Cause Marketing

On the heels of my posts on games and cause marketing in this space and at MediaPost.com , people have been asking me about how so-called 'gamification' can be used in cause marketing. Part of the answer has already been provided by Joe Waters (and others) in their coverage of Foursquare, which can be easily utilized in cause marketing. Zynga and its suite of games have done meaningful cause marketing, notably for disaster relief in Haiti and Japan. A handful of sites including Gamesthatgive.net (whose revenue model is based on advertising) offer donations to nonprofits based on how long you play standard faire. Plus 3, a social networking site for people increasing their physical fitness does much the same, albeit with fewer gamified elements. Big brands like Coke and General Mills have built games into their cause marketing strategies. Even still, gamification and cause marketing are still basically at the Atari stage in their co-development. Pong was the start of video/com...