Paper Icon Campaign at Whole Foods Helps Launch FoodCorps

On the heals of Joe Waters and Joanna MacDonald’s fine book Cause Marketing for Dummies…which dives deep into cause marketing at point of purchase… I came across this paper icon campaign from Whole Foods that benefits gardening in schools.

Called the Garden Grant Program, the goal is to raise $2,000,000 so as to be able to offer 1,000 schools a $2,000 grant to either create or expand an existing school garden. The nonprofit partner is New York City-based FoodCorps, a subset of AmeriCorps so new the ink on the logo isn’t yet dry.

FoodCorps is a service corps of young people…think early post-college age kids… who committed to a three-fold mission:

“Deliver hands-on nutrition education"
“Build and tend school gardens"
“Bring high-quality local food into public school cafeterias"

The first 50 fanned out across the USA early this month. You may have read Mark Bittman’s column on the rollout in the New York Times 23 August 2011. Bittman writes that the inaugural group of FoodCorpsmen and women are, “smart, well informed, and articulate; (co-founder Curt) Ellis told me there wasn’t a day last week that he didn’t tear up from something that one of them said.”

They couldn’t be much more passionate about the cause than the young hipster who sold me the icon. He was bagging groceries when I offered to buy the paper icon. He then went into a sustained speech about how important school gardening is to health and well-being and how the store is currently scouting for local schools to participate.

Successful paper icon campaigns frequently are an example of the Pareto Principle in action: 80% might be sold by people like this clerk/bagger.

There’s a number of other things to like about this campaign.

Full color front and back, including an illustrative photo.
The headline is clear and serves double-duty as a call to action.
Use of the back to help tell the story.
The option for donations of $1 or $5. Even though most people will choose the $1 option it’s well worth it offer the second option.
UPC codes to speed transaction time.
Placement on the little counter with the credit card machine.
Branding for Whole Foods and FoodCorps.

All in all a well thought-out and well-executed paper icon campaign.

Comments

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...

Cause Marketing

Search This Blog