Hand-Dipped Cause Marketing

Most retail in America is promotion-driven and tied to seasons and holidays: Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Graduation, Back to School, Thanksgiving, New Years, etc.

But not every company can promote around all of those seasons. For a chocolate company the main seasons are Christmas, Valentines and Mother’s Day. Many’s the small chocolatier that does banner business in those three seasons and then limps through the rest of the year.

(This is true for certain nonprofits as well. There are dozens of nonprofit ballet companies whose fortunes rise and fall for the year depending on how well their annual production of the Nutcracker does each Christmas season).

But if a chocolatier… or any other retailer… could add an extra season, well then that could be pretty sweet addition to the bottom line.

For National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Shari’s Berries, which sells hand-dipped strawberries, truffles and the like is offering a number of pink ribbon strawberry packages and other goodies, flowers, pajamas, jewelry, with 10% of the sales price going to Susan G. Komen for the Cure.

Sheri’s Berries, whose sister companies include ProFlowers, Red Envelope, and Cherry Moon Farms, probably isn’t limping between seasons. But I do think that they’re on to something with this promotion. And they’re not the only retailer.

I haven’t seen any data yet to confirm it, but as we end October my hunch is that Breast Cancer Awareness Month has basically become another promotional season.

Imagine that.

Hiring Celebrities in Cause Marketing

One of the coins of the realm in cause marketing is the use of celebrities. The right celebrity, used well, can draw attention to your cause marketing campaign, lend it legitimacy, bring new resources to bear, and more.

You can try and recruit celebrities yourself, or, for a fee, you can use a matching service.

One such service provider is Limelight Media, founded by Wendy Dutwin. That's her on the left. In the cause marketing space Limelight Media has worked on programs such as Hilary Swank with Pantene's Beautiful Lengths program; Brooke Shields with Tupperware's Chain of Confidence initiative; and Tim Gunn’s Addressing Psoriasis campaign.

I put a few questions to Wendy on how her service works:

1). What can a sponsor/cause legitimately ask a celebrity to do in a cause marketing effort?

It really depends on the scope of the campaign. If it’s PR initiative only, typically a contract between a brand and a celebrity will include a certain number of TV & Print Interviews, Event attendance, presence on the Web site for a specific amount of time and/or Twitter “Tweets” about the campaign. Advertising elements can change the scope to include print and TV ads, PSAs, etc. However, every program has different elements that should be considered and no one deal is like the other. Each one is constructed uniquely to the needs of the client and what their budget can allow.

2). What shouldn't a sponsor/cause ask a celebrity to do?

A celebrity should not be asked to do anything outside of the mutually agreed upon contract. There is obviously a long list of things that celebrities shouldn’t be asked to do, but if I had to pick one I would suggest that the celebrity is not asked about personal issues or their family in interviews (unless of course they are tied to the cause and it this discussion topic was agreed upon before).

3). How does Limelight ensure a good match between the cause/sponsor and the celebrity?

There are many different factors to determine how I offer recommendations for a celebrity. As for cause marketing programs, it obviously helps if the celebrity has a personal tie to the cause allowing the partnership to be a more natural fit. Since the celebrity is going to represent the brand, it’s imperative that the personality and reputation of the celebrity should be in synch with the brand’s image. Making sure the celebrity is attractive to the media, but that they haven’t done a lot of press already which could hinder the results of the cause’s campaign is something we always look at carefully. That’s a fine line of balance that I see many campaigns miss because they aren’t working with someone tapped into that information. Finally, I always have my fingers on the pulse of who is working on what and who is looking for a possible partnership. Celebrities have busy schedules so it’s important to gauge their availability and, of course, their interest in a possible program.

4). If the celebrity comes to a charity or sponsor event well away from California or New York what expenses is the charity/sponsor likely to incur?

The charity will be responsible for air travel, on-the-ground transportation, hotel and food. Always allow cushion for unexpected expenses. When I work with clients, I always give them ballpark figures to budget separately for this in advance.

5). What are the typical terms of an agreement with a celebrity?

Terms will include spokesperson fee, interview or event attendance parameters, length of time for the campaign and any required exclusivity in a certain category.

6). What guarantees does the sponsor/cause have that the celebrity will show up?

A legally binding contract will guarantee that the celebrity is expected to attend the event.

7). What happens if during the time of engagement the celebrity does something that would embarrass the sponsor/charity? What recourse is there?

I always recommend a media training session facilitated by a professional media trainer to prepare spokespeople for their role at events and interviews. This is something that we always contract in our agreements with talent and it’s non-negotiable. If there is any fear that the celebrity spokesperson may act inappropriately, then they may not be the right fit. We also include in our contracts what’s called a Morals Clause, but there are limits to what can be included in that. There may be legal recourse if they did not represent the brand as outlined in the contract.

8). What if adding the celebrity to the campaign doesn't generate the results the sponsor/cause was looking for?

The media is a very uncontrollable beast, but that being said, based on budget parameters and services a company like mine will always try to find a fit that will generate media. We will work with you in advance to counsel on realistic expectations with what we’re working with and the best way to maximize results. If the spokesperson doesn't generate results, it’s important to look at the different factors that were occurring within the campaign and in the news media at the time. There are many factors that can alter coverage including breaking news and or the strength/weakness of the media campaign. The first part is something that cannot be controlled, unfortunately. The second part is something that can with the right strategy and planning in advance.

9). How about a story or two of a celebrity or two that turned out to be a win for everyone?

We like to think that all of our programs are a win for everyone, but if I had to select one I would say the Hillary Swank partnership with Pantene’s Beautiful Length’s program. We kicked off the campaign with a spot on Oprah with Oprah cutting off Hillary’s pony tail for donation. It doesn’t get better than that for the celebrity or the brand!

10). Can a cause ever ask a celebrity to do something gratis?

No, I would not recommend asking a celebrity to do something for free. While celebrities will donate their time for PSAs or relief telethons, this is often a favor to another celebrity or in a time of crisis and the celebrity feels driven to help. Expect a celebrity to be financially compensated for their time and association of their own brand with yours.

Pizza Hut Paper Icon Program for the World Food Program

Pizza Hut is currently raising funds for the UN's World Food Program using the paper icon at the left, a mobile phone text fundraising effort, and celebrity support from songstress Christina Augilera. The campaign called From Hunger to Hope also invites direct support through the campaign website.

From Hunger to Hope comes from Yum Brands, franchisor of Pizza Hut, KFC, Taco Bell, Long John Silver’s, and A&W, and the campaign crosses all of its restaurants. In 2009 the effort generated $22.5 million for the WFP and other hunger agencies, which translated into 90 million meals.

Twenty-two million dollars is a laudable, even herculean effort. But consider that Yum operates 37,000 locations. Some locations will do more and some will do much less, but to raise $22.5 million each store needs to average $608.

With so many locations, a modest improvement in per store fundraising translates to huge numbers in the collective total. For instance, if per store fundraising goes up to $650 per store on average, Yum raises $24 million for the World Food Program.

In short, incremental improvements to the campaign make a big difference.

Here’s one improvement to the paper icon itself that Yum could easily and inexpensively implement right away. When I picked up a pizza yesterday on the way home, I saw the icons, and the counter cards with Aguilera’s face on it and asked the man behind the counter what it was all about.

The man… a shift manager… seemed slightly flummoxed by the question. He walked over to one of the paper icons, read World Food Program and replied that it was to "help provide food."

With 37,000 locations and probably 5-10 times that many store and regional managers, I’m not surprised this fellow didn’t get the message. But Yum could have made it easy on him by printing on the back of the icon a 12-15 word explanation of the campaign.

Currently the back of the World Food Program icon is blank.

The 15-word sentence should be followed by a 25-word sentence that explains how every dollar to the World Food Program feeds four children.

That manager could have read the first sentence to me or he could have just handed it to me to read for myself. There’s a price for printing on the reverse side, of course, but if Yum is printing these by the millions, that cost is nominal.

If this one simple measure helped Yum staff sell just 24 more paper icons per store, the Yum system generates $1 million more for the World Food Program and 4 million more kids get a meal.

Cause Marketing Post #438

I began this blog four years ago this month. This is posting number 438. The cause marketing blog gets 5,000 visits and nearly 8,000 page views a month. In four years the blog has received nearly 150,000 visits and 225,000 page views.

In those first few weeks, a good chunk of the traffic came from one or more people in Hyderabad, India. It wasn’t much, but it was enough to encourage me to keep going.

In October 2006 I thought I was writing for U.S., Canadian and maybe U.K. audiences, since I write in English. I know a great number of people in India speak English, but that traffic from Hyderabad surprised and delighted me nonetheless.

Now, while the bulk of the traffic still comes from Stateside readers, 30% comes from readers outside North America. The blog gets hundreds of readers from places like Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Bulgaria and Kenya.

I started the blog because in 2006 most of the available information on cause marketing was advocacy; i.e. here’s why you should undertake it. But hands-on information was in relatively short supply. It was a lucky guess.

Now, just four years later, it seems to me that most people I come in contact with don't need to be convinced of the value of cause marketing. They just want to know how to do it.

Some things have changed since that first post on October 17, 2006, including the name of the Susan G. Komen charity. The numbers from IEG are different too. I hardly ever call it 'cause-related marketing' anymore.

Still, I think that first post has merit. I titled it 'Eyballs Vs. Tears.'

Barely a day goes by that I don't see some kind of cause-related marketing, some good and some not so good.

With this blog I will examine in detail those cause marketing promotions, advertising and campaigns; when they get it right, and where it goes wrong.

Cause-related marketing has been around for more than 20 years now. Even people who don't know the term, understand what it's all about; send in the Yoplait lid and 10 cents goes to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.

But, according to IEG, while cause-related marketing is growing faster than sponsorship as a whole, cause-related marketing currently represents less than 10 percent of the larger sponsorship market. That sounds like a positive, but cause-related marketing has been as high as 10 percent of sponsorship.

For all its heart, cause-related marketing is still settling for the sloppy seconds left over from the NFL, NASCAR and the like. I think that's because while those big guys understand that sponsorship is about eyeballs, the sisters of the orphans and all their charity cousins think it's about tears. When it comes to cause-related marketing, they're only half right.

Cause Marketing with Direct Sellers

The direct selling industry in the United States… think Amway, Avon, Mary Kay… was a $28.33 billion business in 2009, although the more interesting number may be the 16.1 million salespeople involved in direct sales.

Philanthropically Avon and Mary Kay both are strongly… although not exclusively… involved with women’s issues.

So who does Amway support with its philanthropy and cause marketing? The short answer is children and children’s charities. But there’s more to it than that.

By itself Amway has 3 million Independent Business Owners (IBOs) and operations in 80 countries. Suffice it to say that just writing a check to the local children’s hospital in Grand Rapids, Michigan where Amway is headquartered… which Amway’s founders have done in a big way… isn’t entirely satisfying for the IBO in Japan or Singapore or even Canada.

Amway Global, ironically the North American affiliate of Amway Corp., mainly spreads its charitable dollars to three causes: Boys and Girls Clubs of America, Easter Seals, and SOS Children’s Villages, which is building ‘villages’ for homeless and abandoned kids in Haiti.

This ad, from Newsweek magazine in August 2010, highlights Amway Global’s three-year million-dollar donation to Boys and Girls Club of America to build community gardens at clubs in seven cities. The campaign provides curriculum on gardening to the clubs and, as the gardens grow, fresh fruits and veggies to Club members.

If seven cities seems like a low number, consider that Boys and Girls Clubs of America (BGCA) is largely a sanctioning body for the 4,000 clubs. Almost all the clubs are individual 501(c)(3) charities. So BGCA has little leverage with individual clubs to participate in national cause marketing campaigns.

One thing I didn’t see in this campaign is a place for Amway’s IBOs to participate, and that’s a pity, and probably short-sighted. Amway people on the ground helping kids plant or teaching the curriculum would almost certainly be an asset to the local Clubs. They'd also increase the bond between Amway and the Clubs and give the IBOs a stake in the campaign.

The campaign also seems like a slam dunk for other sponsors like plant and garden fertilizer and soil companies like Bonnie Plants and Scotts Miracle Grow.

Co-branding like that spreads the risk, brings greater resources to the table, and broadens the appeal. Amway could easily remain the main sponsor while a Bonnie or Miracle Grow would be co-sponsors.

Love the Cause Marketing, Hate the Ad

As a marketer and a consumer I love Target. The house brands are terrific. The Target I shop most frequently seems to have more checkers that any Walmart I’ve ever been in. I love all the 'cheap chic' they sell. And their branding is dynamite. That big red bulls eye, the funky, super-visual TV ads, the 5% of income to charity. The partnerships with St. Jude and other nonprofits. It’s all great.

Of course in the great recession Walmart’s still kicking Target’s can, even though Target swears Walmart’s prices aren’t any better. Sometimes it seems to me that a contributing factor to Walmart’s continuing domination of Target is that all the damn branding Target does sometimes gets in the frickin’ way.

Case in point is this ad from the August 30, 2010 People magazine.

The promotion involves Baby Buggy, Jessica Seinfeld’s 501 (c)(3) nonprofit that donates infant and baby supplies to homeless shelters, parent programs, court child centers, and the like.

Throughout the year-long promotional period when you buy something from their special line, Target will donate 10% of the purchase price to Baby Buggy to give to participating charities. Target’s minimum donation is $300,000 and the maximum is $500,000. Supporting sponsors include Avent, Boppy and Kimberly Clark.

The Baby Buggy-branded onesie the infant is shown features illustrations from the artist and book illustrator Maira Kalman. Other artist/designers will be featured during the promotional period.

Too bad Kalman, or someone else with sense, didn’t get a hold of this ad. The headline is in white type! The explanatory text is in white type, too. But it’s so small I had to get my school-age daughter to read it to me. Remember those stories of high school kids who set their cell phone ring tones at frequencies their teachers couldn’t hear? That white type is sorta like that.

Maybe that’s what Target had in mind, ad copy so small only young mothers in bright light could read it. But not every new mother is 22, or standing in the bright sun when they read People magazine. And grandmas buy infant clothes and supplies, too.

Or maybe that half bulls eye just above the body copy is so stupidly big that the art director for this ad had to shrink everything else down to get it all in.

Foursquare Cause Marketing with Billboards

Earthjustice, a nonprofit environmental law firm used Foursquare to squeeze data out of participating commuters and a $50,000 donation from an anonymous donor.

But the Foursquare promotion didn't pull you into Earthjustice’s offices in Oakland, California.

Instead, the promotion invited commuters to check in at four donated billboards spread across the Bay Area Rapid Transit system. The check-ins triggered a $10 donation up to a maximum of $50,000. More than 5,700 commuters checked in at the ads and the donation goal was met.

That’s one of the ads at the left.

I like the use of Foursquare in this effort and I know that as a marketer I’d love to get my hands on all the data Foursquare collects. But The New York Times is touting this as the new hotness for Foursquare and nonprofits. I’m dubious.

When you check in at Foursquare at, say, Sarah’s Shake Shack, there’s a chance to physically engage with the brand: eat the product, for instance, or meetup with friends. Foursquare also allows postings, so you could write a review of Sarah’s ‘German Chocolate Cake Shake.’

You can certainly physically engage with nonprofit brands, too. You can volunteer at the local food bank, or serve on a board. Had the ad brought people to Earthjustice’s offices instead of to the billboards, they could have asked people to stuff envelopes over a cup of coffee.

But aside from using Foursquare to post, there’s no way to really humanly interact with a sign. And the game element of Foursquare doesn’t really ameliorate that deficiency in my view. Foursquare typically serves to put you in contact with other people, but the billboard element largely takes other people out of the equation.

In this specific case with Earthjustice, there’s something artificial-feeling about the $50,000 donation. Setting the donation amount at $10... a relatively high number compared to the more modest discounts you usually get when you're a Foursquare regular... underscores this. I suspect that Earthjustice was always going to get the $50,000 donation from the anonymous donor, no matter the response from the Foursquare promotion.

If that's the case then there's a certain intellectual dishonesty in the promotion.

The Cadillac of Cause Marketing Promotions

Car sales in September 2010 were up 18 percent over September 2009, a hopeful sign for the economy. But among the various segments, luxury cars sales were up only 10.2 percent for the corresponding period.

So what do you do if you sell Cadillacs?

Brotherton Cadillac in Metro Seattle has launched a low cost, high-gloss promotion that makes terrific use of Twitter, generates donations for five charities in Seattle and offers you and I a chance to win a new 2010 Cadillac CTS like the one at left.

Here’s how it works: Brotherton invites you to donate to five well-regarded charities in the Seattle area: the Arthritis Foundation chapter, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, The Moyer Foundation, Seattle Children’s Hospital, and Special Olympics Washington. The Moyer Foundation raises money for a local ‘bereavement camp’ for children ages 6-17. The suggested donation is $25.

The moment one of the charities reach $140,000 in donations, the promotion ends and the sweepstakes portion of the promotion kicks in. The promotion started October 12, 2010 and ends January 1, 2011.

To enter the sweepstakes, Brotherton asks you to voice your support for one or more of the charities on Twitter. Your Tweet then becomes an official entry for the Cadillac CTS sweepstakes. Multiple entries are possible and encouraged.

I choose Seattle Children’s Hospital because I have friends who have worked for that fine facility.

Here’s how the auto-generated Tweet went out from my account:

"I support @SeattleChildren in @BroCadillac's #RaceForARide http://bit.ly/Race4Ride"

The website for the promotion Raceforaride.com, allows both the donations and the direct posting to your Twitter account.

I just have a few questions and the first is the biggest. Can this promotion really pay off for a local Cadillac dealer in Renton, Washington? The CTS sweepstakes is open to legal U.S. residents everywhere except New York and Florida, meaning Brotherton sees the entire population as its likely target. And I have no doubt that Brotherton has sold Cadillacs via the Internet to people far from Seattle.

But while Seattle Children’s and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research both have footprints that extend across the Pacific Northwest, the appeal of the other participating charities strike me as being more local. If I’m in Illinois do I care enough about these local charities to make a donation? Or do I participate only in the Twitter element to get a shot at the car?

My other question is more ticklish because I’m greatly impressed with this promotion and not anxious to ‘out it’ to regulators.

In about 40 states or municipalities in the United States you have to register with state or local authorities in order to solicit for donations there. Doing so is a real pain in the patootie because the requirements for registration vary widely. And for most of the local authorities the rule is that if you use the Internet to solicit, you're soliciting in their jurisdiction.

Many of these local authorities also extract a filing fee. There are a handful of law firms in the country that will handle all that filing for you for about $10,000.

It could be that Brotherton’s point of view is that the five charities have all the necessary registration requirements covered. I’m not a lawyer (and I’ve never played one on TV!) but if that's their opinion I doubt it would pass muster.

That said, I dig the elements of this promotion. It’s original, low-risk, and otherwise well thought-out.

Gratitude and Transparency in Cause Marketing

The smartest charities have a rule that they must thank their donors in at least 5 ways. For good reason, too. Gratitude is a powerful inducement to future gifts. But how should sponsors thank customers/participants in cause campaigns?

To site just the last couple of posts; how should Chipotle thank the customers that pay $2 for a Boorito and thereby benefit Jaime Oliver’s charity? How might the hoteler Kimpton thank customers who buy their specialty drinks and help make a donation to local AIDS/HIV charities?

At left is how a local grocer thanked participants in making a donation to the American Heart Association. Because there’s no context in the blurb it’s hard to know what customers are being thanked for.

Sans that context the blurb is merely a nice gesture, but less than helpful to Maceys or the American Heart Association.

Transparency is chronically missing in cause marketing. And its absence means cause marketing campaigns are less effective than they could be.

What would be better? Maceys could do two things using just a little more of their flyer space than they did in this case:

1. When they’re reporting results they should mention the campaign name if applicable, when it ran and how customers helped. They could also tell customers who are so inclined how they could support the cause after the fact.
2. At the end of the year they could devote the back page of their last flyer of the calendar year to reporting all the fundraising and cause marketing that they undertook from January to December, including pictures, testimonials for charities, customers, the people (if applicable) helped, their own staffs, etc.

I don’t know of even one retailer that does this. So if Maceys undertook such an effort, it would truly stand out from its peers.

Maceys could take to a higher level still if it asked the various charities they support to make some kind of specific report on how they used the money raised.

Let me repeat this for emphasis, this transparency would make Maceys all but unique in the world of retailers.

One Downside of the Pink Ribbon

Last Friday I extolled the many virtues of the pink ribbon. But the ‘open source’ nature of the pink ribbon ain’t all sweet yogurt and tasty lunch meats.

When everybody owns the ribbon nobody owns it and the result is that news coverage, like that at the left from NBC Nightly News on Sunday, October 17 ends up celebrating everything but the charity.

The piece leads with Washington Redskins Tight End Chris Cooley, whose mother Nancy was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer in 2008, and was treated with chemotherapy.

The reporter, Peter Alexander, covers Cooley's feelings, Nancy's stiff upper lip in the face of the disease, an effort led by Cooley and his wife, and some of Cooley's Redskins teammates to brighten the lives of women in the Washington, D.C. area recently diagnosed with breast cancer.

Alexander mentions that the National Breast Cancer Awareness Month is in its twenty-fifth year. We learn about the NFL being behind the pinkness in the pro football locker rooms, and Redskins Offensive Lineman Derrick Dockery whose mother and mother-in-law both faced breast cancer.

But conspicuous by its absence is any mention of the NFL’s partner in the promotion, the American Cancer Society. It’s a little getting a birthday gift in the mail that the postal carrier inadvertently delivers to your neighbor.

That’s one downside of the pink ribbon.

The Cause Marketing Genius of the Pink Ribbon

Wednesday morning I had a cup of pink-topped Yoplait Strawberry-Mango yogurt for breakfast. When I mail in that top, along with the others we’ve collected, General Mills will make a $0.10 donation per lid to Susan G. Komen for the Cure.

I stopped at my grocer’s deli and picked up a little smoked turkey. The lady at the counter was wearing a pink hat with Komen’s version of the pink ribbon, but like all the versions of the pink ribbon, emblematic of the fight against breast cancer. There was a counter card saying that Boar’s Head deli product supports Komen.

Later I was looking for one of those clear film protectors for my phone and I came across a local firm that sells just the thing. Oh, and they’re donating 5% of online sales in October to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.

If I had done all the above on Sunday or Monday instead of Wednesday, I could also have listed the pink ribbons wrapped around the goalposts and players on the NFL games I saw.

This is October, National Breast Cancer Awareness Month in the United States, and I’ve come to expect this pink-colored hue of cause marketing omnipresence and diversity. But even still, I marvel and celebrate the cause marketing genius of the pink ribbon.

General Mills and the NFL are large companies. Boar’s Head is a medium-sized company. NLU Products, which makes clear film protectors for electronic devices, is pretty small. But because the pink ribbon isn’t trademarked (although Komen has at least one version that is trademarked and has sued entities that use pink in relation to the words 'for the cure') all three companies are able to raise money for the breast cancer charity of their choice wielding the ribbon, if not always the logo of the charity they support.

There’s no licensing issues for a would-be sponsor. No extra cost for splashing a pink ribbon on your marketing collateral. You can find a thousand different versions of the pink ribbon online, or you can design your own.

I’ve termed the availability of the pink ribbon ‘Open-Source Cause Marketing’ in the past and it has its downside. The pink ribbon is abused almost as often as it is well used. October is rife with pink cause-washing.

But if Komen, or the BCRF, or the National Breast Cancer Foundation, or the American Cancer Society, or the handful of others had locked up the pink ribbon with early trademark registration not only would there be less abuse it would also paradoxically be much less ubiquitous today than it is.

Can other charities pull this off?

Maybe, but it will take a large measure of patience and faith. The pink ribbon was an overnight success after basically 20 years. No doubt there were intellectual property lawyers and marketers all along the way suggesting that the ribbon be ‘protected.’

It helps that there’s more than one viable breast cancer charity, even if Komen dominates. It could be that the major players all agreed to take a hands-off approach. It could be that the major players fought each other off.

However it happened, the pink ribbon is a juggernaut unlike anything else in cause marketing, and I say Brava!

Tip a Glass Cause Marketing

When you buy one of three special Red Ribbon Cocktails at any of more than 50 Kimpton Hotels and Restaurants in 19 cities across the country, Kimpton will make a $1 donation to local HIV charities from October 1 to Dec 1

In addition, when you book a stay through Kimpton and use the code RRC, Kimpton will apply a 15% discount and give another $10 per night to a local HIV charity.

December 1 is World AIDS Day.

Kimpton has supported HIV causes for 20 years. Last year the effort generated more than $100,000 for 19 charities.

Kimpton links to all 19 benefiting charities and encourages patrons to make additional donations through the charity’s websites.

That’s a thoughtful step that relatively few sponsors take.

I’m a little surprised at the length of the campaign. Two months is a long time for a promotion like this to last, which demonstrates Kimpton’s commitment.

Making the benefiting charity a local one is normally a good ploy. Local people care more about local charities. But since people who book rooms or drink cocktails at a hotel restaurant or bar aren’t always local I wonder if it’s as effective as it could be in this case.

One thing Kimpton could do to really amp this up is to create some kind of matching gift effort. It could go like this: As you check in or out the desk clerk could ask if you wanted to add a $5 donation to the HIV charity to your bill, Kimpton would match it.

In addition, those that do would be entered into a sweepstakes drawing whereby guests could bring a companion for a whirlwind tour of 5 different Kimpton properties in five different cities.

You could call it ‘Give 5, Get 5,’ or something more clever than that.

Halloween Silver Bullet Cause Marketing

Come into Chipotle after 6pm this Halloween costumed as the scariest junk food you can imagine, hand them $2 and you'll get the silver bullet antidote to over-processed food in the form of a burrito, tacos, salad or rice bowl. In turn, Chipotle will donate the $2 to Jaime Oliver’s Food Revolution, up to $1 million.

Take a picture of your costume in a way that shows Chipotle in the photo and submit it online before November 8 and you could win a grand prize of $2,500. Runners up get a check for $1,000, and third prize winners get a burrito party for 20 people.

The promotion, Brandweek reports, costs Chipotle as much as $3 million. It's an extension of the chain's longstanding promotion of inviting customers to dress up for Halloween as their favorite Chipotle menu item to get the silver bullet burrito completely free.

So why spend $3 million to raise no more than $1 million? Or, why doesn't Chipotle just write a $3 million check to Oliver's foundation?

While the burrito or tacos or salad or rice bowl is just $2 when you dress up as scary food, the drinks, the chips and the guacamole are not. And unless your dining companions also come dressed up as fried Twinkies or funnel cakes (um, funnel cakes!) their meal is extra.

It also helps cement Chipotle's positioning as a wholesome alternative to burgers and fries, or, for that matter, what passes for burritos at the national taco chains.

The promotion is also almost inherently viral. The addition of the sweepstakes is a nice way to capture pictures and use them promotionally. But I wonder why Chipotle didn't enable the promotion to really go viral by requiring people to post the photos on their Facebook page or Twitter account. That would spread the promotion much more broadly.

Finally, I can't help but wonder if Chipotle would honor the $2 price if you came in dressed as a cup of Coke ;).

Virtual Cause Marketing Times Two

Frigidaire will donate $1, up to a total of $45,000, to Save the Children when you set a virtual table place this holiday season for kids and register on Facebook or at MakeTimeforChange.com, similar to campaign from Electrolux for the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund.

Actress Jennifer Garner is lending her star power to the campaign, which also includes a sweepstakes element. The grand prize is a Frigidaire Professional freestanding range. A $50 gift card will be given away daily October 5, 2010 through January 11, 2011.

On October 6 I highlighted Electrolux’s going on at the same time for the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund.

Both campaigns have relatively low donation maximums. Electrolux’s has a $10,000 minimum and a $15,000 maximum. The minimum from Frigidaire is $40,000. Kudos to both for having minimum donations that represent a high percentage of the maximum donation!

Both campaigns are also part of larger donations from the two sponsors to the two charities.

Both feature attractive, high-profile female celebrity spokes-people at the height of the respective careers; Kelly Ripa for Electrolux and Jennifer Gardner for Frigidaire.

Both sponsoring brands have been making kitchen and/or home appliances and have strong reputations, but Frigidaire is better known in United States and Electrolux is better known in Europe.

Both charities are well established and respected, but Save the Children is better known, larger, broader mission.

Both campaigns make almost equal use of social media; Facebook and Twitter.

Both campaigns make sense for the sponsor and the benefiting charity.

But similar as they are, the sweepstakes component in Make Time for Change, broadens its appeal. Both have the cause, the brand, the celebrity, and the social media component. The sweepstakes component represents a kind of 'success insurance' for the campaign.

Cause Marketing Breast Cancer Wear

Anytime a movie plays a hospital scene for laughs, one of the most reliable sight gags is those damnable hospital gowns they give you to wear. They’re too small, too short, ridiculously-cut, and for years they had that slit up the back that seemed calculated to mock a patient’s dignity.

But what if you have breast cancer and require periodic trips to the treatment center for chemo or radiation, breast exams, ultrasounds, MRIs, and the like. You can wear your street clothes in, but they aren’t at all functional for MRIs or radiation. And the functional hospital gowns, called ‘Johnnie robes,’ provided by hospitals and treatment facilities are almost dehumanizing.

Enter Jillies.com, which offers a kind of tunic to wear both into and during breast cancer treatments called the 'Playful Garment.' All cotton, permanent press, washable, Jillies come with a drawstring carryall that you can use to carry personal belongings around during treatments.

When your purchase Jillies, a portion of the proceeds goes to the Jillies Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit charity whose mission is to, “support programs that specifically promote patient wellbeing.”

Jillies.com aims to be, but is not yet a place for 220,000 women who are diagnosed with breast cancer every year “to find answers to all of the (non-medical) questions you may not feel comfortable asking your doctor.”

Nice.

I want to encourage enterprises like Jillies, so on the chance that they read this I have two suggestions:

Sponsors always have their own reasons for being fuzzy about the donation amount, but it almost never serves a good purpose.

Likewise the mission of the Jillies Foundation could certainly be more specific. Supporters rally better to a cause that they understand and whose mission can be plainly stated rather than to one that is vague and indistinct.

Cause Marketing From Marriott Benefiting the Red Cross

Today's post features an interview with John Wolf, Senior Director of Public Relations at Marriott about TownePlace Suites Make a Bed program benefiting the American Red Cross and enabled by Facebook.

When you make a virtual bed at the promotion's Facebook page, Marriott will donate $2 to the Red Cross, up to $50,000. The Red Cross will use the money to provide comfort kits to people in need. Comfort kits include soap, razor, toothbrush and the like.


1. How did the campaign come about?
Community service is at the core of Marriott International’s culture and TownePlace Suites has been a leading brand in giving back to communities where it does business. In this case, the Make a Bed Facebook application was a perfect fit. TownePlace Suites is an extended stay brand, serving people primarily on travel for weeks to months at a time with features, such as guest suites, kitchens, 24/7 access to food and beverage, and the TowneMap that familiarizes guests with the neighborhood. Because of these services and amenities, TownePlace Suites also serves guests who have been victims of disasters, as well as disaster relief workers.

We wanted to incorporate all these elements into a meaningful promotion with the American Red Cross that celebrated community while connecting with our guests online.

2. What was the goal of having it focus on Facebook?

Many of our guests spend a considerable amount of time on Facebook. In order to maximize the effectiveness of the program and its accompanying donation, we believed Facebook would be the best way to introduce TownePlace Suites to a new audience in a meaningful way, while ensuring success with the program. It's been a great decision and in a month more than 6,000 people have "made beds," so far.

3. How will you measure success? How is Marriott's donation structured? That is, does Marriott guarantee a certain amount? What's the cap on how much Marriott will donate?

The ultimate success is raising the full $50,000 donation limit for American Red Cross Disaster Relief. If we do nothing else, the program will have been a huge success. We also are measuring awareness and consideration for TownePlace Suites with users who have engaged with the program, using a variety of engagement metrics (Likes, views of videos in the application, sharing, surveys, etc.).

4. How did Marriott choose the Red Cross as a partner?

We have long admired their work and as part of the Marriott family, have had long-standing relationship with the Red Cross in the aftermath of disasters. With over 190 TownePlace Suites locations, we are an active part of many communities across the country. Every day, the American Red Cross helps with disasters that sometimes touch those communities, from house fires to hurricanes, tornadoes and earthquakes.

5. The Red Cross is one of the top two or three largest charities in the U.S. And it's the only one with a Federal Charter. But it has had a reputation as being a little fusty when it comes to marketing. What concerns did Marriott about that?

We had none. The American Red Cross could not be a better partner. They have been fully engaged throughout the project.

10. TownePlace Suites is Marriott's long-term stay brand. What about long-term stay made this campaign appropriate for a relationship with the Red Cross?

As an extended-stay brand, TownePlace Suites serves primarily business travelers away from home for weeks to months at a time. Therefore, it naturally has also been a hotel brand of choice for people recovering from disasters, and for those that respond to disasters, such as the American Red Cross.

Cone’s Latest Survey on Cause Marketing

Must…control…the…urge…to…be…sarcastic.

In its recently-released Cause Evolution Study, (registration required) Cone, Inc. found that people are only slightly more favorably inclined towards companies employing transactional cause marketing (53%) than to lump sum charitable donations (47%).

Transactional cause marketing is when the donation is tied to a purchase.

I’m still processing that part of Cone’s findings and I’m not sure if I believe or not. Maybe I just don't see how that finding really benefits sponsors. Assuming it's accurate, we can probably expect more efforts like the FSI (Free Standing Insert) above.

In late September, in time for National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Purina dropped this FSI supporting Susan G. Komen for the Cure. Purina, which started making animal feed in 1894, will write a check for $300,000 to Komen in support of its mission to cure breast cancer… in humans.

Back in May 2010, Purina ran a themed FSI for National Pet Month, in which during a three-week period whenever a coupon from the FSI was redeemed Purina would donate $0.10 up to $50,000 to AdoptaPet.com and benefiting local animal shelters.

It looks like Purina is hooking its cause marketing dollars to promotional months.

So if you represent National Periodontal Disease Month or Fighting Innumeracy in the Workplace Month, by all means contact Purina. It seems like they’re open to a lot of outside-of-the-bag... er... can. I mean, Purina appears to be open to outside-the-box sponsorships.

Is Breast Cancer Awareness Month No Longer Inviolable for Other Cause Marketers?

It’s National Breast Cancer Awareness Month... the 25th anniversary!... and stores and the media are flooded with cause marketing for breast cancer research, raising the question: is cause marketing possible for non-breast cancer charities?

It seems to me that other cause campaigns are chipping away at the edges of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Here are a handful of recent examples, all featuring celebrities as it turns out:

Electrolux will donate $1 to the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund this fall when you send a virtual cake to someone. That’s my cake to the left in the OCRF’s trademark turquoise. Frankly the virtual cake didn’t exactly track for me. That is, other than the fact that you can bake a cake in an Electrolux oven, it wasn’t clear to me what one thing had to do with another. As usual, daytime TV diva Kelly Ripa lent her promotional support.

Former President Jimmy Carter and First Lady Rosalynn Carter headlined efforts for the UN designated World Habitat Day on Monday, October 4. In conjunction with other volunteers from Habitat for Humanity, the Carters helped build, rebuild or improve 86 homes in six cities in the United States: Washington, D.C., Baltimore and Annapolis, Maryland, Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota and Birmingham, Alabama.

Saturday, October 2 was LIVESTRONG Day in Times Square in New York City benefiting Lance Armstong’s anti-cancer charity by the same name and sponsored by RadioShack. The campaign, which I profiled here, offered $1 to LIVESTRONG any time someone badged their Twitter or Facebook picture with the number 28 during the 24 hours of LIVESTRONG Day. Twenty-eight million people worldwide have cancer. Now LIVESTRONG is a cancer charity, but not specifically a breast cancer charity.

Can we conclude that October is open to other cause marketers? That may be saying too much. But I think we can conclude that increasingly non breast cancer cause marketers no longer see National Breast Cancer Awareness Month as inviolable.

Cheapo Cause Marketing

You know me, I love cause marketing. Almost any company, but especially those that face the consumer, could benefit from it.

But it rubs me wrong when I see humungous companies going cheap on the cause marketing donation amount.

In this ad from a recent Martha Stewart Living magazine Georgia Pacific is trumpeting their donation to Susan G. Komen for the Cure. Since 2004, the ad says, Georgia Pacific has donated $675,000 to Komen through efforts tied to their Vanity Fair napkin brand.

Assuming that doesn’t include the 2010 donation, that’s an average of $112,500 a year. In 2010, the ad says, that donation will be $50,000.

Having never seen the Vanity Fair campaign, I can’t say if it’s a transaction-based cause marketing campaign or not. But the nice round number of $50,000 tells me that for this year at least it’s a straightforward donation.

There are companies around the country that would write a check for $50,000 and wouldn’t even go to the effort to issue a press release about it.

Who knows how many ads Georgia Pacific places in Martha Stewart Living, but it’s enough to say that the magazine’s best published rate for a full-page ad is $138,800. We all know that rate card and actually rate are two different things, but I doubt this ad was less than $50,000.

Koch Industries, which bought Georgia Pacific in 2005 for $21 billion, is the nation’s second largest private company, according to Forbes 2009 ranking, with sales estimated at $100 billion.

Some of my readers know that the Koch family, which owns Koch Industries, is supportive of conservative causes. But Nancy Brinker, the founder of Susan G. Komen for the Cure, and now its CEO, has been a closely associated with the Republican Party for decades. So it’s not like the donations to Komen are somehow ‘leaving the family.’

Koch, which is a diversified chemical and energy business, could have probably scraped together a couple of more nickels to at least bring the donation to past levels, ie. $112,500.

Cheap. Cheap. Cheap.

Cause Marketing That Refuses to Crash and Burn

For a limited time you can dedicate a small area of the #56 NAPA car, driven by Martin Truex Jr., to the name of someone touched by breast cancer by making a donation of as little as $5.60 to Susan G. Komen for the Cure.

The goal is to raise $56,000 for Komen.

Here’s how it works: When you make a donation to Susan G. Komen through a special Facebook app, the name of the person you designate will be physically placed on the #56 car in conjunction with a special pink paint scheme. In October NAPA is also selling at its stores a co-branded pink and blue racecap for $3.99. The campaign is called, “All Out for the Cure.”

The custom-painted #56 car will race on Nov. 7 in all its pinkness at the Texas Motor Speedway at the AAA 500. In effect Komen and NAPA have developed a 200mph left-turn only icon campaign!

And in doing so they’ve skillfully avoided the inherent psychic challenge of putting a charity’s name on a racecar.

Years ago, when I worked at Children’s Miracle Network, we were approached by a NASCAR race team that wanted to brand one of its cars as the CMN Car. The car would not race in the Sprint Cup Series, but in the junior tour then called the Busch series and now known as the Nationwide series.

We thought about it and declined. The lawyers and the PR people only needed to imagine the 'CMN car' crashing and the driver being hurt or even dying.

At the time I issued a voice of dissent.

For one thing, NASCAR was huge in CMN’s many southern markets and at the time the fanbase was thought to be uniquely brand loyal.

Secondly, while NASCAR race cars certainly crash, most teams maintain twin cars that can be prepped for the next race in the event the first car can’t go. Deaths in NASCAR races certainly happen. But Dale Earnhardt was the last death in the Sprint Cup series. And that was in 2001. The last death in the Nationwide series was Adam Petty in 2000. God rest both their souls, but a lot of racing has gone on since their deaths a decade ago.

Finally, the media opportunities for a charity-branded car are huge. NASCAR is promotionally-minded in a way that stands out even from other sports. The races are well attended and always televised. Sponsorships are front and center. The drivers are unusually approachable compared to other professional athletes and the fanbase has long been more diverse and more female than you think it is.

Kudos to Komen, NAPA, Truex, and Michael Waltrip Racing.

Buy One, Plant One Cause Marketing

Hollywood, California-based WeWOOD will plant a tree every time you purchase one of its wooden watches.

The tree-planting will be undertaken by the nonprofit American Forests under the banner of its Global ReLeaf program. American Forests has been around since 1885 and represents a savvy choice by WeWOOD for a charity partner. I’ve noted before that in cases where the charity is better known than the sponsor, the sponsor benefits most from the relationship.

WeWOOD watches are available in several styles and four different kinds of wood. The red-brown wood (as at left) is reclaimed from flooring material waste. All the watches are currently priced at $119 and available online.

WeWOOD’s approach is a fresh take on BOGO, buy one, give one, that has taken cause marketing by storm, and reminiscent of Proctor & Gamble’s buy one plant effort for its men’s fragrance brand HUGO.

WeWOOD could certainly borrow a page from the HUGO campaign and allow people to track where their tree is planted. It wood (sorry I couldn’t resist) give the campaign greater transparency and further connect the watch-purchaser with WeWOOD and Global ReLeaf.

Likewise, WeWOOD could draw on the example of TOMS Shoes and take watch buyers on tree planting excursions.

Because of its location in Lotus Land, WeWOOD could easily promote its products via celebrity gift bags at high-profile events. Think the Oscars, the Emmy’s, and the like.

The only thing about the campaign that give me pause is the donation amount. Global ReLeaf will plant a tree when your or I donate a $1, so the donation amount from WeWOOD is certainly no greater than that per watch.

I couldn’t find any evidence of that Global ReLeaf’s tree-planting efforts ever work this way, but what if instead of planting a $1 tree (which I presume is a sapling) WeWOOD’s donation enabled the planting of a tree that was several years old, and thereby perhaps better able to survive transplant shock, animals, insects, heat, cold, and all the things that threaten the life of a newly-planted tree?

[No doubt a forester or someone from American Forests will disabuse me of the idea that it’s ever better to plant more mature trees.]