Lay's Destination Joy and Make-A-Wish

The 'Ancillary Opportunities' Section of Your Cause-Marketing Proposal

At the end of your cause-marketing proposal to sponsors there should be a section called something like “Ancillary Opportunities.” It’s the place where you add the other stuff that came out of brainstorming sessions that you can pull off and which complements the principal part of the promotion.

Ancillary means ‘subordinate’ or ‘of secondary importance.’ But don’t think that just because ancillary opportunities are subordinate or secondary that you can leave them out of the proposal.

For one thing, you may have spent a lot of time researching the target sponsor and still missed their hot button. Remember Hotmail was the second idea that Sabeer Bhatia and Jack Smith presented to Silicon Valley venture capitalists Draper Fisher Jurvetson.

The ‘Ancillary Opportunity’ section is also a place to showcase your creativity and generate trust.

And like the book title says, “You Don’t Get what You Deserve, You Get What You Negotiate.” In other words, you’ll never get the campaign element that you don’t raise in the proposal or otherwise talk about.

Looking at Make-A-Wish’s current promotion with Lay’s, makes me think that Cone, the venerable cause-marketing agency for the promotion, understands the value of the Ancillary Opportunities section.

The main part of the promotion is straightforward; buy a bag of specially-marked Lay’s chips during the May through September promotional period and a $0.25 donation is made up to $345,000. The amount’s a little on the low side, but maybe everybody involved is thinking about this as a starting point. More to the point, Make-A-Wish, Lay’s and Cone didn’t stop there.

In celebration of the 150,000th wish from Make-A-Wish, they’re launching Destination Joy presented by LAY’S – “a national campaign to inspire and empower Americans to share their much-needed time, talents and resources to grant the wishes of the 100,000 children who will be diagnosed with a life-threatening medical condition over the next four years.”

The campaign kicked-off June 5-14, 2007. “Related fundraising and awareness-building activities will continue year-round. … Through Destination Joy, the Foundation hopes to educate people on the many ways they can help grant a wish, such as donating airline miles, hotel loyalty points or professional skills.”

Other elements include:

“Celebrity Wish Ambassadors: will lend their star power to inspire people to
‘come on board’ and share their time, talents and resources to help make wishes
come true

“States on Board: Five major markets (Los Angeles, Chicago, New York City, Nashville, Dallas) have been designated for special Destination Joy launch events that will highlight wish children and their families.

“Chapter Fundraising Events: Fundraising events such as motorcycle rides, walks, bicycle races, truck convoys and sports tournaments will take place nationwide throughout the year.

“Retail Fundraising: Retail partners, including Cold Stone Creamery, will sell
reflective magnetic Wish Stars throughout the country for $2 and paper Wish
Stars for $1 to benefit the Make-A-Wish Foundation. People who purchase the
magnetic Wish Stars are encouraged to display them on vehicles to show their
support for wish kids

“Online Auction: The Destination Joy online auction, held May 14-June 14, will offer rare and travel-related experiences that are seldom available to the general public at www.wish.org/auction.”

I like it. It’s smart, broad-based on one end and targeted on the other. There’s strong media opportunities, the chapters are tied in and the events give supporters and potential supporters a chance to connect emotionally with the charity. And, Lay’s website is plastered with the promotion.

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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