Cause Marketing

U2 gets my vote as the best cause marketers in rock and roll based on their efforts on behalf of [RED] and Bono’s own cause-marketed clothing line called ‘Edun.’ But which country act earns honors as the best country music cause marketers? If you twisted my arm today I’d say the Zac Brown Band . Marketing bands and their music these days is a whole lot different than it was when the labels did all the promotions (and took the lion's share of the revenue). File sharing changed all that. When anyone can find your music for free on the file sharing websites, you can't rely on download sales alone for all your revenue. The resulting lower profit margins for the labels demands that bands assume greater responsibility for their own promotion. For the very smartest bands these new revenue models can actually be more lucrative. The Zac Brown Band, a country music act, uses cause marketing as a part of its promotional mix. Regular readers will remember that back in Jul...

For about three years Louis Vuitton , the luxury goods maker, has been doing cause marketing with celebrities in benefit of the celebrity’s cause of choice. In the current issue of Conde Nast Traveler magazine the celebrities are Bono and his wife Ali and the cause is Conservation Cotton Initiative Uganda . For cause marketers this is all pretty boilerplate until you get to the second (and last) sentence of the body copy, which reads: “Profits from the bag, as well as Ali and Bono’s fee, benefit Conservation Cotton Initiative Uganda.” (my italics) (If I were any good at Photoshop the two halves of the double-truck ad would blend together better and I’d do a callout of the sentence for you, my faithful readers. But alas.) Bono and Ali also appear in the ad in their own ethical clothing line called Edun . I’ve been looking at these Louis Vuitton ads for a while now and this is the first time I’ve seen that clause or another clothing line co-branded. But it demonstrates four things: No...