Cause Marketing

As a part of my occasional series of posts on the results of cause marketing efforts, today we turn to a guest donation program in the national parks, which, a press account says , generated nearly $1 million in 2012. The money was used for “priority park programs.” The donations are generated basically when the 638 concessioners at the 401 national park areas… at their discretion… allow guests to add $1 to their lodging bill per night stayed. In other words, it’s an add-a-dollar effort. As I did some research to drill down on this effort I was astonished at what I learned. First of all, 279 million people visited the parks in 2011, suggesting something less that one out of every 279 visits led to a $1 donation. Not bad when you consider that not every one of those 279 million visitors stayed a night in a participating concessioner’s room. The next surprising thing is that the National Park Guest Donation Program was piloted at 12 national parks over the course of three years in the e...

Twice now I’ve written about cause marketing campaigns that can be summed up in six-words. Both times I heard back from readers inspired to pen their own cause marketing summation in six-words. Now I’m coming back to the topic because L.L. Bean, the Maine retailer and catalog company, is using a six-word statement as a tagline for its cause marketing effort called 'Million Moment Mission.' The six-word line is; “You Share. We Give. Kids Win.” Here’s how it works: any time you perform a qualifying action… a like on Facebook, a Tweet, submit a story and/or photo about your experience with L.L. Bean’s merchandise or in the great outdoors…the company will donate $1 to programs for kids from the National Park Foundation. The tagline, therefore, distills the campaign very well. The Million Moment Mission is a promotion in celebration of Bean’s 100th year in business. The campaign started on January 1, 2012 and wraps on December 31, 2012. The total donation is capped at $1 million. ...

When you record your digital laugh at Coke’s online ‘Smile-izer’ the cola giant will send $1 to the National Park Foundation, up to $50,000. Here’s how it works: go to the mycoke.com website , make sure that your webcam and/or microphone is enabled, then press the site’s record button and laugh for about 20 seconds, give or take. The campaign was activated with online ads (I saw it in my Gmail account). You can share your laugh and others via Facebook, Twitter and email. Here’s mine . Here's how the email notification reads: Your friend would like you to check out Smile-izer. Submit your own laugh today and we'll donate $1.00* to a super cool cause. *Up to $50,000. Coca-Cola Smile-izer The Smile-izer site has a bunch or caramel-colored bubbles floating from the bottom to the top of the page. Click on one and listen to the accompanying laugh. In addition to regular people like myself, I heard laughs and saw bubbles from American Idol host Ryan Seacrest, along with a bunch of NA...

It’s not clear to me that this is a trend, but I’ve seen my first cause marketing campaign with a trade group. The campaign is a tree planting effort from Odwalla , the juice company, and the trade group called the National Association of State Park Directors . It launches in May. In the United States, a trade group or trade association is a probably a nonprofit (although not necessarily a charity) with a mission to further the interests of a particular industry. The United States has not only 58 magnificent National Parks (along with more than 300 other ‘units’ managed by the National Park Service)… but it is also home to another 6,000 park units, managed by the individual states. (Among them the stunning Goblin Valley State Park , here in my home state of Utah). The directors of those state park systems can join the National Association of State Park Directors. Beginning in May, Brandweek reports, Odwalla will launch a promotion meant to plant $200,000 worth of trees in those state ...

Today, Saturday April 25, 2009, when you go into Macy’s and give $5 to the National Park Foundation, Macy’s will give you $5 off a $15 (or more) purchase and a ‘shopping pass’ that allows you 20 percent off basically anything else in the store. In addition some undefined amount of the money generated will go to ‘local participating organizations that conserve and protect our environment.’ It’s all in celebration of National Park Week , which I was not previously familiar with. The local charitable partner in my market is the Hogle Zoo , a facility and organization that I’ve always found underwhelming. There’s a lot to like here. First off, I like the idea of the National Park Week, although so hard on the heels of Earth Day I don’t know whether or not this is the right week for it. Other nonprofit organizations like heart disease and the breast cancer charities have successfully tread this path before. But it’s not clear to me that the National Park Foundation has the promotional jui...