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.

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