Cause Marketing That was Born This Way

Short post today… I’m still muzzy from the Thanksgiving feast. But I'm not too groggy to deliver a cause marketing post that is directly related to today, Black Friday 2012.

During the Black Friday sales event at Macy’s today through Sunday, the retailer will donate $10 for every bottle of Lady Gaga ‘Fame’ fragrance sold. Also, for everyone that takes a photo in a Macy’s store and posts it to Twitter with the hashtag #macysBTWF, the company will donate another $5. The money goes to Lady Gaga’s Born This Way Foundation. The total donation is capped at $250,000.

To me the challenge for this effort is in how to activate the campaign. I got a press release from Macy’s PR staff. But even Macy’s doesn’t have the social media reach that Lady Gaga herself does.

Gaga currently has 31.4 million followers on Twitter. In addition to her website she has a social media website devoted to her fan base called LittleMonsters.com. The site, which takes its name from Gaga’s name for her fans, is part Pinterest and part Facebook. That's a clutch of Little Monsters on the left baring their claws in the Gaga manner.

Born This Way Foundation has tweeted out the promotion, as have a number of Little Monsters. But can Gaga do so herself from her own account? Or would that be a sellout?

And can Macy’s do anything more to activate the promotion than Lady Gaga can do all by herself?

During its heyday, everyone wanted to be a NASCAR sponsor because their fans were said to be uniquely brand loyal to the sponsors. Sometimes the NFL makes similar claims.

Second question, are the Little Monsters too iconoclastic for Macy’s? Or, are they just NASCAR fans with better hair and makeup?

I know how Macy's is betting on that last question.

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