Skip to main content

Apple Vacations and Susan G. Komen

Bring on Cause-Related Marketing 2.0

Like a kiwi fruit, the Internet looks different from the outside than what it tastes like. It’s easy to look at the Internet and see a computer-driven media. But for marketers it tastes like direct mail, newspapers, radio, and TV.

Like never before cause marketers are utilizing the Internet to drive their campaigns. Illustrated above is an example from Apple Vacations benefiting Susan G. Komen which came to me in an email.

Here’s the offer, Apple Vacations, which bills itself as “America’s Vacation Company,” will donate $50 to Susan G. Komen every time someone books a qualifying “travel pink, travel Oahu” vacation to Hawaii through October 15.

When I look at this email I see something that's just about half-baked.
  • It starts with the inelegant pink lei in the shape of breast cancer’s iconic pink ribbon.
  • The pink and blue graphic is kinda blah.
  • The headline is barely serviceable.
  • There’s no logo from Komen, suggesting that Apple Vacations is not an official sponsor. [Indeed, Komen’s website doesn’t list Apple Vacations as a sponsor.]
  • There are no links to Komen or to a microsite to explain the campaign in greater depth. The October 15 deadline…two full months… seems too long.
  • Where’s the web 2.0 elements like a blog, vlog, podcast, picture blog or community site which would be especially well-suited for a campaign like this?
  • Most of all, where’s the emotion?

But that’s just me.

Apple Vacations could easily test every single one of those suggestions and get a real strong read about what people do and do not respond to. Indeed, they may be doing just that.

That’s the beauty of the Internet…the ability to quickly and cheaply discover the campaign that works best.

If your company or nonprofit has been using A-B tests or its kin in a campaign like this I'd love to hear what you learned. Email me at aldenkeeneatgmaildotcom.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Check us out over at http://www.nonprofitshoppingmall.com a cause marketing site which makes it easy for nonprofits to raise money through their supporters and for conscious people to shop. See what you think...

Popular posts from this blog

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

Why Even Absurd Cause-Related Marketing Has its Place

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

A Clever Cause Marketing Campaign from Snickers and Feeding America

Back in August I bought this cause-marketed Snickers bar during my fourth trip of the day to Home Depot. (Is it even possible to do home repairs and take care of all your needs with just one trip to Home Depot / Lowes ?) Here’s how it works: Snickers is donating the cost of 2.5 million meals to Feeding America, the nation’s leading hunger-relief charity. On the inside of the wrapper is a code. Text that code to 45495… or enter it at snickers.com… and Snickers will donate the cost of one meal to Feeding America, up to one million additional meals. The Feeding America website says that each dollar you donate provides seven meals. So Snickers donation might be something like $500,000. But I like that Snickers quantified its donations in terms of meals made available, rather than dollars. That’s much more concrete. It doesn’t hurt that 3.5 million is a much bigger number than $500,000. I also like the way they structured the donation. By guaranteeing 2.5 million meals, the risk of a poor