Company, Y-Combinator, and YouTube.  

In its sixth year, the 2023 A100 needed to penetrate the zeitgeist like never before. Our goals:

• Achieve unparalleled media and social coverage, reaching trades and audiences across industries 
• Creatively partner with established companies to leverage their invaluable storytelling and media channels, including Google.com, the most valuable marketing real estate in the world
• Expand the reach of Gold Gala, an in-person celebration of the A100 honorees, that would cement the A100 in the public sphere. 

Strategy and Execution

To reach our goals, we:

Tastemade across industries through a diverse and storied selection committee:

• We brought together top nonprofits, multicultural icons (including Daniel Dae Kim, Olympian Apolo Anton Ohno, legendary chef Martin Yan), and industry leaders (including NAACP SVP of Marketing and Communications Trovon Williams and IW Group President Bill Imada) to select the A100, ensuring that honorees were impactful in the current moment. 

Crafted a compelling narrative around our theme, “Gold Bridge”:

• To counteract stereotypes about insularity and divisiveness within the Asian Pacific community, we built around the theme of “Gold Bridge” to show how our community can and will play a central role in connecting communities, industries, and even continents. We wove this theme across all modalities of storytelling, from digital content (including the Google A100 video) and in-person celebrations (including the Gold Gala). 

Created outsized impact through partnerships that provided access to unmatched marketing channels:

• We partnered with Google to produce a video for Asian Pacific American History Month highlighting the A100 featuring the iconic Rupi Kaur as the narrator. In addition to Gold House and Google’s social channels (over 80M followers), the video was promoted on the most coveted marketing real estate: Google.com’s homepage. In just a few months, the video has already received over half a million views. 
• We partnered with the NYSE and NASDAQ to highlight the A100 on Time Square billboards, reaching more than 2 million people weekly.
• We lit up in gold iconic buildings across the United States, including the Empire State Building and the Paramount Water Tower, to further amplify the brilliance of the A100. 

Produced a historic gathering, the Gold Gala, celebrating the A100, resulting in pervasive reach across mainstream press and social channels:

• The campaign culminated with the tentpole Gold Gala, which convened 700+ celebrities, cultural leaders, and business executives to celebrate the A100 in what has become, after just one year, the definitive Asian Pacific gathering. The Gala brought the “Gold Bridge” theme to life, with a highly curated multicultural guest list, a dinner menu featuring cuisine with Latin and Asian roots, and an immense Gold Bridge projected in the background during the program.
• The evening produced several moments for digital virality. 
  • We secured exclusive “getting ready” pieces with leading fashion magazines, including Elle, GQ, Grazia, and W Magazine for Ashley Park, Randall Park, Rupi Kuar, and Johnny Suh. 
  • The Gold Carpet featured over 40 major press and social outlets for celebrity interviews and shots of the "multicultural formal" attire. 
  • The memorable programming featured award presentations to A100 honorees and those that embody the A100 ethos, including Sandra Oh, Ke Huy Quan, Radhika Jones, Neal Mohan, and Lea Salonga. Other viral highlights of the evening included the 30th anniversary celebration of the Joy Luck Club film, which saw the executive producer and cast of the memorable film unite on stage for the first time in years, as well as Eva Longoria and fellow Latinx leaders’ announcement of an effort similar to Gold House for the Latino community. 

Results

The 2023 A100 List and Gold Gala generated the highest amount of press and social coverage for Gold House since its inception, and more importantly, brought the achievements, leadership, and brilliance of the Asian Pacific community to the forefront of the public sphere like never before:

• Unprecedented coverage by mainstream media outlets for an Asian Pacific award, resulting in 200+ press pieces with an estimated 1.8 billion potential audience reach and 20 million views, including:
  • 2023 A100 launch: Adweek, Allure, Axios, Billboard, Forbes, The Hollywood Reporter, Playbill, TIME, Variety, and many more.
  • Gold Gala: ELLE, ELLE France, Glamour, GRAZIA, Harper’s BAZAAR, Instyle, People, Tatler Asia, V Magazine, Vanity Fair, Vogue, WWD, W Magazine, Yahoo, The Zoe Report, and many more.
     
• Unmatched social reach and engagement across Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook, with a cumulative potential audience reach of 700+ million, including shares by prominent companies and individuals with massive followings, such as:
   
  • Google (78MM), Avani (43MM), Netflix (34MM), Reuters (26MM), NCT (17MM), The Associated Press (16MM), Ross Butler (12.4MM), Eva Longoria (9.7MM), Brie Larson (7MM), Maitreyi Ramakrishan (6MM), and Rupi Kaur (4.5MM)

• Unparalleled physical activations on US landmarks and Times Square billboards reaching millions more people. 

Media