Paper Icon Campaigns

Done Right, They're A License to Print Donations

Here in North America it’s common to use ‘paper icons’ as a major part of your cause-related marketing, particularly in campaigns with retailers.

And why not? When I left Children's Miracle Network in 1998 they were generating more than $25 million a year from their paper icon campaign.

(I’ve long disliked the expression ‘paper icon,’ so someone please suggest a better name.)

What are paper icons? They’re slips of paper emblematic of a cause typically placed next to a cash register and sold as impulse items.

They’re relatively cheap to produce, even in small print runs. In large runs they might be less than a penny a piece.

In North America the typical sales price is $1, although larger dollar amounts have been tried. After the icon is purchased, it’s common to write the name of the purchaser on the icon. During the promotional period the icons are displayed in the window, along a wall, strung above the cash registers, etc

Some best practices:

Paper icons are meant to be iconographic. So choose a symbol that captures your cause without words. Children’s Miracle Network borrows from their logo and uses a stylized hot air balloon. The American Heart Association has at least two: a heart and the red dress seem above. Muscular Dystrophy Association uses Shamrocks because the campaign comes out around St Patrick’s Day, which is March in the States. I’ve seen paper icons shaped like sneakers, children, ice cream cones, and hammers, among many others.

The paper icon illustrated goes a step beyond by offering coupons to people to purchasers. The sales pitch for the Red Dress icon above becomes “donate $1, get $4.50 in savings.” There are countless possible variations. Coupon paper icon campaigns can be designed such that the vendors cover the campaign’s entire expense.

Few paper icons sell themselves. Instead you must induce the clerk at the register and his or her boss to ask customers if they would like to buy them. Create contests. Offer small (but meaningful) prizes to top individual sellers: t-shirts, CDs, etc. Top stores might get plaques, thank you letters from celebrities or even personal visits from celebrities. Pit store managers against others in their area and offer nicer prizes to the best performers (all donated, of course) like portable DVD players, iPods, cell phones, or the like.

The kit that goes to individual retail outlets should be self-contained and might include brochures, promotional posters intended for customers, motivational campaign tracking posters for the employee break room, instructions, and directions on how to get more.

It probably doesn’t make sense to run a paper icon campaign for much longer than a month. Even month-long campaigns can lead retailers and their staff to contract “icon fatigue.”

You’ll need to make accounting arrangements in advance. If your campaign is going into a large retailer, you’ll need to obtain a UPC code.

If your cause is not well known you might print a paragraph of background information on the back of the paper icon that the clerk or the customer can refer to.

Paper icon campaigns work best with well-known charities with well established brands.

But with patient and supportive retailers, you might be able to build a brand and raise some money by including a paper icon in your cause-related marketing mix.

Starfish Television Network II

So What’s the Catch?

Last Wednesday I posted on the Starfish Television Network, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit public charity and a television network devoted to airing TV programming that supports the missions of other nonprofits.

I also used the word ‘free.’ As in, “Starfish will air your broadcast-quality nonprofit television programming for free.”

Nothing worthwhile is free, I hear the skeptics say.

The skeptics are half right.

First of all, the Starfish Television Network certainly has expenses. For the time being, those expenses are being covered by a generous philanthropist. So, while airing the programming has a cost, for now the cost is covered.

However, in time that money will be spent. And Starfish will have to have in place new sources of revenue or it will fail. The Starfish Television Network’s funding model is patterned after that of PBS. Which is to say there will be fundraising, corporate sponsorships, underwriting, perhaps memberships, and the like.

In time there may be a fee associated with airing programs on Starfish in accordance with FCC rules. But for now…while Starfish proves its concept, gets its signal on the bird, and shakes out its operational dust… airing your nonprofit’s TV programming is free.

And, the fact is, if Starfish doesn’t provide real value to nonprofits then the market won’t bear any fee. That is, if nonprofits find no value in broadcasting on Starfish then Starfish ought to fail.

OK, you say, but surely Starfish won’t be airing to a very large audience, right?

That depends on how you define ‘very large.’ Beginning March 28, Starfish will be broadcast as part of the Dish 1000 high-definition package. Dish 1000 is what most new subscribers receive. Dish 1000 has approximately 1.5 to 2 million subscribers.

A few weeks after the March 28 launch date, Starfish will also begin simulcasting its signal from its website.

So, it’s nothing like the number of people who get The Disney Channel or ESPN. But in my view it’s 1.5 to 2 million more than most nonprofits can send TV programming to now.

The Starfish Television Network is a television network with a mission. And that mission is to give your nonprofit a platform to tell its stories.

In the interest of full disclosure, I am presently doing work for the Starfish Television Network.

Munchkin Inc. Project Pink for Susan G. Komen

Mother Love a Duck!

What motivates us to merge the interests of causes and companies?

Oftentimes the choice is intensely personal. 505 Southwestern, the chile sauce maker, supports Susan G. Komen in memory of the founders’ mother, Stella.

Munchkin Inc… which makes innovative products for parents, children and pets… supports Susan G. Komen for similar reasons. Serena Gillespie, the wife of the company’s vice president of marketing, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2005 at tender age of 31. She had two children under age four at the time.

The privately-held company rallied around Serena and her husband Doug Gillespie. But they went a step further and developed a cause-related marketing campaign with two goals. One goal was to raise money for the cause. But the larger goal was to encourage young mothers to get screened for breast cancer.

Dubbed Project Pink, the campaign made use of pink bath ducks which were available in stores and online for $2.99. They chose ducks for their double-meaning, a reminder not to “Duck a Breast Exam.”

Moreover, since 1999 Munchkin has sold a product called the Safety Bath Ducky, which has a built-in device meant to warn parents if the bathwater is too hot. So the company and its customers have a history together with ducks.

Of the purchase price, $.20 or 100 percent of net proceeds (whichever is greater) from the sale of each pink duck goes to Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, with a minimum donation of $10,000.

Munchkin supported the campaign in their ads, with press releases and with a micro website. The website included a contest component that culminated with a trip for the winning family to Los Angeles, where Munchkin is headquartered, to participate in the Los Angeles County Race for the Cure. The race was held Sunday, Feb 25.

They also induced celebrities including Reese Witherspoon, Matthew McConaughey, Janet Jackson, Patti LaBelle, and others, to decorate pink ducks before auctioning them off for Komen.
The illustration above was an ad in the September 2006 issue of BabyTalk Magazine.

All in all a nicely thought-out and imaginatively-executed campaign that benefited from the fact that it came from the heart.

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Kind Readers:

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When you do, each new posting to Cause-Related Marketing comes directly to your email box.

As an inducement, everyone that joins receives a copy of the "Five Flavors of Cause-Related Marketing," which explains Cause-Related Marketing in an easy-to-follow matrix and includes examples.

It's a great brainstorming tool and helps ensure that your campaign has all the bells and whistles appropriate for that flavor of Cause-Related Marketing.

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The city and country thing is important because it helps me know for whom I'm writing.

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Warm regards,
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The ABCs of Effective Charity Auctions on eBay

Maximizing Charity Auctions on eBay

More than 40 celebrities signed 'Matt,' the paper mannequin training aid used to demonstrate Philips Electronics' automated external defibrillators at the Sundance Film Festival in January.

Philips donated $500 to the American Heart Association for each celebrity who signed Matt, up to maximum of $20,000. When the Festival concluded, Matt was packed off to Auction Cause, an auction management agency in Beverly Hills, Calif. led by Eric Gazin.

Eric is an eBay PowerSeller and has specialized in celebrity and charity auction items for more than eight years.

I asked Eric if he would share some secrets from his experience, and there are some surprises. One, for instance, involves Britney Spears' recently shorn locks!

Read on.


How much did the Save Matt auction generate?

"The auction generated $300, but more importantly, it received a lot of publicity for the American Heart Association."

How does your service work?

"Auctions are deceptively easy to run. We take the guesswork out of the equation and are in a position to handle everything as a full service auction management agency. This means we help with pre-planning/strategy, handle the design work on the micro-site as well as the auction template design, customer service during the auction event, fraud detection, media services, collection of the funds from the auction winners, payment to the nonprofit, and fulfillment services. We are there to make our clients look great, gain exposure, and raise the most funds possible."

How is your fee determined?

"We work both on a flat fee structure regardless of the value of what is sold and also on a commission only basis. We typically provide both models to the client and let them choose the option that works best. There are cases where we do a hybrid pricing model too, where we receive a small amount before the auction launches and then a commission at the end."

What can you do that a charity/company/agency couldn't do on their own?

"We know the process to make an auction stand out at eBay. It is much more than simply throwing up a listing and hoping for the best. From contacting eBay to let them know about the auction, to publicizing the auction to our substantial charity auction bidder newsletter list, we go far beyond the resources of anyone else who does not do this work full time. We are also really expert at dealing with any problems that arise. I have been managing auctions on eBay for 9 years now, and have seen every scam, red flag, and other problem that can occur. Sadly, there are a few bad apples out there trying to rip off charities but we have specific methodology to deal with these situations."

How long should an auction go?

"We recommend 10 day auctions whenever possible unless there is a time sensitivity requiring a shorter time period. For an auction featuring a number of items, it is a good idea to stagger beyond the 10 day period. For example, start 1/2 the items on day one for 10 days and then the second 1/2 on day five. this way the entire auction event can last 15 days."

In your experience, what makes an auction item "can't miss?"

"Reasonable starting prices. Trust the 220 million+ worldwide eBay auction audience to bid up your items. A few times we have had clients insist on starting an auction near the retail price and have had less than stellar results. Another "can't miss" is having a celebrity offering some sort of in person interaction. This is a money can't by item that will raise quite a bit in most circumstances."

Are there some auction items you won't take on because you know they'll be "dogs?"

"Britney Spears' hair was one we would not touch. Auctions which have some sadness or negativity around them which are more exploitive than actually doing good for a cause we avoid. For more regular items, we tend to avoid auctions where the cost of shipping the item outweighs the value of the item itself. This usually means bidders will not pay much given the shipping costs they need to pay. At the end of the day, the nonprofit does not make very much."

If so, what are the common characterics of "dogs?"

"Overpriced items with very high appraisal values, usually art or jewelry. People believe their items are worth much more than the market indicates."

Is there any seasonality to these auctions? That is, are there times you might prefer or avoid?

"Holiday time on eBay has the best sales, but truly year round special items will always do well."

I assume you have competitors. What do you do better than them?

"I love getting this question as I firmly we believe we are the best at what we do. I have more hands on experience on eBay than any other competitor, over 9 years now, and to this day, I still do some of our auction listings, even though I have staff here to handle them. I absolutely love what I do, it is much more than a business to me, I believe this exuberance and enthusiasm translates into amazing dedication to go the extra mile for our clients and bidders. We also have better graphic designers in house, better connections with the media to generate attention to our auctions, and better pricing. Above all, we have no investor groups to listen to, we are a self funded corporation, meaning we can truly but our clients' interests before our investors, since I am the sole investor."

The Business Benefits of Cause Marketing

The Above Headline was Written with Google in Mind!

On Thursday someone searched the Cause-Related Marketing blog using these terms: "business+benefits+cause+marketing."

I instantly slammed my hand to my forehead Homer Simpson-style and said, "d'oh!"

After 40-something posts I've somehow neglected this basic topic.

So without further ado, here are six business benefits to cause marketing:

1. Cause-related marketing can directly enhance sponsor sales and brand.


2. Cause-related marketing is respected and accepted business practice.


3. Cause-rleated marketing can heighten customer loyalty.


4. Cause-related marketing can boost a company's public image and helps distinguish it from the competition. I would add that it can also give corporate PR officers a new story to tell.


5. Cause-related marketing can help build employee morale and loyalty.


6. Cause-related marketing can improve employee productivity, skills and teamwork.

It's also my opinion that the exchange that takes place between the staffs of corporate sponsors and nonprofits can benefit both. In my view, it can gives higher purpose to the corporate staffers and improves the business acumen of the nonprofit staffers.

To the person who searched without finding such a post, my apologies. As penance, if you email me I'll happily send you a 3-page document that includes the research that undergirds the numbered assertions above.

Did I miss something? Feel free to comment.

Starfish Network Television Needs Your NPO Programming

If you really want your cause-related marketing to break from the pack, you better have a strong media component. The big boys of sponsorship in the U.S. like the NFL and NASCAR know that. That’s why they’re on TV.

“Fair enough,” you say, “but I don’t exactly have a network clamoring to put my nonprofit's content on television.”

Well now you do. The Starfish Television Network, which launches in March 2007, has 24 hours a day to fill and they’re anxious to help your broadcast-quality programming find a broader audience.

Best of all, it’s free.

The Starfish Network is itself a 501(c)(3) whose mission is give voice to the many nonprofits whose capacity to do more and do better would be enhanced if more people knew about them and their mission.

What kind of programming are they looking for? Almost everything’s appreciated, but long-form programs are in high demand. What might that include? Everything I can think of; appeals, documentaries, award shows, galas, sponsored events, athletic events, telethons, entertainment shows, etc. Plus more that I can’t think of.

Most topics are welcome, but Starfish is selective in what they will air. The central qualifier is that the programming must support the mission of one or more 501(c)(3)s.

The Network broadcasts over the Dish Network beginning March 28. So if you have programming that might qualify, time is of the essence.

To learn more contact Starfish at 801.567.3180.

More on the Starfish Television Network in the days and weeks to come.

In the interest of full disclosure, Alden Keene and Associates is presently contracting with Starfish.

‘Little Miss USA’ Doll Ad for American Red Cross

Like Pepsi with Milk, There’s Something Wrong Here

Some things don’t pair well. Like Pepsi with milk, or peanut butter and bacon sandwiches.

Likewise this ad for a collectable doll doesn't quite work.

The doll, called Little Miss USA, was issued by the Alexander Doll Company in the wake of September 11 in support of the American Red Cross.

Plenty of cause-related marketing appeals popped up after 9/11. This one was in the February 2002 issue of Doll Reader.

While you might associate dolls with a children’s cause, the problem isn’t the combination of patriotic doll and the Red Cross, per se. As we’ve discussed before, while ‘strategic philanthropy’ is frequently the best approach, for various reasons it may not be the preferred approach. Moreover, limited edition dolls of this type are more likely to be purchased for adult than child collectors.

The problem isn’t the offer, it’s the ad itself.

For one, the ‘portion of the proceeds’ language is weak and vague. Research shows that consumers are more likely to support a cause marketing campaign if they know exactly how much of a donation the offer will generate.

The bigger problem is the way the Longfellow quote and the body copy work against one another.

You almost need a scorecard to keep straight all the metaphors, similes, symbols, and allusions: The Children’s Hour is the dark before the light; Children are the innocents that bring joy; Dolls can bring joy and understanding to children; Dolls can also bring love to "children of all ages;" Little Miss USA embodies the spirit of American youth; Children can help us emerge from the dark hour (would that be the ‘Children’s Hour?’) into the “light and hope of tomorrow.”

At the risk of being ‘apoetic,’ if they wanted to say that brighter days lie ahead and that children... as symbolized by Little Miss USA... are the hope of those days, why didn’t they just say so?

The topper is the small-type disclaimer by the American Red Cross. “The American Red Cross name is used with its permission, which in no way constitutes an endorsement, expressed or implied, of this product.” Heaven above save us from the lawyers!

The Alexander Doll Company obviously had to spend some time putting the doll together and working the deal with the American Red Cross. It’s a pity they didn’t put more time into this ad.

Answer These Questions Before You Start Cause-Related Marketing

Twenty Questions (Give or Take)

Suppose when you get into the office tomorrow, the boss comes in and says, “I think we need to look seriously at cause-related marketing. Look into it will you?”

Getting the right answers depends on asking the right questions. So where would you start?

Let’s just stipulate that you’ll search the Internet. Maybe check the entries at Wikipedia.com or About.com. You’ll almost certainly come across the Cause Marketing Forum, run by my friend David Hessekiel. If you go a little deeper you may find Cone, or other agencies that specialize in the practice. You may find IEG, which has a long history with cause-related marketing, but considers it to be a subset of sponsorship. Maybe you’ll go to Amazon.com and check the available titles. You’ll almost certainly find Business in the Community in England, which takes a very holistic approach to cause marketing.

Scratch the surface a little more and you’ll certainly find criticisms of the practice; usually variations on the theme that the money is tainted. I’m familiar with most of the criticisms. But I cut my cause marketing teeth in the charity world where the saying goes about donations: “‘taint enough.” It’s a fact that even Mother Teresa (a saint by my definition, never mind what this cynic says) cashed checks from Charles Keating.

Okay. So after an Internet search, what questions do you need to answer?

It depends… in part… on where you work.

Nonprofit. If you’re working for a charity, the first thing I’d do is try and gauge if your charity is ready for cause-related marketing. Is your board supportive? Does your mission already draw a broad base of ‘retail’ support? Do you have the staff time to devote to it? What are your goals? Are they to raise money? Or awareness? Or both? What benchmarks will tell you when you’ve succeeded? Is your mission competitive with an existing cause-related marketing giant? I would be very reluctant to try cause-related marketing in the States if I worked for a breast cancer charity. Susan G. Komen is very competitive, creative, and effective. Do you have any potential conflicts? A lot of the health charities in the States have real conflict of interest problems doing cause-related marketing, especially with the pharmaceutical companies. Are you good with events? Do you have special access to the media?

Advertising or PR Agency. If you work for an advertising or PR agency I would start by asking who you expect your clients to be? Will you convert existing clients or use your newfound capacity as cause marketers to attract new clients? Do you have someone on staff with hands-on understanding of the basics of cause-related marketing? It’s not rocket science by any stretch of the imagination, but familiarity with the practice is a prerequisite. Do you have PR chops? More cause-related marketing in the States is driven by PR than advertising. Do you speak or can you learn guerilla marketing? If your client is on the nonprofit side, are you prepared to wrestle over every cost item? Are you good at events? Do you have special access to the media?

Corporate. If you work for a company (or maybe a government entity) then you need to ask who you match well with? Do you want your campaign to have the support of rank and file employees? Are you prepared to make a long-term commitment to the cause? You’ll get more bang for your if your relationship last for years. What are your goals? Do you have the sophistication to accurately measure a cause marketing campaign’s value? Are you good at events? Do you have special access to the media?

Notice the repeated questions: Are you good at events? Do you have special access to the media?

Cause-related marketing relies frequently on events. That’s as it should be. When well executed, events build stronger relationships with prospects and customers than anything besides interpersonal communications. And more than the mass media, PR, direct mail and even the Internet, events allow you to move from awareness and interest into commitment and action in one fell swoop.

As for the media question, cause-related marketing is little more than a parlor trick for marketers who don’t make good use of the media.

Join Cause-Related Marketing and Get a Cool Tool you can Use Now

Kind Readers:

Marisol from Pasadena, California is the latest person to join the Cause-Related Marketing Googlegroup.

You can join, too.

When you do, each new posting to Cause-Related Marketing comes directly to your email box.

As an inducement, everyone that joins receives a copy of the "Five Flavors of Cause-Related Marketing," which explains Cause-Related Marketing in an easy-to-follow matrix and includes examples.

It's a great brainstorming tool and helps ensure that your campaign has all the bells and whistles appropriate for that flavor of Cause-Related Marketing.

To join, simply send me your name, your email address, city and country to aldenkeene@gmail.com.

The city and country thing is important because it helps me know for whom I'm writing.

Your privacy is important to me, so be assured that I will never sell your name or contact information to any third party.

Warm regards,
Paul Jones

HeartTruth and the Red Dress Campaign

Government and Cause-Related Marketing

My Feb. 6 posting was about the American Heart Association’s Go Red for Women campaign. This posting will be about the AHA’s stable mate in the Red Dress campaign, the National Heart and Lung Institute of the National Institutes of Health… aka HeartTruth… which falls under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Up until now, all my postings have been about cause-related marketing relationships between corporate and not-for-profit entities. Strictly speaking, the Red Dress campaign doesn’t raise money for the government or its programs, so it’s probably more appropriately called social marketing than cause marketing.

But because the campaign borrows liberally from the best practices in cause-related marketing and because some of the elements of the Red Dress campaign do raise money for nonprofit entities, I’m covering the highlights here.

In the United States heart disease kills more than 330,000 women a year, far and away the most common cause of death for American women. HeartTruth was launched under the auspices of National Heart and Lung Institute in 2002 after a meeting of experts was convened in March 2001 and charged with finding a way to raise the profile of heart disease among women.

The Red Dress was chosen as the icon or symbol for the HearthTruth campaign after it tested well in focus groups. The American Heart Association (AHA) started its complementary “Go Red for Women” campaign in 2004.

On the corporate side campaign elements include: FSIs (Free-standing inserts. See above.); multiple celebrities; packaged goods promotions; retailers which serve as distribution points for health materials and information; women’s media (Catalina, Essence, Glamour magazines, plus titles like Parenting, People, Health, etc., and Lifetime Television); information available at dioramas in shopping malls operated by General Growth Properties; and more.

There are also a number of events: the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in New York; National Wear Red Day on Feb.2; the First Ladies Red Dress Collection at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library; and others. Since the campaign’s start, a number of red dresses have been designed for the campaign by leading designers. If you find a sponsor, HeartTruth will bring the Red Dress collection to your city.

The campaign does generate money. For instance, when you enter a promotional code from a box of Cheerios, $1 goes to WomenHeart, a patient education coalition of more than 35 organizations. Likewise, tea maker Celestial Seasonings has a campaign that generates funds for WomenHeart, as does retailer Crabtree & Evelyn.

The campaign does have its curiosities. For instance, the red dress from the AHA’s Go Red for Women campaign is more stylized than the one for HeartTruth. The AHA almost certainly did that so as to build equity in their own icon.

It’s also amusing that the HeartTruth website, which is owned by a government entity, shows the websites of the corporate partners, but won’t hyperlink to them.

Finally, there is the issue of ‘coopetition’ between the American Heart Association and HeartTruth. I expect… although I don’t have any firsthand knowledge… that the AHA requires Go Red sponsors to meet certain minimums to participate in the campaign. Whereas participation with HeartTruth is probably free.

The Cheerios sponsorship is potentially worth $500,000 to WomenHeart. So the American Heart Association has to be asking itself why that money isn’t coming its way. If there’s no good answer then it’s time for the AHA to take a long reflective look at its campaign. Otherwise, Go Red may have some defectors to HeartTruth.

Agree or disagree, please feel free to comment.

Compensating Your Nonprofit Cause Marketers

Can’t We Just End the Hypocrisy?

If you’re a charity that does or wants to do cause-related marketing or sponsorship, how do you pay your cause marketers?

For those of you on the corporate side or in agencies, this probably sounds like an easy question. You pay them a base salary plus a percentage-based commission based on how much they raise. No different than paying your top salesperson. It rewards performance and punishes mediocrity. Great cause-marketers should make more money, right?

In fact, for nonprofits it’s fraught with worries, concerns, and ethical dilemmas.

Notice I didn’t say commission-based pay is illegal. So far as I know paying nonprofit fundraisers a commission is not illegal. But you can’t be a member of the prestigious Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) if you accept commission-based compensation. And good luck finding a grantwriter who will work on a commission basis.

Here’s why commission-based compensation is frowned upon. In the United States, some donors flat out won’t give you money to pay for overhead like salaries. A number of grant-making foundations won’t allow their money to be used for commission type pay. That's because, the argument goes, personal inurement in a nonprofit setting should always be secondary to furthering the nonprofit's mission. Donor trust can be damaged if fundraiser were commission-based or self-dealing could result.

There's no denying that commission-based pay feels unseemly in a nonprofit setting. It generates images of sales sharks in boiler rooms scamming the elderly, ala the 1992 movie Glengarry Glen Ross, depicted above.

What can you do to reward especially-effective employees? Well you can give them bonuses and perks. I don’t think even the AFP has a problem with paying higher bonuses to the fundraiser who raises more than her peers.

Let me give you an example. I worked at a marketing-driven nonprofit agency that had a bonus structure for employees who worked in sales-type positions. Meet agreed-upon fundraising goals and you received a bonus.

A colleague did a sponsorship deal worth $1 million a year over three years that was well above and beyond his established fundraising goals. The nonprofit we worked for wouldn’t pay a commission. Instead my colleague and the nonprofit negotiated a bonus that was paid out over the life of the sponsorship. Strictly speaking, there were no percentages involved and so it wasn’t a commission. But for those three years he was one of the highest-paid staffers there.

Moreover, both parties knew that if and when he did more such large-scale deals, he would get another “above and beyond” bonus. It wasn’t a commission, it was a bonus. But it was a distinction without a difference.

That’s my argument with the anti-commission folks. Top performers end up with compensation schemes that do what commissions do.



There are ways to do this without turning into the nonprofit world into Glengarry Glen Ross. And let's not forget that fraud is illegal, inside or outside of nonprofits. Ethical rules against commission-based schemes aren't exactly the last bulwark against fraud.

So why continue the hypocrisy?

Join Cause-Related Marketing and Get a Cool Tool You Can Use Now

Kind Readers:

Dudley F. from Johannesburg, SA is the latest person to join the Cause-Related Marketing Googlegroup.

You can join, too. When you do, each new posting to Cause-Related Marketing comes directly to your email box.

As an inducement, everyone that joins receives a copy of the "Five Flavors of Cause-Related Marketing," which explains Cause-Related Marketing in an easy-to-follow matrix and includes examples.

It's a great brainstorming tool and helps ensure that your campaign has all the bells and whistles appropriate for that flavor of Cause-Related Marketing.

To join, simply send me your name, your email address, city and country to aldenkeene@gmail.com.

The city and country thing is important because it helps me know for whom I'm writing.

Your privacy is important to me, so be assured that I will never sell your name or email address to any third party.

Warm regards,

Paul Jones

Effective Cause-Related Marketing is Just Blocking and Tackling

The Devil (in the Red Dress) is in the Details

I was at Rite Aid yesterday and bought a paper red dress for $1. It’s a small part of the American Heart Association’s admirably ambitious Go Red for Women campaign going on right now during "heart month."

Heart Disease, not breast cancer, is the number one killer of women. So to take some of the steam out of the many breast cancer charities, the Heart Association is doing for February what the breast cancer charities have done for October; brand it as their own.

And so, on the air, in retail outlets of all kinds, at events, in the print and electronic media Go Red for Women is almost omnipresent in the United States.

For instance, you can buy a Go Red themed book called “Kiss & Tell” in Macys stores. Kellogg’s has specially-packaged boxes of their breakfast cereal Smart Start in stores now. The jeweler Swarovski has a Go Red pendant on sale. Rite Aid… with 3325 stores in 27 states… and Key Bank… with 950 branches in 16 states… are both selling versions of the paper heart illustrated above. Go Red was even at Fashion Week in New York City with a celebrities modeling… what else?… designer red dresses.

There’s so much I can’t even list it all. But whoever’s running the Go Red campaign (the Heart Association calls it a “movement”), is smart enough to include an emotional component. Women are invited to share their stories online of how heart disease has affected them.

I am a huge advocate of these omnibus efforts (although certainly not every charity could pull it off). These large-scale efforts create a multiplier-effect that makes them bigger when combined than they would be separately. Brava, I say.

However, when I purchased the paper dress the clerk at Rite Aid tried scanning the icon; there’s a UPC code on the back. But it wouldn’t scan. The code as printed was wrong. “Oops,” she said, and she grabbed another piece of paper by the register with the correct UPC code and scanned it. I asked her about it and she said that rather than waste all the paper red dresses, they were simply scanning the correct code from the other paper.

While I admire the resourcefulness, it was a hiccup in an otherwise commendable campaign. The fact is, cause-related marketing, cause marketing, social marketing (or whatever you call it) is about 10 percent strategy and 90 percent execution. It’s mostly just basic 'blocking and tackling'.


For my readers outside North America, that's figure of speech from American-style football. (After all, the Super Bowl was on Sunday). It means that to play the game well you have to master the fundamentals.


In other words, someone at the Heart Association should have checked to make sure the paper red dresses had the right UPC code before they were shipped to Rite Aid.

Heal My Vision!

I Stand Corrected

Two recent comments about my review of the Montblanc-Nicholas Cage ads that ran in numerous financial magazines made me revisit my posting.

I feel good about what I wrote about transparency and nonprofits, but I got an important detail completely wrong. I misidentified the nonprofit in question as "Heal the Boy," which I couldn't find.

See the announcement of the Montblanc-Nicholas Cage relationship here.

In fact, Cage and Montblanc are supporting "Heal the Bay," an environmental organization that works to improve Southern California's coastal waters, especially the Santa Monica Bay.

My mistake and my apologies to all concerned.

And thanks to our alert readers for catching the error.

Using Celebrities to Enhance Your Cause-Related Marketing

Celebrities and Social Marketing, the Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Tuesday’s posting talked about MacGuffins, devices that impel your target market to action when you're doing cause marketing or social marketing. One MacGuffin is the use of celebrities.

In the illustration World Vision, an international Christian relief and development organization, is working with Hannah Teter, the Olympic gold medalist for the snowboarding halfpipe at the 2006 Winter Games in Torino. Teter commissioned the Mapleside Sugar House in Mt Holly, Vermont (Hannah’s home state), to create Hannah’s Gold grade A Vermont maple syrup. A portion of the proceeds goes to World Vision.

Celebrities bring public and media attention. For instance, Teter’s work for World Vision has won the 20-year-old acclaim as the ‘Sportswoman of Year’ award from the U.S. Olympic Committee. Some of that attention has devolved to World Vision. Certain celebrities can lend your campaign credibility. Some will actually donate money and expertise, in addition to their time. A few will lend you their Rolodex.

But celebrities can bring negatives along with the positives.

Cost. Even celebrities who are free are probably going to cost you something. Maybe they need frou-frou hotels, first-class flights, limos, special meals or extra rooms for their families and entourage. It’s prudent to devote a staffer or volunteer to attend to the celebrity during functions, so that costs staff time. If the celebrity is a performer, the riders in their contracts can be eye-opening. And don’t forget that just courting them costs time and treasure.

Fickle nature of celebrity. Fame is fickle. Few celebrities remain on the A-List for more than five or six years. Everybody knows who’s on the A-List, and competition for their endorsement is fierce. In most cases, the so-hot star this year is the subject of a “where are they now” profile on ET just a few years later. And once their star fades…assuming they remain loyal… what do you do with them?

Matching. Some celebrities available to you just may not be a match for your cause or campaign. At Children’s Miracle Network, sports celebrities came easy. But we found that a NFL hero in one market was a goat in another. Olympians have broader appeal, but only a handful are remembered a year after the Games are over. Of course there’s the usual variety of actors and singers, and television personalities. But if you’re trying to get publicity you may find that an entertainer closely associated with one TV network may get the short shrift from another.

Scandal. I have personal knowledge of a very well-known professional athlete who, after appearing at a charity event, required his volunteer driver (a female) to take him to a strip club and then wait for him. Yikes! Needless to say, he was never invited back.

By all means use celebrities if it makes sense for your campaign. But do so with your eyes open and looking out for trouble.