Skip to main content

Get Sponsored By Following the Lead of OK-GO and Others

The youngest person ever to attempt a solo crossing trip to the South Pole on snowshoes, the bass player for Kanye West’s touring band, Tony Stewart’s left side tire changer, a participant at a Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure event and OK-GO all share something in common; they want to be or are being sponsored.

Each of these examples offers lessons for a charity that wants their cause marketing to get sponsored, too.

OK-GO is sponsored because it brings a wild amount of creativity to its music and music videos. Chevrolet sponsors OK-GO’s latest music video of its song, x, because the band consistently turns out the most downloaded music videos on the Internet. And we all go to watch their videos because of OK-GO’s wonderful power-pop sensibility and a visual approach to music videos that you can’t find anywhere else. These guys are both rock and roll and nerds. The result is that their videos are the craziest kind of eye candy you’ve ever seen in a music video. And all of us respond. The video was released to YouTube on Feb 5, 2012 and it has already passed 10 million views.

Tony Stewart’s left side tire changer is sponsored because he has unusual media access. As of this writing Stewart is in first place in the NASCAR standings, so every time he heads to the pits during a race the TV crew is there. In NASCAR racing, the left tires wear faster, so the tires on that side get changed more often. Moreover it’s easier and safer to put a TV camera on the left side of the pits. So the left side tire changer shows up more often in NASCAR TV coverage.

Kanye West’s bass player is sponsored because he performs in front of thousands of people every night of the tour. But it’s not the number of people that counts so much as it is the concentration of the fans. While Kanye sells millions, only the most hard-core and passionate fans come to his live shows. For the right kind of sponsor Kanye West’s audience is hard to get anywhere else. By sponsoring Kanye’s bass player they can tap into West’s authenticity without having to pay the price that the star himself would garner.

A participant in a Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure event is sponsored because of emotional connections. When your sister, who beat breast cancer, asks you to sponsor her, it’s all but impossible to say no.

And the teenager soloing across the Antarctic landscape? Well I made that up. Or rather, I don’t know of such a person. But what a story it would be! Such a person would get sponsored because a successful assault on the South Pole would be inherently inspirational and almost certainly harrowing.

Inspiration, emotion, carefully targeted audiences, access to the media, and unusual creativity are all smart ways to ensure that your cause marketing gets sponsored.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

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 ...
4 comments
Read more

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 ...
Post a Comment
Read more

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...
11 comments
Read more