Putting the Cause Front and Center in Your Cause Marketing

One of my ongoing complaints with a lot of cause marketing activation is the degree to which sponsors seem to want to keep their distance from their partner cause (or visa versa). There’s none of that in this ad for Pur, which really 'owns' its longstanding commitment to clean water in Africa.

Pur, which is a water purifier brand from Procter & Gamble, offers a straightforward transactional cause marketing effort. Buy various Pur products online and the company will send water purification packets to needy African countries.

Since 2008, Pur packets have treated more than 1.6 billion liters of water. P&G developed the packets itself, which contain a powder that purifies and disinfects a liter of bad water.

What I like about this ad that I found in the Alden Keene Cause Marketing Database is the degree to which Pur really entwines its brand with the cause.

While the main art is about the family benefits of Pur’s in-home water filtration offerings, half the body copy is devoted to the cause. The other photo, which is much smaller, but nonetheless prominent, illustrates well the cause. An African child is drinking clean water from a Pur-labeled cup held by his mother.

It goes without saying that few things are more important to human life and development than clean water. And so Pur can legitimately claim to be saving lives. 

Cause marketing can add an emotional dimension to a sponsor’s product or service. But only to the degree that sponsors really embrace it.

Learn a lesson here from one of the most accomplished cause marketers around, Procter & Gamble.