Better Media Sponsorship in Cause Marketing

Cause marketing, like all forms of sponsorship, requires activation, or promotion of the campaign in some form. Imagine, then, how sweet it is when you sign one or more members of the media as a campaign sponsor. It’s a little like coming home every night to Giselle Bundchen (or, if you prefer, Tom Brady).

Too bad the media sponsor in this effort benefiting the Red Dress campaign didn’t take a few extra steps to ensure that the campaign had a second life.

The Red Dress Awards have been sponsored for the last eight years by Woman’s Day magazine, the Hachette Filipacci title with a circulation of almost 4 million readers. The Red Dress campaign is a sprawling effort held each February to raise awareness of heart disease among woman. Heart disease is far and away the deadliest killer of women in the United States.

Red Dress efforts are spearheaded jointly, but separately by the National Institutes of Health and the American Heart Association. In 2010 the Red Dress Awards benefited the Larry King Cardiac Foundation. In 2011, the beneficiary was the American Heart Association.

The Woman’s Day ad at the left from the Alden Keene Cause Marketing Database gives you all the highlights. The host was Sherri Shepherd of the TV show The View. Mary J. Blige performed. Celebrity stylemaker Tim Gunn sanctioned the event. Dancers from the hit TV show Dancing With the Stars performed a spicy cha-cha. Other sponsors like Campbell’s and Swarovski were recognized. Honorees were awarded.

It was a fancy New York City gala, in other words.

If your heart disease charity was the beneficiary, you’d feel pretty good about what you got from Woman’s Day Red Dress Awards. But if Woman’s Day were willing, the show could be better still and generate even more money.

Imagine, for example, if instead of a standard gala fare the show was packaged so that it could air, with commercials, on television. I suspect Oprah’s OWN network is looking for a lot of good programming.
Or think about clearing the rights to the songs that Mary J. Blige sang at the show and selling them as a benefit on iTunes.
What if you conducted a pre-auction for the right to be coached by and perform with the Dancing With the Stars dancers that night?
What if Tim Gunn designed a limited-edition broach or ring or bracelet or outfit with red Swarovski crystals, that was unveiled at the show and then sold first-come, first served online?
What if Campbell’s offered a sweepstakes on package of select soups for a chance to attend next year’s show at a celebrity-studded table if you raised more than $5,000 for the American Heart Association?

If you did those things, or better ones, the Woman’s Day Red Dress Awards would have a second life, more money would be raised, and Woman’s Day would win awards at the 2012 Cause Marketing Forum.

Finally, mark your calendar for a free Q&A call with me on Friday, June 10, 2011 for you to ask any and all questions about cause marketing. The call takes place at 12 noon Eastern, 11am Central, 10 am Mountain and 9am Pacific.

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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