Cause Marketing

Dear Kind Readers: I can recommend a new blog on the topic of Informal Learning ; mine! In it I'll review ideas, products, trends, tools, techniques and whatever else catches my eye on the topic of Informal Learning. What is Informal Learning? Frankly it's hard to categorize. But that book you read on green gardening techniques or that show you watched on PBS about aircraft carriers both qualify. You may do it with a career goal in mind like mastering Photoshop or just because you prefer to engage the gears in your mind rather than let it stall out in neutral. I'll post at my Informal Leaning blog at least once a week. I hope you'll join me there! Warm regards, Paul Jones

In commenting on Tuesday’s posting about the “Five Flavors of Cause-Related Marketing," Carolyn asks: “Can you give an example of a ‘replacement’ campaign? As an outsider, it can be hard to definitively identify a replacement program. But there are some earmarks. The most telling may be the language in the ad. When you read something like; “When you buy [our product] you help us make a donation of $250,000 to [cause].” Or, as in the case of this ad from a free-standing insert (FSI) from Proctor & Gamble’s April brandSAVER, which reads: “Now P&G has set a goal of donating 50 million more liters through brandSAVER. For every coupon you redeem from the April issue of brandSAVER, P&G will supply a liter of filtered water to someone in the developing world who desperately needs it. And you can help just by redeeming coupons for the products you already bring home to your family.” Let me be clear, without talking to the P&G folks I don’t know if this is replacement camp...

At Alden Keene we use a handy-dandy chart we call “The Five Flavors of Cause-Related Marketing” that helps us build cause-related marketing campaigns for our clients. That’s the same chart I send you when you sign up for the Cause-Related Marketing GoogleGroup. Until now, I’ve never published it on the blog. But the time seems ripe to share a version of it with all my readers. The chart we use is in graphic form and has more information. But what follows is substantially the same. I need to give props to Professors Michael Jay Polansky and Richard Speed of the University of Newcastle and University of Melbourne respectively in Australia, who published it in their paper called “Linking Sponsorship and Cause-Related Marketing.” Without further ado, The Five Flavors of Cause-Related Marketing: Broad-Based. A large campaign, perhaps one the runs year-round, and generally has no limits on the donation that might be made. Example: the General Mills Box Tops for Education effort. Limited. ...

In the UK a tombala is a revolving drum typically turned by hand and used in lotteries or raffles. Tombala also describes a small-scale lottery, like at a community event. Today we have two things in our tombala. The first is a campaign from Denmark that uses glass bottle recycling to raise money for nonprofits. The second is from Cox Communications in the United States that is part Yelp.com, part AngiesList.com and a fundraiser for charities at the same time. The Fortune at the Bottom of the Bottle As a kid growing up I earned money by taking glass bottles back to stores for the $.o5 cent deposit. The beverage bottling companies put the kibosh on bottle deposits in most of the 50 states (and worldwide, for that matter). Still 11 states have bottle deposits. Worldwide bottle deposit laws are in force in parts of Canada, parts of Australia, in Germany, Scandinavia and Denmark. Now in Denmark when you return bottles to the retailer Coop Denmark’s 14 Kvickly xtra stores, you can choose ...

...And Keith Richards Feels Fine Today is Earth Day and in honor I review the current Louis Vuitton campaign for The Climate Project , Al Gore’s nonprofit wherein some 2,300 volunteers in the United States, Australia, Spain, India, the UK and Canada deliver a version of the Nobelist’s famous climate change slideshow. Strictly speaking this isn’t cause-related marketing. If you buy the Vuitton suitcase in the photo a donation is not made to The Climate Project. Still, I think there’s value for cause marketers to study this advertising campaign meant to call attention to Vuitton’s efforts on environmental sustainability and to the mission of The Climate Project. A quote from Al Gore on the Vuitton website puts it this way, “The Climate Project has made great strides in educating people all over the world about climate change and the solutions that will be necessary to solve the crisis. We welcome Louis Vuitton as a valuable partner in advancing this message.” The art to the left is a b...

Kiva.org and Advanta.com Mix it Up You’d have had to have been in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia the last year or so to have missed the run up of microfinance. Between 2004 and 2006 more than $4 billion of capital flowed into microfinance institutions. All told experts say the total loan microfinance loan portfolio may be as much as $12.5 billion. And of course the father of microfinance, Muhammad Yunus won the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize. Microfinance is now so respectable, so effective, (so profitable!) that it’s already enjoying its first global backlash . Actually that first sentence is hyperbole. Because even in Ulaanbaatar… far from almost anywhere on the vast, frigid steppes of Mongolia… microfinance is thriving such that the earliest recipients of micro loans there are now complaining about taxes and government bureaucracy! And May 29-31, 2008 the Conference of Microfinance Institutions will convene in Ulaanbaatar, the eleventh such annual conference. Now Advanta , a credit card issuer to ...

Recessionary Advertising Opportunity for Nonprofits You don’t have to look at the official figures from Magazine Publisher’s Association (MPA) to see that magazines are in a recession right now in the United States. And that may mean opportunity for your nonprofit. I just got a renewal offer from Fast Company for a $5 subscription, for instance. As in dollars, not Euros. Another unnamed business magazine kept sending me issues months after my subscription had lapsed. And while it’s hardly scientific, I’m certain I’ve recently seen more ‘space available’ ads going to nonprofits than in the past. The official numbers bear out the gloom for the industry. While individual titles vary, overall the magazine business is in a funk. Among the hundreds of titles tracked by the MPA’s Publisher Information Bureau, overall revenue was down 1.2 percent in the first quarter of 2008 versus the first quarter of 2007. Overall circulation was down 6.4 from first quarter 2008 versus first quarter 2007. ...

Every couple of months it seems I hear of another television ‘network’ that is devoted to airing programming from and on behalf of nonprofits. Inevitably the network delivers its signal entirely online. Often as not the network enjoys a flash of publicity before ultimately flaming out. But the Starfish Television Network , a 501(c)(3) charity which broadcasts over the air (via Dish 1000, channel 9408) as well as streaming live on the Internet, is approaching the important one-year milestone. The management at Starfish, for whom I’ve done work in the past, knows very well what the Network's shortcomings are. They need some “appointment” television shows. That is, programs so compelling viewers will come back every week to watch them. They need wider carriage. And, it goes almost without saying, they need more money. And of course there’s the usual chicken and egg problem that all nonprofits face in their early years. They have good ideas for programs, but currently lack the money t...

Send Me Something Nice, I'm for Sale Well, it's happened. I've now officially sold out my integrity as journalist blogger. Yesterday I got a package from TOMS Shoes with the handsome alpergatas loafers on the left with a nice note from Blake Mycoskie, the founder and CEO of TOMS Shoes. I've twice posted on the great appeal of TOMS’ no-nonsense cause-related marketing; when you buy a pair of TOMS Shoes, another pair goes to a needy kid in someplace like Africa or South America. It's a great approach that puts shoes on kids’ feet generates scads of word of mouth for TOMS. In my posts I made a few suggestions about other things they could do to keep the momentum going. In gratitude, Jake from TOMS emailed me and asked me if I'd like a free pair. And in a momentary lapse of ethical propriety, I thought, what the heck? So go ahead, Montblanc, Rollex, Steinway, send me something nice. Especially something that can be easily liquidated (such gifts are taxable in th...

There I was, glancing through my March issue of Teen Vogue (don’t ask) when I came across the arresting image on the left. Like any fashion magazine, Teen Vogue is mostly ads of girls in fashionable attire in chichi locales. So this ad for a cause-related marketing campaign from Proctor & Gamble’s Tampax brand really pops. The campaign is another branch of Proctor & Gamble’s growing relationship with African causes and the United Nations. P&G’s water purifier brand Pur supports water purification efforts in Kenya. And P&G has been doing a packaged goods cause-related marketing campaign for UNICEF for at least a half-dozen years. The campaign is multi-faceted and, frankly, more than just a little confusing. You don’t need to go to the beinggirl.com/hero website to get that. Just look at the ‘logo soup’ at the bottom of the ad. Here’s the bones of the campaign: P&G is donating $1.4 million to HERO , a campaign of the United Nations Association (UNA-USA). The money ...

In this second half of my online interview with Laura Goodman, Director of Corporate Relations at Reading Is Fundamental, we peel back the curtain a little bit to learn the particulars about the “Fly With US. Read With Kids” was developed, coordinated, and built. Read the first posting here . RIF has decades of experience engaging with its audience, how does this compare? This campaign leveraged the communication and marketing channels of a corporate partner to excite parents and community members to read to their children. Communicating through in-flight magazines, in-flight videos, airport lounges and displays and other methods helps RIF to message the importance of reading in places we would never otherwise be able to use to support our message. It’s a one-of-kind opportunity to extend our message! How long have you had a relationship with USAirways and what has been its nature in the past? RIF and US Airways have been working together since 2007. US Airways supported our 2007 Gift ...

Fly With US. Read With Kids. Reading Is Fundamental ( RIF ) promotes family literacy and dates to 1966. It's the oldest and largest such literacy organization in the United States and darn hard to miss. Chances are, every American who's ever been in public or school library has seen their posters, which feature images of the celebrities of the day encouraging kids to read. Currently RIF is doing an interesting campaign sponsored by US Airways called "Fly With US. Read With Kids." It's targeted at adults, encouraging them to log minutes reading with a child. There's a media component with NBC's 'The Today Show ,' a dedicated microsite with a 'paint-a-plane' element, and a sweepstakes with a grand prize trip to Walt Disney World in Florida. Throughout March every US Airways passenger received a book to share with a child. In other words, there's a lot to learn from this promotion from some veteran campaigners. And... believe it or not......