Nationwide Cause Marketing with Twitter

Mash up a telethon, the nationwide live showing of an earnest documentary film about three women fighting poverty in their respective countries, CARE, ONE, Fathom, and Twitter, and what do you get?

We've seen local and regional Tweet-a-Thons, but this will apparently be the first-ever nationwide sponsored Tweet-a-Thon.

From Tuesday, March 3 to Thursday March 5 when you Twitter with the phrase “#apowerfulnoise” in your Tweet, National CineMedia Fathom will make a $0.10 donation per CARE, up to 50,000 tweets, a rather modest $5,000. 

The event culminates on Thursday, March 5 with the showing of the film “A Powerful Noise” at 450 movie theaters across the United States. The film will be followed by a live panel discussion that includes the likes of Christy Turlington Burns, Nicholas Kristof, Dr Helene Gayle, Madeleine Albricht, and Natalie Portman. You can submit a question to the panel here.

The documentary was produced by Sheila Johnson, a Global Ambassador for CARE, and cofounder of BET with her former husband Robert Johnson. She has a long list of other firsts including, it’s said, bragging rights as the first black female billionaire. (Oprah was the second, but she has since surpassed Johnson). 

This is a pretty cool idea and I can imagine a lot of directions you could take starting with this approach.

But I cannot imagine a way in the world that the panel discussion doesn’t turn out to be a yawner. Either the film does its job or it doesn’t. But the addition of a panel discussion on the heals of the movie will neither mitigate a bad documentary or improve a good one.

Bono on the Taint of Cause Marketing

All nonprofit fundraisers must make some accommodation with the issue of ‘tainted’ money.

It’s a question of morality. Is there money that you cannot accept because of the way it was generated or from whom it comes?

If you’re PETA do you take money from Purina or Hormel? If you’re MADD do you accept donations from beer and liquor companies? If you’re a liberal political action committee can you accept money from a conservative? Or, vice versa? If you’re the Sierra Club can you take money from Clorox (without having to fire state directors)?

It’s not just a matter of cashing checks. It’s what cashing those checks says to the rest of your supporters. Will taking money from certain individuals or entities stifle dissent or muzzle your voice? Can you retain your independence and still accept money from those you disagree with? Are you enabling what I’ve come to call ‘causewashing?’

For many nonprofits the indirect nature of the donation in cause marketing doesn’t make the questions any less tortuous. For some, cause marketing ‘taps into consumption guilt while at the same time feeding that excess.’

Every charity has to decide what kind of money is... for them... tainted. And it’s a different answer for one charity than it is for the next.

When I was at Children’s Miracle Network, for instance, we had the chance to do a deal with a beer company but we choose not to. But the Muscular Dystrophy Association has a relationship with MillerCoors.

Personally, if I were the executive director of a charity that filled some basic human need; shelter, food, clothing, maybe some kinds of health issues, there probably wouldn’t be any money that was ‘tainted.’

On the other hand, if I were the executive director of a symphony, I would likely turn down money from some donors whose gains were ill-gotten, illegal or openly disfavored.

And it seems that Bono agrees on that first point. The page above comes from Elle magazine, for which Bono served as the guest editor in March. He writes of the (RED) campaign and its funding for antiretroviral therapy for AIDS/HIV victims in Africa:

“These are tough times for a hard sell, hard to talk about shopping when everybody’s belt-tightening. Everyone is more conscious than ever about where they spend their hard-earned cash. (RED) is not asking you to flock to the stores for the sake of it. But if you find yourself browsing we are asking you to choose (RED) where you can—for the sake of those who can’t ask you themselves.”

Cause Marketing with Celine Dion, Hallmark and UNICEF

Made my annual pilgrimage to the nearby Hallmark Gold Crown store for Valentine’s Day (Feb 14) and couldn’t pass up the musical card display featuring songs by Celine Dion and benefiting UNICEF.

This isn’t transactional cause marketing, but rather a licensing deal with Hallmark that dates to 2006. In the course of the year, Hallmark offers more than 100 cards… only a few of which are musical cards… carrying the UNICEF branding. 

I like the campaign. And I applaud the poor devil that had to clear the music rights. That is yeoman’s work, my friends.

But to me the messaging seems a little… to coin a term… 'Hall-mawkish.'

The line “where every child is free… simply to be a child” reads like a half measure. I know my Americanism is showing here, but don’t we want the world’s children to be free? Period. End of sentence?

And the opening line, “UNICEF and Celine Dion are committed to creating a world where children can grow up happy, healthy and hopeful…” draws too much equivalency between UNICEF, whose work is decades old, and Ms. Dion.

Celine Dion has been undeniably generous to UNICEF. But Celine Dion, age 41,  is not the same thing as UNICEF, age 63.

Moreover, where are you and I in that paragraph? Where’s the call to support the mission of UNICEF? Where’s the sentence or two about the guts of what UNICEF really does? Where’s the appeal to the ‘better angels of our nature’?

Missing, I'm sad to say.

An Interview with Cause-Related Marketing Pioneer Jerry Welsh

Jerry Welsh is the closest thing cause marketing has to a father.

In 1983 after a number of regional cause-related marketing efforts, Welsh, who was then executive vice president of worldwide marketing and communications at American Express looked out his window in lower Manhattan at the Statue of Liberty. The Statue was then undergoing a major refurnishing, and in a flash Welsh determined to undertake the first modern national cause marketing campaign.

I say modern because almost 100 years before in January 1885, the Statue of Liberty was sitting around in crates in New York warehouses because the organization building the pedestal ran out of money. And so Joseph Pulitzer, the publisher of the newspaper called The World, proposed a very grassroots solution reminiscent in its own way to Welsh’s cause-related marketing.

Pulitzer ran an editorial promising he would print the name of everyone who donated even a penny. Sure enough pennies, along with dimes and nickels, quarters and dollars, started pouring in. Together, along with other donations, it was enough to resume construction on the pedestal in August 1885. The pedestal was finished in April 1886 and workers started erecting Lady Liberty.

Welsh’s campaign went like this. For every new American Express card application made during the campaign period, $1 went to the Statue of Liberty restoration. For every transaction, $0.01 was donated.

I’ve described the regional cause-related marketing efforts you did prior to the Statue of Liberty as like a show being tried out in Hartford before going to Broadway. But that suggests intent. Were you trying out cause marketing with the intent of doing something nationally? Or, were you just so pleased with the success of the regional efforts that you decided to unveil it nationally?

“The local emphasis of the early CRM efforts was because we reasoned that in Dallas, for example, the consumers are more interested in causes in Dallas than, say, in Chicago. CRM was always meant to be local. Then the restoration effort for the Statue of Liberty came along. One day I was sitting in my American Express office looking at the Statue and that’s when the idea of doing a national CRM campaign came to me. I continue to believe that powerful national causes in the U.S. are very limited, and local CRM is probably the best way to go.”

What went into your thinking when you choose to support the Statue of Liberty campaign for your first national CRM effort?

“The Statue of Liberty is arguably the most universally compelling cause to Americans. It was basically obvious to me that, structured correctly, a national campaign to support the Statue of Liberty would be a sure success.”

Over the full length of the campaign, how much did it generate for the Statue of Liberty restoration?

“While American Express donated $1.75 million, the publicity and advertising connected with the campaign raised perhaps 10 times that amount.”

I’ve read any number of times your results: new card applications soared 45 percent; card usage rose 28 percent in the first month of the campaign; $1.7 million raised for the Statute of Liberty from September to December 1983. Are those accurate and is there anything missing? That is, is there anything you'd like to add?

“Those numbers are essentially correct.”

Was there any reluctance to share this new tactic of CRM, to keep it proprietary?

"American Express copyrighted the term ‘Cause-Relate Marketing,’ but we made no attempt to limit the term’s general use."

IEG projects that companies spent $1.5 billion on CRM in 2008. How does that number strike you?

“That number is probably low.”

What do you think about CRM campaigns that go on year-round; for instance, General Mills’ Boxtops for Education or Campbell’s Labels for Education?

“I am wary of permanent promotions. Permanent promotion is a classic case of oxymoron, a contradiction in terms. A permanent promotion is almost always a simple addition to the routine cost of marketing.”

What surprises you about CRM now 30 or so years after those first regional efforts and 26 years after the Statue of Liberty campaign?

“I have been surprised to see the term and practice grow dramatically as time has gone on. CRM is now widely practiced around the world.”

What’s the story behind how you coined the term ‘cause-related marketing’?

“I believe in the deliberate use of language, so I was careful in crafting the term ‘Cause-Related Marketing.’ CRM is not philanthropy; it’s rather marketing through an artful association with a charitable cause. Otherwise, I would have called it something like ‘Marketing-Related Philanthropy.’”

You’re a big runner. When you travel what are some of your favorite runs?     

“My favorite run is around Central Park in Manhattan, but I have run in many countries, mostly on the streets, but in the parks where they're available.”

Jeff Atlas Remembers Amex's Statue of Liberty Campaign

It was my pleasure to interview via email Jeff Atlas, the lead creative behind the celebrated American Express campaign 26 years ago to restore to glory the Statue of Liberty. The campaign launched modern cause marketing. Jeff’s client, Jerry Welsh, who was executive vice president worldwide marketing and communications at American Express, even coined the term ‘cause-related marketing.’

Like a show that gets tested in regional theaters before going to Broadway, Amex tried out cause-related marketing first regionally before bringing it to New York and Lady Liberty.

Atlas writes, “It started in small regional efforts to support the arts. ‘Eat for the Arts’ was one memorable line we used. Another directed people to American Express Travel offices. ‘If you love the Dallas ballet, go away.’ Then came an effort to help Mount Vernon [George Washington’s home], then the Statue of Liberty. The rest is marketing history.”

The first thing I posed to Jeff wasn’t so much a question as a compliment. I told him the Statue of Liberty campaign was legendary and that when I was at Children's Miracle Network we drew inspiration from the Amex campaign all the time. And we cited it to would-be sponsors just as often.

His response:

The campaign is “legendary”? As in, it might not really have existed? 

Seriously, you made my day.

Tell me about the campaign.

Have you ever seen the actual print campaign?

It was a double-page spread done in blue, with a tight close-up of the face of the Statue.

Headline: In addition to all the logical reasons for using the American Express Card,
there is now one that is unabashedly sentimental.

The headline is characteristically my style.  First, it sets a tone of voice for the campaign. It's dignified, intelligent, and just a little bit formal. I wanted to be sure that we were not being perceived as trading on or cheapening the image of the Statue. If the headline had been, “The next time you go shopping, buy one hat for you and one for her,” people who take the Statue very seriously - and there are many who see it as a shrine to American values - would have been offended. They would have thought, American Express is trading on the reputation of the Statue of Liberty for their own profits. This dignified tone of voice was a shift from that which we had used for the  regional campaigns, which were fun and lighthearted. We thought that would not do for this. So, we approached it in another way.

Secondly, and this is purely a stylistic tic of mine, I loved using the word “unabashedly.” When I take a more “literary” voice, I love to use a word that is not in everyday parlance. Even if people don’t register it consciously, they feel that something is different. They also know that the ad is not talking down to them. It’s an intelligent ad with intelligent language for an intelligent person. But “unabashedly is not too far ahead of people. I would probably not use the word “abstruse” because it’s, well, too abstruse.

This is making me feel obtuse.

If this sounds like an ad guy who is WAY overthinking, in truth, all of these thoughts did not really occur to me at the time. I attribute it to a gut instinct that I have. Something feels “right” to me, even if I can’t quite tell you why. I am also an art director - although I was working with a great art director on this ad, Nancy O'Neil - and I have the same feelings. I will look at an image and feel “something” is wrong. I have to fiddle and fiddle until it feels right to me.

For another Amex print campaign, we had taken a portrait of Peter Falk in a “Columbo” raincoat. My art director had placed the image in the center of the page. That didn’t feel right to me. I inched it left, then more left, then further left - until a portion of the picture was running off the side of the page. That left a huge expanse of empty white space. Finally, that seemed interesting to me. (Here I will, immodestly, tell you that this ad went on to with the $25,000 Stephen Kelly Prize for the best print ad of the year.)

What about the art you chose for the ad?

I have a funny story. The photograph, which is an extreme close-up of the face with a blue cast, was quite unusual. When we first showed it to Jerry Welsh, he said, “I think she looks sad.” We said that it looked striking and had a strong, visceral impact. Quickly - which is Jerry’s style - he took the picture and showed it to some secretaries and people who were wandering around the Amex offices. They thought the image was moving. He came back - and the campaign was done.

Who else was involved?

While I have described my role in this campaign, I would be entirely remiss not to give enormous credit to both Tom Rost and Jerry Welsh. Tom was the creative director on all of the Amex business, aka, my boss. He was enormously supportive and provided calm and sanity in a sometimes nutty environment.  

And, of course, Jerry Welsh. I talked to him recently and told him that as “the father of CRM,” he must be very proud of how his offspring had grown up. Truly, think of all of the good that has come from his idea. All of the charitable groups that have been funded and all of the people who have been helped. Jerry is “larger than life” and has left an impact that befits his personality.

Strategic Cause Marketing, Post No. 434

Strategic cause marketing like strategic philanthropy is one of those things to strive for. And as a blogger it's a topic that is all but evergreen.

Strategic cause marketing means there’s a logical connection between the cause and the company. So, a logical charity for a hair salon to support is Locks of Love, which makes wigs for people who have lost their hair due to a medical condition. A logical charity for children’s book publisher is a children’s literacy cause. A restaurant chain might choose a hunger charity, etc.

But certainly not all cause marketing is strategic. Nor should it be. Imagine how limited a cause with great affinity like UNICEF would be if they limited their sights to only those companies that sell to children in the developing world.

In the last few days I’ve come across two splendid examples of strategic cause marketing and strategic philanthropy.

The first is from a pair of cheeky product designers who run an online retail outlet called ‘the.’ The second from E.B. White’s classic kiddie lit The Trumpet of the Swan.

Among other things, ‘the’ sells plastic lunch bags printed to look like green mold is growing on whatever’s inside, thereby foiling would-be office sandwich thieves and lunchtime bullies at school. When you buy “Anti-Theft Lunch Bags”  ‘the’ will donate 5% of the purchase price to Freedom from Hunger, a 60-year old microfinance charity with operations in 16 countries in the developing world.

It’s perfectly strategic cause marketing. Sandwich bags paired with a hunger charity in the sassiest strategic cause marketing I can recall from a company whose name is a definite article. Bravo, the.

My second example requires a little bit of setup and (spoiler alert) I’m going to reveal the plotline of E.B. White’s wonderful book, The Trumpet of the Swan.

The book concerns a trumpeter swan named Louis who is born unable to make a sound. In a desperate attempt to give his son a voice, Louis’ father crashes into a music store in Billings, Montana and steals a trumpet. Louis, a bright cygnet if ever there was one, learns the trumpet, as well as how to read and write.

His adventures as a trumpet playing swan culminate in Philadelphia where he earns $500 a week playing in a seedy jazz club. He returns home to Montana with a wad of cash, which he gives to his father so he can reclaim his dignity by repaying his debt to the music store.

The father returns to the store with the money and a note from Louis. As he descends from the sky, the music store owner… worried he’s going to be robbed again… fires his shotgun. Louis’ father is grazed, but not hurt by a single shotgun pellet, and manages to land. All of which creates quite a stir on the streets of Billings and attracts a crowd that includes a game warden, a policeman, a judge and other men, women and children.

Because the money Louis made performing is many times more than the cost for the trumpet and the store’s repair, the storekeeper is left with a dilemma. What should he do with the extra money that literally fell from the sky?

The storekeeper says:

“I have an announcement… I am only going to keep just enough money to pay for the stolen trumpet and the repair bills for my store. All the rest of the money will be given to a good cause if I can think of just the right one. Can anyone think of a worthy cause that needs money?”

“The Salvation Army,” suggested woman.

“No.” said the storekeeper.

“The Boy Scouts?” suggested a boy

“No,” said the storekeeper.

“The American Civil Liberties Union?” suggested a man.

“Nope,” said the storekeeper. Nobody has thought of just the right place for me to send this money.”

“How about the Audubon Society?” asked a little fellow whose nose looked like the beak of a bird.

“Great! You’ve got it!” cried the storekeeper. “A bird has been very good to me, and now I want to do something for birds. The Audubon Society is kind to birds. I want this money to be used to help birds. Some birds are in real trouble. They face extinction.”

That, my friends, is strategic philanthropy. 

Cause Marketing Your Valentine

On Monday, Feb 2 Lisa Scherzer, a reporter from SmartMoney.com contacted me with the following email: 

Hi Paul,

I’m a writer at SmartMoney.com. I’m working on an article about alternative Valentine’s Day gifts that are for a good cause. I’ve come across a bunch of nonprofits and other companies that have Valentine’s promotions that include, for example, giving proceeds from the purchase of an organic flower bouquet to charity.

Would you be able to speak with me about this kind of cause marketing – in particular for Valentine’s Day? And how should consumers approach these kinds of items when shopping for gifts for their beloveds? I came across your Alden Keene blog and I thought you might be able to help.

Best regards,

Lisa 

I responded thusly:

Hi Lisa:

Great to hear from. Thanks for contacting me. Please let me know if this does not suit your needs, or if you’d like something else or something more.

“Retailers big and small, online and offline rely on shopping seasons. You know, Valentine’s, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day/Graduation, Back to School, Halloween, and Christmas. Since Valentine’s Day comes in the first quarter, traditionally the worst quarter for retail, it’s an important sales season. And for many chocolate, candy makers or florists, it’s almost make or break.

Valentine’s Day is a natural for cause marketing promotions. Research and experience show that cause marketing works best with consumer products. And when there’s a good match between the cause and sponsor, cause marketing can be very effective at bottom-line things like improving sales or customer loyalty. For retailers, especially in this lousy economy, cause marketing is a little like you or me taking a vitamin C tablet during cold and flu season.  

Plus cause marketing also helps charities at a time when they’re especially hard hit. In that way cause marketing is like dark chocolate for retailers; it tastes good and its loaded with anti-oxidants, to boot. 

But what’s a consumer supposed to do when the online florist or the storefront chocolatier is offering a donation to a cause?

If it’s a donation of $5 or more give it a quick smell test:

* Have you heard of the cause? Is it respectable? Can the clerk or the website tell you anything about the charity?

* Is there any supporting material? A brochure? PDF? A link? A phone number? If your’re really serious or just curious you can always check on charities at websites like CharityNavigator.org or Guidestar.org.

* Does the charity’s (apparent) mission resonate with you or with others you care about?

If any part of it smells funny or doesn’t appeal, walk away from the transaction. There’s plenty of businesses happy to take your money right now.

If the donation in question is a small amount, say a $1 or less, and the product is otherwise something you’d be likely to buy, my take is that you probably don’t have to spend any time or mental energy on it. Spend your time thinking about your Valentine, not the dime that may or may not be going to charity.”   

Warm regards,

Paul Jones

Sad to say, when the story appeared, Ms. Scherzer chose not to quote me. But all is not lost. 

At least I got a post out of the experience!

This Cause Marketers' Wish List for President Obama

Everybody has their wish list for President Barack Obama. This has been true of U.S. presidents since at least the time of President Andrew Jackson 180 years ago when people would walk up to the ‘People’s House’ as Jackson called it knock on the door and petition the great populist directly.

Speaking as a cause marketer, here’s my wish list for President Obama, expressed in an open letter.

 

Dear President Obama:

You have much to do in the opening days of your administration. But I hope you’ll carve out a little bit of your prodigious energy to think for a moment about a cause marketing, which I define as: “a relationship that bridges cause and commerce in ways that benefit both parties.”

Like many others, I have wishes and hopes for your administration. As a cause marketer, three stand out.

1). Please make cause marketing donations tax deductible. Doing so would almost certainly boost consumer spending.

This has been proposed by Professors Anup Malani and M. Todd Henderson, both at the University of Chicago Law School in your home state of Illinois.

As I wrote in my blog about the proposal:  

“It’s hard to imagine getting some kind of tax receipt when you commission a piece of music from Cantilena Music and a donation of $825 goes to a hearing cause, much less trying to figure out how many cartons of Yoplait you consumed in year with $.10 per lid going to Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.”

Now it’s clear to me how that could work. Up until 2007 noncash donations of $500 or less didn’t require that you submit an appraisal with your tax return. I suppose, strictly speaking, you needed a receipt. But it was all rather pro forma so long as you didn’t claim a huge deduction. 

So if you took a bunch of clothes and some other household items (an old stereo, for instance) to the local Salvation Army Thrift Store, so long as you claimed a deduction of less than $500, the IRS was good. The rules were made more stringent beginning with the 2008 tax year.

I propose changing the tax law so that you could you could deduct, oh, $100 or even $250 via what Malani and Henderson call ‘consumer charity’ without having to collect and keep 1000 $0.10 receipts.

How would this boost the economy?

If history, experience and research is any guide, there would be a measurable increase in cause marketing and a corresponding rise in consumer spending. Which would help the U.S. economy. And by now we all know that 70 percent of the economy is driven by American consumer spending.

Plus, as Malani and Henderson point out, disfavoring indirect charitable deductions is demonstrably unfair.

2). I hope you’ll ask the First Lady and the First Daughters, Malia and Sasha, to participate publicly in cause marketing.  

For instance, Sasha and Malia could be shown taking part in their school’s Campbell’s label or Boxtops for Education program or Michelle could be photographed wearing clothes or jewelry with a cause marketing component.

But here’s the kicker, whatever cause marketing the First Family illustrates, it has to be identified as such in White House press office materials. As in, “Malia and Sasha Obama drop off Boxtops for Education in the barrel in the front office of Sidwell Friends Private School. Sidwell donates all proceeds from the campaign to a neighboring school.”

Or, “At a private White House Dinner for key State Department officials on Feb 14, Michelle Obama wears a brown silk Cartier love bracelet, a Valentine’s gift from the President. $100 from the sale of the bracelet benefits SOS Children’s Villages.

3). Consider convening a conference on the confluence of commerce and cause with the intent to make policy recommendations.

Call it C3 and hold it in some Midwestern city like Chicago or Minneapolis so that cause marketers from both coasts can come. It should be about more than transactional cause marketing certainly. But that topic shouldn’t be ignored either. Just don’t make it another yawner about corporate social responsibility, which tend to take on an ‘eat your vegetables’ flavor.

Give it a green tint, but not green glasses. And force real recommendations out those impaneled. But don’t let the academics dominate. A lot of academics are like old generals; always fighting the last war.   

After you’ve read this I hope you’ll hand it to a key staffer with a short note that reads, “Get this done.”  You won’t have to think about it again.

Please give my regards to the First Lady, who I understand celebrated her 45^th birthday a few weeks back!

Warm regards,

Paul Jones, President

Alden Keene & Associates

Cause Marketing in Your Signature Line

MyContactCard, which builds web apps, has just launched CauseMail, a souped-up HTML signature line for your emails that includes contact information using branding from a select group of charities and generates a yearly $6.48 donation to the chosen charity.

The service costs an individual $12.95 a year. It is being marketed to both individuals and charities.

The pitch MyContactCard is making to charities goes like this: “100,000 supporters sending just 10 emails a day deliver over 365 million graphic, clickable impressions a year with the Cause branding, culture and donate now links.”

I like this idea and I like the execution. But frankly if that pitch represents their target market, they’re barking up the wrong tree. The number of nonprofits in the United States with 100,000 supporters who are online is a pretty small number.

Tens of millions of Americans gave more than $306 billion to charity in 2007. One third of that that goes to churches. The rest goes to literally millions of 501(c)(3)s.

I couldn’t find the actual number, but I’d be surprised if the average American donor gives to much fewer than a dozen charities a year. To put it directly, American give generously to charity, but their charitable giving is diluted among numerous entities.

Moreover, the charities that do have 100,000 supporters almost certainly have their own IT departments [and know how to rent services from Amazon S3, too]. The IT crew at St. Jude Child Research Hospital, to cite one, is certainly capable of putting together something just like MyContactCard.

But there are hundreds of thousands of charities with smaller lists and no IT department who could potentially benefit from MyContactCard. I’ll bet the people at MyContactCard figure that out pretty soon.

So should you subscribe to MyContactCard? That depends on you. Currently there are nine causes on board at MyContactCard: 

1. ASPCA 
2. Green Day
3. Lance Armstrong’s LiveSTRONG
4. One 
5. Special Olympics 
6. Sea Shepard Conservation Society 
7. Stop Global Warming 
8. Surfrider Foundation
9. Wounded Warrior.
   

If the Surfrider Foundation moves you, $12.95 a year isn’t terribly expensive. If all your emails carry the Surfrider Foundation’s branding, there’s probably a halo effect that redounds on you.

But if none of these causes move you but you like the idea of cause marketing on your signature line, consider doing what I do. 

The final line in my email signature reads: “Support the Children’s Organ Transplant Association. Donate at COTA.org.”