Evaluating Your Cause-Related Marketing Campaign--Sponsor

If you’re the sponsor of a cause-related marketing campaign, you’re in the green room, you’re in a makeup chair and you’re sitting pretty.

Here’s what I mean. When I was writing the Children’s Miracle Network (CMN) Telethon a representative from one of CMN’s largest sponsors used to avail herself of the same makeup services provided for celebrity hosts and guests. Strictly speaking this was verboten. While she appeared on air during sponsor segments, CMN had a separate makeup area for sponsors.

She had some thin excuse why she couldn’t use the regular makeup services… skin allergies or something. At any rate, everyone from CMN in a position to raise the issue with her chose to let it go. She had a famously volatile personality and the sponsorship was worth several million dollars. If she took up a little face time with same makeup artist that did Jane Seymour on Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman, what did it really matter?

It’s not so different when it comes to evaluating the success of a cause-related marketing campaign. While the charity and the agency in a cause-related marketing campaign should have their own criteria for measuring a campaign’s success, the criteria that matters most comes from the sponsor.

It’s the golden rule in action; she who has the gold, rules.

So what should the sponsor measure and evaluate?

• Media impressions and their ‘quality.’
• Dollars raised (if it’s that kind of campaign).
• Perhaps, new customers.
• Customer opinion surveys measured against prior years.
• The campaign as it compares against competitors and similar campaigns.
• Parents pissed off collecting boxtops and labels for their kids’ school.

When it comes to gauging external audiences, most of these measurements suggest themselves and so I won’t go further.

But I would argue that one area that sponsors, nonprofits and agencies frequently miss is the measurement of their internal audiences, including employees, vendors, partners, management, etc.

A well-imagined and executed cause-related marketing campaign can help give a company real personality. Cause-related marketing at some companies helps with employee loyalty and retention. Moreover, with their money or their time, internal audiences often ‘pay’ for a good chunk of cause-related marketing campaigns.

Wouldn’t it be good to know if your employees find the campaign to be unrewarded drudgery? Or, that your vendors would happily pay more for their participation in the celebrity golf tourney? Isn’t that information worth knowing as you mull over your participation in next year’s campaign?

Evaluating Your Cause-Related Marketing Campaign--Agency

Thursday’s post covered how a nonprofit might evaluate a cause-related marketing campaign.

Today’s post tackles the question from the perspective of an agency.

While there’s plenty in Thursday’s post that’s pertinent to agencies, they still have their own unique gloss on evaluating the success of a campaign.

• Agencies frequently care about things like whether a campaign garners awards and/or the respect of peers and the trade press.
• Agencies care about achieving higher creative standards.
• And it goes without saying that agencies care about whether the work they do for the campaign meets internal benchmarks for profitability.

But in my view what should matter most for agencies is the degree to which they are aligned with the nonprofit’s goals and objectives. Agencies must evaluate the success of a cause campaign based on whether it achieved the nonprofit’s definition of success, not the agency’s.

Sometimes this means setting aside biases (both personal and institutional). For instance, in my home State of Utah the Department of Transportation and the Department of Public Safety is currently running a public safety campaign called Zero Fatalities. The tagline is: “it’s a goal we can all live with.” The agency had an institutional bias for wordplay, but does a campaign like this really call for puns? I don’t know who the agency is for this campaign is, but in my view they sold the State a bill of goods.

In cause-related marketing campaigns, the job of the agency isn’t to be clever for the sake of being clever. The agency's job is to help create a campaign that works, that is a campaign that sells.

That’s the ultimate assessment for an agency. Did they bring value that made the campaign more effective? Or did they bring creative that won cheers from their peers and yawns from the nonprofit's constituency?

Evaluating Your Cause-Related Marketing Campaign--Nonprofits

So the campaign is over (or at a pause) and it’s time to evaluate. How do you do that?

I’ll tackle the question from the perspective of the nonprofit today, the agency on Tuesday and the sponsor next Thursday.

Nonprofits

• If your nonprofit is like most of your peers you probably put everybody who was even remotely connected to the project in a room and hash it out until everyone’s eyes bleed. However, I won’t suggest that you trim the number of participants. The fact is given the turnover in nonprofits today, the very most junior person involved with the campaign this year could be running it 18 months from now. Moreover a debriefing is a form of training. (But be careful that it’s not training in how not to run a debriefing!)
  
• At a minimum the debriefing should lead to a discussion about whether the campaign met the goals you set out for it. Of course that means that you committed the goals to paper beforehand, didn’t you? It also means that people come to the meeting prepared to talk specifics. If the goal was to attract new supporters, then someone needs to bring a spreadsheet to the meeting with the numbers of new supporters and how much money they generated.
  
• If the campaign is large or important there may be a need for some kind of formal evaluation. Maybe an outside firm needs to validate the number of media impressions. Perhaps an audit of the campaign’s books is required. Maybe you need to study formally the participants’ satisfaction with the campaign. If the campaign requires a customer satisfaction survey, I strongly recommend that you lead with “the ultimate question” devised by Bain consultant and author Fred Reichheld. The ultimate question is: rated on a 1-10 scale, “would you recommend this campaign to a friend.” If you don’t get a ‘net promoter score’ of nine or 10, well then the rest of the survey should be devoted to learning why that is.
  
• Whether or not you ask the ultimate question of your customers, you must ask your sponsor(s) a version of it. If you don’t get a net promoter nine or 10 from them, you better figure out why and start doing some damage control. Remember it’s almost always cheaper to keep a sponsor than to find a new one.
  
• If the campaign didn’t meet your internal goals, talk about why. One answer could be that the goals were unrealistic. It could be that your firm or an outside firm didn’t execute one or more elements of the campaign correctly. Maybe the campaign was poorly designed. If it went well, talk about why. Everyone knows a grand slam homerun when they see it, but not everyone knows how it happened. Spend the biggest single chunk of time in the postmortem meeting talking about how and why things went right or wrong.
  
• Even if the meeting is large, make sure that everyone gets their say. There’s a couple of reasons for this. Many postmortems get dominated by the people with the strongest personalities. But they’re not necessarily the smartest or most insightful. The mousy student intern… with a true outsider’s perspective… may offer the most astute observation of all. The second reason to require that everyone speaks is to ensure that everyone gets a chance to be heard. You can do that by going around the room and insist that everyone make some remark. Prep them in advance for their participation so that people who need to prepare can.
  
• Talk about the role vendors, outsiders and sponsors played. Was the agency participation dynamite or underwhelming? Was the work from the vendors up to snuff? Did the sponsor seem especially pleased? (If so, ask them to put that on paper).
  
• If you had an agreement or contract with the sponsor, did you meet all its terms?
  
• Make sure that minutes from the debriefing are kept. After the fact, insist that participants review and update the minutes and give them a deadline to make changes. Sometimes fresh ideas or thoughts come after the meeting and if they’re pertinent they should be added to the document. Prepare some kind of summary sheet that explains the campaign completely, if briefly. Stuff the summary, the minutes from the debrief, and all the exhibits (budget figures, copies of contracts, samples of the creative, and the like) into an expandable file folder. This is your organization’s living memory of the campaign, so make sure it’s as accurate, complete, and accessible as you can make it.

On Tuesday-- Tips for Evaluating a Cause-Related Marketing Campaign if You’re an Agency

What Good Are Imprinted Promotional Items in Cause Campaigns?

Joanie Loves Tchotchkes

It’s September and next month is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, so magazines across the United States are filled with breast cancer goodies.

The ad above is from Successful Promotions magazine, a kind of in-house organ/catalog from the Advertising Specialty Institute, a trade group for the advertising specialty industry.

Successful Promotions frequently weighs in on the business value of imprinted promotional products for cause campaigns, which I’ve never found entirely persuasive.

• In March 2007 Successful Promotions highlighted a campaign to draw attention to Merck’s controversial vaccine for the human papillomavirus that causes cervical cancer. The tchotchke utilized was a bracelet-making kit targeted at teen girls.


• Also in the March issue was news of the Florida Grand Opera in Miami which gave away real stone beverage coasters on the occasion of the premier of Verdi's opera Aida.


• In November 2006 the mag gave some pub to the Verb campaign from the Centers for Disease Control, which encourages kids 8-13 to be more physically active. The tchotchke was a yellow six-inch rubber ball imprinted with a website that encouraged kids to blog about their experience.

Most trade association web sites have a research section that tells you how important they are to the world of commerce, usually in excruciating detail. Aside from a fact sheet like entry stating that more than $18 billion in advertising specialties were sold in the United States in 2006, I didn’t see a corresponding section on ASI’s website.

I went looking for that missing section to answer questions like: “what role do promotional products play in business?” What proof is there that promotional products increase employee morale? Move the sales needle? Increase brand awareness or customer loaylty? Help nonprofits raise more money? Etc.

I expect that carefully-selected promotional products could help do any those things. But because of the breadth in the number and type of promotional items, how would ASI test effectiveness at a universal level?

Successful Promotions said that the Verb ball was effective. The CDC could test it because the ball had an exclusive access number imprinted on it that allowed kids full use of the website. Smart! (Although, isn't checking a fact-filled website the polar opposite of actual physical activity?)

But for every campaign that uses a promotional product well, I’ll bet there’s a million coffee mugs sold imprinted with company logos.

So here’s my question to all of you. What’s your experience using promotional products in cause-related marketing campaigns? Did it make a positive impact in your campaign? How did you measure that impact?

Please share your experience in the comments section.

Serendipity and the Genius of Cause-Related Marketing Monies

I caught a lecture yesterday delivered by the new Dean of the College of Science at the University of Utah, Dr. Pierre Sokolsky, a physicist, that was strangely relevant to cause-related marketing.

Although there were faculty members in the audience, the audience could be described as more as science boosters rather than scientists. (I was there after all).

Dean Sokolsky talked about funding, as deans will, and he said that while the college has done just fine attracting Federal and private research dollars, he lamented the degree to which research proposals these days require proof in advance of efficacy. Grant applications require not only that you describe the problem, but the expected answer, too.

He wasn’t just talking about having a hypothesis before you start, which of course is central to the scientific method. He was saying that modern research grant applications are funded in part on how clearly you can predict the results.

But of course science doesn’t always work this way. Everywhere you look there is evidence of scientific accidents. The discovery of penicillin comes to mind. But also discoveries and developments being used in ways never intended or dreamed of.

If you’re reading this through a browser it’s because the US Department of Defense built the Internet for exchanging information. If you’re reading this on the World Wide Web, it’s because CERN, the scientific agency in Switzerland, built the web to smooth the exchange of information between particle physicists worldwide.

There countless other examples.

Causes seeking the world over have the same complaint as Dean Sokolsky. Funders expect accountability and results, as they should. But what’s been lost in all this is serendipity, which is by nature unpredictable, expensive and fortunate. Remember DuPont researchers stumbled upon Teflon while trying to develop a better refrigerant.

The beauty of cause-related marketing funds is that while ethical accountability is certainly expected as the money is raised and spent, there is not the same expectation of how the money will be used as when you apply for a grant. Nonprofit professionals can typically spend cause-related marketing funds the way that makes the most sense to them, not the way that is most likely to attract flavor-of-the-month research funds.

In short, cause-related marketing monies can fund serendipity.

Marketing to College Students? Get a Cause!

College students are tricky to reach nowadays with traditional media. Unlike previous generations they refuse to take their medicine and watch a lot of network TV from 8pm to 11pm like their predecessors.

Oh they consume media like a retired sumo wrestler eats carbs at an all you can eat buffet.
But if you don’t have a message that’s well suited for their cell phones or i-Pods, or that they can mashup on their Facebook page or blog, or if it doesn’t work as a sponsored billboard in Grand Theft Auto then good luck reaching them in a meaningful way.

One approach that consistently works is cause-related marketing and other elements of corporate social responsibility. This fact was underscored in the findings of a survey of college students published last week by Alloy Media + Marketing and conducted in April of 2007 by Harris Interactive.

Alloy Media + Marketing, a New York City-based provider of ‘non-traditional media programs,’ developed a list of the top 10 “Most Socially Responsible Brands” for college students aged 18-30 based on the survey. (The graph above from marketingcharts.com fails to list #10, Kashi).

Little wonder that out of the 10 brands in the list all but one of them are active cause marketers and all of them are consumer brands. Of the 10 only Burt’s Bees doesn’t have an established history of cause-related marketing. Although they’re currently doing a mobile tour in conjunction with the National Arbor Day Foundation that has a modest tree-planting element.

What constitutes social responsibility? Three of the top finishers, according to a press release from Alloy + Marketing were “fair labor practices” (74 percent ranked it most important), “eco-friendly or green practices” (66 percent), and “companies that donate to a charity or cause” (63 percent).

That Wal-Mart finished so well despite the fire it attracts for unfair labor practices can probably be attributed to the fact that the company has been a generous donor to charity since before Sam Walton was still alive and because it has made great strides in the last 18 months in particular at becoming green. Maybe no large company has come further faster than Wal-Mart.

If you’re trying to reach college students and you don’t already have a cause-related marketing or corporate social responsibility program in place, it’s probably time to add it to your marketing mix.

Jerry Lewis, it's Time to Move On

So Jerry Lewis got himself in trouble over the Labor Day weekend. Maybe you heard. In his wacky, jesting way he used the “F-Bomb” as one reporter had it. Another characterized it as a “homophobic slur.” I prefer to think of it as a wakeup call to the board of the Muscular Dystrophy Association that it’s time to promote Jerry out of his hosting role.

Jerry’s survived these dramas in the past and he could surely do so again. But the man is 81 and while that’s half the age of his longtime sidekick Ed McMahan, Jerry is showing signs of wear. And let’s not forget that Jerry Lewis has had more near-death experiences in the last few years than the cheerleader on the ABC television series Heroes.

So how do you move out a guy who plainly doesn’t want to go and with whom do you replace him?

Last question first. How about Jerry Seinfeld?

Seinfeld’s on the record for saying that he pretty much never misses the MDA Telethon, and I believe him. I heard late-night talker Jimmy Kimmel say the same thing the other night. I have a certain sick fascination with the MDA Telethon myself. More to the point, Jerry S. is a father now of young children, and like never before he can probably imagine what it must be like to hear a doctor tell a parent that their child has some form of muscular dystrophy. Seinfeld’s wealthy and powerful and he and some of his friends (Larry David, for instance) have the gifts to reimagine the MDA Telethon for a younger audience. Not too many performers would turn him down if he called and asked them to appear. Plus, word is that he’ll have plenty of time on his hands a week or two after his animated film Bee Movie comes out.

So Jerry Seinfeld it is. But how to get Jerry Lewis to move on?

• First off, a replacement of the status of Jerry Seinfeld has to be secured. Jerry L. could/should participate in the process so long as the result is that Jerry L. is out and Jerry S. is in. When all the preparations are in place, the Jerries should then commence a whirlwind media tour.
• To coincide with the announcement the MDA should commission a retrospective on Jerry L’s entire career written by a prominent author. Too bad David Halberstam is dead, because he would have been the perfect choice. A film documentary, suitable for airing on PBS, should accompany the book. Maybe Ken Burns could whip something up over the next seven or eight years.
• In conjunction with the book and documentary the museum at Academy of Television Arts and Sciences should stage a major retrospective exhibit on the MDA Telethon and Jerry’s TV career.
• The MDA should acquire ownership of the song closely associated with the Telethon, Smile, and retitle it, “Smile: the Jerry Lewis Song.” Maybe Philip Glass could create atonal variations on a theme of Smile: the Jerry Lewis Song.
• A touring exhibit of Jerry’s paintings should be mounted at the 186 TV stations that currently carry the MDA Telethon. And if Jerry Lewis doesn’t paint? No matter. No doubt they could dig up some old Red Skelton canvasses and pass them off as part of Jerry’s faire le clown oeuvre
• There should be a week-long tribute on A&E that features the movies of Jerry Lewis hosted by Regis Philbin and Ed McMahan.
• MDA should clear up the rights issues and release to DVD Martin & Lewis’s many appearances on the Colgate Comedy Hour from the 1950s.
• A series of mailings should go to MDA’s donor list asking them to donate in Jerry’s honor to a special fund that bypasses the MDA’s normal process for funding new research to fund ideas that are promising if unconventional. Laugh therapy perhaps. Or fruit juice enemas.
• The cure to some major component to muscular dystrophy, when it comes, should be called the ‘Jerry Lewis Protocol’ or some such.
• A gold sarcophagus featuring Lewis’s likeness circa 1966, when the Telethon started, should be commissioned in anticipation of his death. A tomb should be dug in the Thebes Valley in Egypt to hold Jerry’s body. Alternately, he could be buried in a specially-built pyramid-shaped crypt on the grounds of the Egyptian-inspired Luxor Casino on the Las Vegas Strip, where Jerry's spent so many wonderful years.

There you go, a few suggestions that, if properly executed, would help the MDA board and Jerry Lewis to move on.

Some Unsolicited Cause Marketing Advice to Some Friends Planning a Business Conference

I had dinner with some self-described geeks the other night, two of whom are planning a local business conference on the business benefits of blogging. They’ve already lined up speakers and sponsors and are finalizing the arrangements for details like the room and the flyer and other promotional vehicles.

In short, there’s still time to add a cause-related marketing ‘overlay’ to the event.

Here then is an open letter to Jason Alba (Jessica’s cousin!) and Matthew Reinhold (who may be, for all I know, Judge Reinhold's cousin).

Hi Guys:

Thanks for the chance to jaw with you at geek dinner Thursday night. I felt like I got more than I contributed. But my specialty…cause-related marketing… is slightly esoteric even though it represents about 10 percent of the $13 billion sponsorship market.

What is cause-related marketing? Just imagine the lid on a cup of Yoplait yogurt or the box top on a product from General Mills. When you clip that box top and send it in, a dime goes to local schools that you designate.

That’s cause-marketing. It’s generally a tactical promotion, but doesn’t have to be. In both those examples cause-related marketing is a strategic part of how General Mills (which owns the Yoplait brand) does business.

You guys previewed your blogging conference targeted to businesses. I recommend that you add a cause-related marketing component. The simplest way to do that is to give a portion of each paid registration to a cause that your audience has some affinity for (the more affinity the better). Or, if the cause was, say, the food bank, you could offer a discount to people who bring with them a can of food. But there’s a whole lot of other possible iterations.

Why would you want to add a cause marketing component?

• Academic research and real-world experience demonstrates that cause-related marketing can and does move the sales needle.
• The right cause can help promote the event. A few might even spring loose their own database list.
• Increasingly, customers (even in the B2B category) expect it.
• It gives another hook to promote around in your advertising and public relations.

What cause should you choose?

• It’s easy to pick one of the big single-disease charities… heart, lung, cancer, breast cancer, diabetes, leukemia and the like… or the local United Way. They have considerable resources to bring to bear and most can offer a fair amount of affinity. For instance, nearly 21 million Americans have type II diabetes.
• Another approach is to partner with a cause that is a strategic fit with the purpose of the conference.
• You could also pick a cause for which you guys personally have affinity. If the cause isn’t well-known then make sure you can easily explain the cause’s mission and purpose.

Where do you start?

• If you want something from the cause (their logo, list, help writing and distributing press releases, etc.) then you’ll need to contact the cause directly. And the sooner the better. It’s a curious fact of life that most charities in the States seem to move at about half speed. One reason; charities rely on consensus, which is often s l o w.
• But you could certainly donate to a cause without their direct participation. Just make sure you do exactly what you said you’d do in your promotional materials. When the conference is over, send the cause the check.

If it’s a lot of money (and here’s hoping it is) you can expect to hear back from the cause.

Need some suggestions or help? That’s what I’m here for.


Warm regards,
Paul

PS Hey Jason, maybe you could put in a good word to Cousin Jessica that she
needs to pose more often in something beside a bikini. I had to go 10 pages deep
in the photo browser to find a picture of her in an actual dress!