Maximizing Your Messaging in Cause Marketing Campaigns

In a post about a paper icon campaign dated 12/23/2010 I suggested that the sponsor use the back of the icon to help explain the campaign, both for the benefit of the consumer and for the cashiers who sell them.

But what might you put on the back of a paper icon or similar effort?

The Go Red for Women campaign from the American Heart Association featuring the Red Dress pin, comes with a little card that the pin is mounted to.

The Red Dress pin is a kind of icon campaign. I bought this one at Macy’s.

The back of the card, which is 3.5 inches by 2 inches (about the size of a standard business card in the United States), has these few lines of text.

"Heart disease is the No. 1 killer of women in America. Wearing the red dress, which is the symbol of women and heart disease, is a way to speak up against this largely preventable disease. Our Hearts. Our Choice. Join us and Speak Up to Save Lives."

That’s 47 words in five sentences. Which is about right.

I’m not sure I follow the ‘Our Hearts. Our Choice.’ tagline, but I’ll bet it either tested well with women or came up during a focus group.

At the risk of parsing this out farther than needed I find it curious that of all the choices they could have made that the call to action is to ‘speak up against…this disease.’

Nonetheless, the American Heart Association gets way more right than wrong while also acknowledging their sponsors; Macy’s and Merck. They make smart use of limited space.

Brava American Heart Association and the Go Red for Women campaign.

Comments

Andrew Greenberg said…

I think it’s a great idea. I especially like the size there’s something about be handed a small card that makes you take a look as opposed to an 8 X 10 sheet of paper that goes almost directly into the garbage bin. The call out to their partners is just smart business.

2/11/2011 1:36 AM

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