P&G brandSAVER FSI for UNICEF

Let Us Now Praise Good Cause-Related Marketing

So far there are six posts at causerelatedmarketing.biz and everyone of them has been critical to one degree or another. The point of this blog isn’t to flame every cause-related campaign I see as bad or inadequate. I expect there’s more to be learned more from good campaigns than bad ones.

So, on All Hallow’s Eve I want to back off my criticism to praise a cause-related campaign from a company that consistently gets cause-related marketing right, Proctor & Gamble.

This cause-themed FSI for UNICEF, which dropped circa September-October 2006 is one of Proctor & Gamble’s monthly “brandSAVER coupon booklets.” I haven’t kept count, but the cause-themed brandSAVERs seem to appear at least quarterly. They’ve done a year-end FSI for Special Olympics for many years and I’ve seen special versions for the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, VH-1 Save the Music, and others. They’ve done an FSI for UNICEF for at least four years.

During the years they’ve done cause-themed FSIs, Proctor & Gamble has been through at least three CEOs and the brands featured in the FSIs have had more managers than Tide has been called “New & Improved.” In other words, these cause-themed FSIs are part of the DNA at Proctor & Gamble.

You can also be certain that these promotions work, Proctor & Gamble is too market-driven for it to be otherwise.

As a result, there isn’t a cause (that’s already comfortable with cause-related marketing) that wouldn’t happily trade three of their board members for a relationship with P&G, if only for the sake of the prestige it carries.

Here’s what’s good about this FSI:

+ They use a whole FSI, not just a few pages. This is a considerable commitment of time and treasure. I can guess at the price of a whole FSI of the size of the brandSAVER, and it’s more than a few Italian sports cars.

+ They theme it to Halloween, which is now the second best holiday for promotions in the United States. Part of this is simple good fortune for P&G. Trick or Treat for UNICEF which dates to 1950, has raised $132 million over the last 56 years at Halloween time. So a trick or treat for UNICEF FSI promotion couldn’t really take place in, say, June.

+ They tell UNICEF’s story, but they don’t bludgeon you with it. This is absolutely vital. Never show starving kids in an FSI! To marketers on the charity side I would say, remember your audience isn’t major donors. Nor is it people sponsoring a child. Instead it’s people willing to support your cause by buying something, mainly household products.

+ The visuals make the message clear, support “kids in need” by taking your kids trick or treating for UNICEF. The visuals are reinforced often with different, but complementary photos on full and partial pages.

+ The specifics of the campaign including where the money goes and how to participate are explained with just enough detail, but not too much.

+ Proctor & Gamble isn’t shy about mixing causes in a cause-themed brandSAVER, so the UNICEF FSI shares space with Make-A-Wish and a cause message about the environmental uses of Dawn dish detergent. P&G doesn’t try and force UNICEF unto their brands for which the promotion doesn’t make sense or which have other existing cause relationships.

On this blog I have taken to task other sponsors who have not included donation amounts, but I won’t with P&G because they’ve been doing this so long they’ve earned our trust.

Another first-rate effort from one of the world’s best cause-related marketers, Proctor & Gamble.

Batting Your Eyelashes at Prescription Drug Cause Marketing

I’m a little chary about making sweeping pronouncements, but I believe I've just seen the first cause marketing promotion in the U.S. involving a prescription drug. The drug is from Allergan and it’s called Latisse , “the first and only FDA-approved prescription treatment for inadequate or not enough eyelashes.” The medical name for this condition is hypotrichosis. Latisse is lifestyle drug the way Viagra or Propecia are. That is, no one’s going to die (except, perhaps, of embarrassment) if their erectile dysfunction or male pattern baldness or thin eyelashes go untreated. Which means the positioning for a product like Latisse is a little tricky. Allergan could have gone with the sexy route as with Viagra or Cialis and showed lovely women batting their new longer, thicker, darker eyelashes. But I’ll bet that approach didn’t test well with women. (I’m reminded of a joke about the Cialis ads from a comedian whose name I can’t recall. He said, “Hey if my erection lasts longer than ...

Cause Marketing: The All Packaging Edition

One way to activate a cause marketing campaign when the sponsor sells a physical product is on the packaging. I started my career in cause marketing on the charity side and I can tell you that back in the day we were thrilled to get a logo on pack of a consumer packaged good (CPG) or even just a mention. Since then, there’s been a welcome evolution of what sponsors are willing and able to do with their packaging in order to activate their cause sponsorships. That said, even today some sponsors don’t seem to have gotten the memo that when it comes to explaining your cause campaign, more really is more, even on something as small as a can or bottle. The savviest sponsors realize that their only guaranteed means of reaching actual customers with a cause marketing message is by putting it on packaging. And the reach and frequency of the media on packaging for certain high-volume CPG items is almost certainly greater than radio, print or outdoor advertising, and, in many cases, TV. More to ...

Chili’s and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital

I was in Chili’s today and I ordered their “Triple-Dipper,” a three appetizer combo. While I waited for the food, I noticed another kind of combo. Chili’s is doing a full-featured cause-related marketing campaign for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. There was a four-sided laminated table tent outlining the campaign on the table. When the waitress brought the drinks she slapped down Chili’s trademark square paper beverage coasters and on them was a call to action for an element of the campaign called ‘Create-A-Pepper,’ a kind of paper icon campaign. The wait staff was all attired in black shirts co-branded with Chili’s and St. Jude. The Create-A-Pepper paper icon could be found in a stack behind the hostess area. The Peppers are outlines of Chili’s iconic logo meant to be colored. I paid $1 for mine, but they would have taken $5, $10, or more. The crayons, too, were co-branded with the ‘Create-A-Pepper’ and St. Jude’s logos. There’s also creatapepper.com, a microsite, but again wi...

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