Cause Marketing Potpourri

Some miscellaneous items from the world of cause-related marketing, and corporate philanthropy.

Economy Slowing Philanthropic Giving by Small Business
A survey of small businesses, published by The Chronicle of Philanthropy and sponsored by Advanta, finds them enthusiastic for charitable giving, but retrenching in the slowing economy.

Small business… companies with fewer than 500 employees… is the most vibrant chunk of the U.S. economy employing about half the nation’s workforce. In the survey of small business 66 percent who donate through the company, donate cash, 51 percent volunteer, 41 percent give services and 39 percent make in-kind donations.

The economy has affected the mood of small business when it comes to philanthropy. Sixty percent say the economic turmoil has negatively affected their charitable giving. Thirty-eight percent say they’ve given less this year, 47 percent say their philanthropy has held steady and 14 percent say they’ve given more.

mGive Donates TV Commercial for Keep a Child Alive
mGive, which provides the mechanism that allows charitable donations to be added to donor’s phone bills in $5 chunks, donated an ad buy on MTV to Keep a Child Alive, the charity for kids with AIDS in Africa.

As I’ve posted in the past, mGive has been successfully used in the past in conjunction with outdoor media and events. But this is the first time mGive has been used with a TV ad. The creative features singer and songwriter Alicia Keys.

Advanta’s Ideablob Open to Charities and Social Entrepreneurs, Gives Away $10,000 a Month
Ideablob, a social media site for entrepreneurs, charities and social entrepreneurs gives away $10,000 a month to ideas that receive the most votes from users.

To get a feel for it, I posted my own Ideablob and my takeaway is that charities and social entrepreneurs that could rally voters, could probably finish in the money.

Check my Ideablob here.

OfficeMax Expanding Its Line of Office Materials Made from Trash
OfficeMax and TerraCycle…which makes pencils, paper, backpacks, binders and other items from materials like elephant poop, coffee grinds, wine corks, cookie wrappers, and computer diskettes… are doubling the line available in OfficeMax stores.

TerraCycle donates a few pennies to charity for items like used soda bottles, wine corks, drink pouches and the like.

I’m giving TerraCycle short shrift here, but do visit their site and check out one of the most interesting business models anywhere.

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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