American Heart Association ‘Start’ Campaign

When Causes Market

The very largest charities in the States have enormous resources. The American Heart Association, for instance, has more than 200 chapters and affiliates, generates more than $900 million a year and had $647 million in its fund balance (read ‘profits’) as of 2004.

So it’s no surprise that they sometimes advertise, here for their Start 'movement' which is meant to motivate Americans to be more physically active. Nor is it surprising that the campaign has sponsors. Squint your eyes and look at the bottom of this ad and maybe you can see them. Or, you can just take my word for it that they are fast food sandwich chain Subway, food processor Healthy Choice, and pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca.

The ad appears in Sunday’s Parade Magazine, which appears as a supplement in the Sunday editions of 370 newspapers in the United States and claims circulation of nearly 33 million and a readership of 77 million.

Here’s a case where the cause-related marketing is being handled by the cause. It would be interesting to know what their goals for this ad are. I suspect this is ad is meant for branding the Start campaign and perhaps, secondarily, to recognize their sponsors.

For kicks I measured the logos of the sponsors. As printed they are approximately1/2 inch wide. Because of its horizontal format, the AstroZeneca logo is slightly larger. The ad itself is 5.5 x 71/8. Worse, the logos are reversed out onto the green of the grass. For all you can tell they’re small rocks that the happy couple pictured could stumble over.

Now Parade isn’t cheap. Assuming this ad appeared in the national edition, rather than one of the regional or zone editions the full rate card would be $408,400. To be fair, the American Heart Association probably didn’t pay the full rate card. They may have gotten the placement, which was surrounded by a two-column feature called, “You Can Lose Weight,” for free. Even if the Heart Association paid for some part of it, the ad was probably underwritten by sponsor money.

Free, discounted or paid in full, why are the logos of the campaign’s sponsors so darn small? What is the value of making your sponsors’ presence so discrete they can barely be discerned?

A few years back the big single-disease charities went through some breast-beating over cause-related marketing. After some notable scandals, the Attorneys General… the law enforcement authorities in each of the 50 states… gave them a little slap on the wrist and the charities responded by developing new policies to govern the kinds of cause-related marketing and corporate collaborations they would undertake, as well as what kind of language they could use in ads and promotions.

Some of the charities made penance and are back, the Arthritis Foundation comes to mind. Others, like the American Medical Association, were so chastened by their experience they no longer employ cause-related marketing. Some, like the American Heart Association, apparently try to split the difference.

The result is an ad that does next to nothing for their sponsors.

I hope the American Heart Association has strong relationships with its sponsors, because if I were one of them, I’d be a little steamed at this token effort.

Part 2: How Chili's Used Cause-Related Marketing to Raise $8.2 million for St. Jude

[Bloggers Note: In this second half of this post I discuss the nuts and bolts of how Chili's motivates support from its employees and managers and how St. Jude 'activates' support from Chili's. Read the first half here.] How does St. Jude motivate support from Chili’s front line employees and management alike? They call it ‘activation’ and they do so by the following: They share stories of St. Jude patients who were sick and got better thanks to the services they received at the hospital. Two stories in particular are personal for Chili’s staff. A Chili’s bartender in El Dorado Hills, California named Jeff Eagles has a younger brother who was treated at St. Jude. In both 2005 and 2006 Eagles was the campaign’s biggest individual fundraiser. John Griffin, a manager at the Chili’s in Conway, Arkansas had an infant daughter who was treated for retinoblastoma at St. Jude. They drew on the support Doug Brooks… the president and CEO of Brinker International, Chili’s parent co...

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...

Cause-Related Marketing with Customer Receipts

Walgreens and JDRF Right now at Walgreens…the giant pharmacy and retail store chain with more than 5,800 stores in the United States and Puerto Rico… they’re selling $1 paper icons for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF). This is an annual campaign and I bought one to gauge how it’s changed over the years. (Short list… they don’t do the shoe as a die cut anymore; the paper icon is now an 8¾ x 4¼ rectangle. Another interesting change; one side is now in Spanish). The icon has a bar code and Jacob, the clerk, scanned it and handed me a receipt as we finished the transaction. At the bottom was an 800-number keyed to a customer satisfaction survey. Dial the number, answer some questions and you’re entered into a drawing for $10,000 between now and the end of September 2007. I don’t know what their response rate is, but the $10,000 amount suggests that it’s pretty low. Taco Bell’s survey gives out $1,000 per week. At a regional seafood restaurant they give me a code that garner...

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