Using Celebrities to Enhance Your Cause-Related Marketing

Celebrities and Social Marketing, the Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Tuesday’s posting talked about MacGuffins, devices that impel your target market to action when you're doing cause marketing or social marketing. One MacGuffin is the use of celebrities.

In the illustration World Vision, an international Christian relief and development organization, is working with Hannah Teter, the Olympic gold medalist for the snowboarding halfpipe at the 2006 Winter Games in Torino. Teter commissioned the Mapleside Sugar House in Mt Holly, Vermont (Hannah’s home state), to create Hannah’s Gold grade A Vermont maple syrup. A portion of the proceeds goes to World Vision.

Celebrities bring public and media attention. For instance, Teter’s work for World Vision has won the 20-year-old acclaim as the ‘Sportswoman of Year’ award from the U.S. Olympic Committee. Some of that attention has devolved to World Vision. Certain celebrities can lend your campaign credibility. Some will actually donate money and expertise, in addition to their time. A few will lend you their Rolodex.

But celebrities can bring negatives along with the positives.

Cost. Even celebrities who are free are probably going to cost you something. Maybe they need frou-frou hotels, first-class flights, limos, special meals or extra rooms for their families and entourage. It’s prudent to devote a staffer or volunteer to attend to the celebrity during functions, so that costs staff time. If the celebrity is a performer, the riders in their contracts can be eye-opening. And don’t forget that just courting them costs time and treasure.

Fickle nature of celebrity. Fame is fickle. Few celebrities remain on the A-List for more than five or six years. Everybody knows who’s on the A-List, and competition for their endorsement is fierce. In most cases, the so-hot star this year is the subject of a “where are they now” profile on ET just a few years later. And once their star fades…assuming they remain loyal… what do you do with them?

Matching. Some celebrities available to you just may not be a match for your cause or campaign. At Children’s Miracle Network, sports celebrities came easy. But we found that a NFL hero in one market was a goat in another. Olympians have broader appeal, but only a handful are remembered a year after the Games are over. Of course there’s the usual variety of actors and singers, and television personalities. But if you’re trying to get publicity you may find that an entertainer closely associated with one TV network may get the short shrift from another.

Scandal. I have personal knowledge of a very well-known professional athlete who, after appearing at a charity event, required his volunteer driver (a female) to take him to a strip club and then wait for him. Yikes! Needless to say, he was never invited back.

By all means use celebrities if it makes sense for your campaign. But do so with your eyes open and looking out for trouble.

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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