Free Cause Marketing Q&A Call With Paul Jones Friday, June 10

Faithful Readers:

The other day Mrs. Alden Keene asked what the Cause Marketing Blog has done to help the world of nonprofits that have done so much for our world (and my livelihood). I pointed out that the blog is coming up on 600 posts, each indexed with helpful keywords and easily searched. It’s the longest-tenured blog on cause marketing, says author and fellow cause marketing blogger Joe Waters. In almost five years of posting, people from better than 99 percent of the countries in the world have found and read the Cause Marketing Blog.

The whole Cause Marketing Blog is a public service, I said.

“Yes,” she replied, “and don’t pull any muscles patting yourself on the back. But what have you done for individual nonprofits and sponsors?”

I continued to pointlessly make my case before conceding that, of course, she was right. So with Mrs. Alden Keene’s encouragement I have decided that I need offer a direct public service to you, my faithful readers.

I am therefore offering a free Q&A call with me on Friday, June 10, 2011 to ask any and all questions you have about cause marketing. I’ll take questions from both nonprofits and sponsors completely free of charge.

As a marketer I know that I need a promotional hook, so I casted about for a holiday in June that isn't Father's Day and found National Donut Day which falls in June. National Donut Day succeeds the Salvation Army’s National Doughnut Day, says Wikipedia, which started in 1938 in Chicago as fundraiser and to honor of the Salvation Army ‘Lassies’ who had served soldiers donuts during World War I. That's a Salvation Army Lassie at the top of the post.

No free donuts from me. Just sweet, tasty bits of free advice on cause marketing.

I’ll post call-in information in all the posts for the next two weeks. Until then, think on the idea of Lassies serving donuts.

Warm regards,
Paul Jones

Comments

Batting Your Eyelashes at Prescription Drug Cause Marketing

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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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