Cause Marketing

In March Sporting Kansas City, a Major League Soccer (MLS) team announced that its new $200 million stadium, scheduled to open in June, would be named Livestrong Sporting Park, in honor of the Lance Armstrong Foundation. Moreover, it appears that Livestrong did not pay for the naming rights and is instead guaranteed a donation of no less that $7.5 million over the next six years. The money will come from a portion of ticket and concession sales to both MLS matches and other events held in the stadium, including concerts. This is the first time a nonprofit has received naming rights for a stadium in the United States. Normally, stadium naming rights go for millions of dollars, even for MLS stadiums. The MLS team in my modestly-sized market, Real Salt Lake, gets a reported $1.5 million to $2 million a year for naming rights from Rio Tinto, the global mining conglomerate headquarterd in London, but with a substantial presence in the Salt Lake Valley. Soccer is no stranger to causes. My f...

Blogger’s note: It is with great pleasure that I bring you today’s post from guest blogger Jose Sanchez from Mexico City. Jose has a half-dozen years experience in cause marketing in North America’s second largest country. With this post, Jose gives us an update of where cause marketing has been in Mexico and what it’s future might be. Jose's Twitter handle is: @josemsanchez80. If you're a cause marketing blog reader from a country other then the USA and would like to pen a guest post about cause marketing in your country like Jose has, please contact me: aldenkeene at gmail dot com. A Glimpse at Cause Marketing in Mexico It's 7 pm in Mexico City. You turn on the TV and hear a cacophony of social marketing and cause marketing messages. “Hello! I’m brand X and if you buy this magical product, you will help the…”, “This product is the work of the X community in Chiapas...”, “Today is the international day of.... and so, today the 20% of your ticket will be donated to...”,...