BG US Challenge and St. Jude Childen's Research Hospital Part 2

A Business to Business Cause-Related Marketing Campaign that Brings Money & ROI... Part II

Cause-related marketing isn't always about the consumer audience. Just as there are businesses that sell goods and services to other businesses (B2B), it is possible... though not always easy... to put together cause marketing campaigns where the cause transaction occurs between businesses (B2B Cause-Related Marketing©).

The smartly-branded Memphis-based St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, has just such a B2B Cause-Related Marketing campaign going on right now with the BG Corporate Challenge. And unlike the countless walk-a-thons, bike-a-thons, eclair-eat-a-thons, etc., this one offers corporate participants real ROI.

Read the second half of my interview with Holly Thompson... the Liaison-Sports Marketing & Sponsor Development, and the person in charge of the BG US Challenge at St Jude... to see how. As a reminder, what follows are paraphrased answers from Holly, NOT actual quotes.

The event seems very physical. Does it give you any heartburn that only fit people are likely to participate?

The BG US Challenge measures teams mentally, physically and strategically. And
one of the things it forces teams to do is play to their strengths. If a team
has someone who can read, understand and memorize maps, the BG US Challenge
rewards the team when they build on such strengths.

It seems like there’s an x-a-thon for charity every weekend. How does the BG Corporate Challenge differ?

Teams come back from the BG US Challenge able to draw on and impart to internal
teams the lessons learned. It impacts the entire organization. There’s real
measurable ROI. Several companies have written case studies that demonstrate the
ROI.

St. Jude apparently fields several teams. What do those team members say about the experience?

We have two teams, the first is celebrity team comprised of All Stars from
reality shows like Survivor and the Amazing Race. They took first place last
year and represented the United States at the World Challenge last year. Our
second team is comprised of employees who are also former patients at St. Jude.
They are powerful reminders to the other teams of the mission and purpose of the
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

How does the intensity of the experience translate for St. Jude? That is, when participants are in the thick of the Challenge how does that reflect on (if at all) St. Jude?

Last year as one team crossed a finish line, which involved rigging a makeshift
stretcher, they were heard to say in effect; this is nothing compared to what the
kids at St. Jude go through every day!

What kind of presence do you have in front of participants?

All the teams wear a hospital-style bracelet with the name and condition of an
actual patient. We’re on all the signage at the event and all the marketing
materials and collateral in the lead up to the event including the ads in
Fortune. Last year the BG US Challenge aired on OLN and we got exposure there.
Since the Challenger World was purchase by IMG we expect the TV component will
be even greater this year.

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Buy a Bikini, Help Cure Cancer New York City (small-d) fashion designer Shoshonna Lonstein Gruss may have one of the more absurd cause-related marketing campaigns I’ve come across lately. When you buy the bikini or girls one-piece swimsuit at Bergdorf-Goodman in New York shown at the left all sales “proceeds” benefit Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center . Look past the weak ‘ proceeds ’ language, which I always decry, and think for a moment about the incongruities of the sales of swimsuits benefiting the legendary Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Cancer has nothing to do swimming or swimsuits or summering in The Hamptons for that matter. And it’s not clear from her website why Shoshanna, the comely lass who once adorned the arm of comedian Jerry Seinfeld, has chosen the esteemed cancer center to bestow her gifts, although a web search shows that she’s supported its events for years. Lesser critics would say that the ridiculousness of it all is a sign that cause-related marketing is

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