Re-Thinking Cause Promotions

by Brian Reich | 21 Mar 2010, 1:13pm

The ‘What Do You Stand For’ blog from Cone (where I worked as the Director of New Media a few years back) posted a list of the ‘Top 10 Types of Cause Promotions,’ writing “Creative product and service tie-ins such as these are a must-have in every cause marketer’s toolkit. Cause marketing can drive short-term sales, and when sustained over time, it can also enhance consumer trust and build brand loyalty.”

Their list included:

1. The “Proud Supporter” Method

2. Donation with Purchase

3. Donation with Label or Coupon Redemption

4. Donation with Online Activation

5. Donation with Consumer Action

6. Dual Incentive Method

7. Consumer Pledge Drives

8. Buy One, Give One (BOGO) Method
9. Consumer-Directed Donation

10. Volunteerism Rally

The ‘knowledge leadership’ team at Cone (who authored the post, anonymously) is correct - these are a
must-have for brand marketers who are seeking to build awareness.  And its true, “not all cause-related promotions are alike. There are as many creative cause executions as there are consumer brands, each most successful when tailored to the unique product or service and target audience.”  But these promotions have been done.  They are tired.  Even the most creative executions are getting stale.  The very concept of a cause campaign has become too formulaic.  And most importantly, the cause campaigns that we are seeing, even the wildly successful ones, aren’t having the kinds of significant, measurable impact that everyone involved (I believe, and hope) actually wants and expects.

What is great about a cause promotion is that everybody involves wins… at least in the short-term.  A corporation that adopts a charity or embraces a cause gets additional awareness for its brand.  Consumers get a chance to feel warm/fuzzy about a big corporation that spends the rest of its time (in most cases) making choices about how it operates with the bottom line as the top priority.  The media gets a good story.  The nonprofit or charity gets some much-desired cash and a larger email list.

And, then the promotion ends….

Do those companies stay committed, and help to drive deeper levels of engagement, or commit to finding real solutions to the causes they championed?  Some do — but most do not.  Do consumers stay committed to that cause, or maintain a strong association with the brand that sponsored the promotion?  Some do — but most do not.  Does the media follow up, hold the participants accountable or highlight the impact that was delivered over time?  Some do — but most do not.  Does the non-profit take its new contacts — with the company and its employees, the consumers and their community, and media and their audience — and continue to cultivate the relationship, or explore the new opportunities the promotional campaign might have made possible?  Some do — but most do not.

This is a great list… of promotional campaign-types that no brand or nonprofit should launch again. At least not right now.  Not for the next year.  I call for a moratorium on these types of promotional campaigns.  I don’t want to see another one of these big-awareness-little-impact campaign launched for the next 12-months.  I don’t want to see another new website, mobile app, ad campaign, rally/event, or special product line launched with a promise that the time spent, purchase made, or action contributed will change the world — until someone can show me that the cause promotion is anything more than, well, just another promotion. I want to see the agencies and partners helping to shape these campaigns, even the ones that are slated to roll out in the next few weeks, to scrap their plans and go back to the drawing board.  I want consumers to start looking around for other ways to get involved, and support the issues they care most about, and resist the temptation to click/buy/take-action and move on to the next thing.

We can do better.

- I challenge the companies that are looking to demonstrate their commitment to a charity or cause to think more creatively about how their resources might be applied. Have you tapped into the expertise and passion of your employees to share a truly meaningful cause-related experience, one that applies the unique aspects of your work, and capabilities of your team?  Is more than just your marketing budget or charitable giving account being tapped to support your project?

- I challenge the agencies and partners working to develop these campaigns (including Cone) to explore different, and better, options for creating projects that have the potential for greater impact.  Is the core idea behind each effort your put together for a client different, unique to the cause the audience you are trying to reach?  Are you doing everything possible to have a significant, meaningful, measurable impact on the cause you are working with, instead of measuring success for your clients in terms of impressions and list growth (even if they ask for)?

- I challenge consumers who are targeted by these campaigns to demand more from the companies and charities involved.  Are you staying involved with the cause that you click to support, or changing your behavior to go the extra mile?  Are you telling the people who put together these promotions what you expect from them going forward — and make it known when your expectations aren’t met?

- I challenge the nonprofits and charities who benefit most from these promotions, to put together partnerships that drive real solutions and measurable impact, not just generate attention or raise money.  Do you have a plan for how to support the audience that becomes interested in your work through a promotional campaign — beyond simply putting them on an email list or pummeling them with requests for more donations?  Are you challenging your corporate partners, the media that covers your effort, the people who support your work the most to help take your work to the next level?

- I challenge the media to highlight the truly ambitious and impactful projects, not the one that makes for the best visual or soundbite only.  Are you actively looking for the best stories, or taking what is delivered to you by a PR flak?  Are you asking the tough questions about how this promotion will transform over time, and staying committed to telling the follow-up story that holds everyone accountable?

Cause promotion campaigns are wonderful for raising awareness and generating donations for an organization.  Like I said above, everyone involved benefits.  But over time, we are all losing out.  The cause promotions we see today, and the work that is being done to support them by even the most well-known corporations and nonprofits/charities are not enough.  They aren’t creative enough.  They aren’t original enough.  They aren’t impactful enough. To get the full interest, engagement, participation, and ultimately commitment from the audience, and most importantly, to have a meaningful, measurable impact on the cause or issues that is being targeted, cause promotions and those who organize them, have to get out of the same old rut.  We have to change the way we organize these events.  We have to re-think cause promotions.

TAGS : cause branding cause marketing Cone re-think
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Marketing Can Be So Easy

by Brian Reich | 8 Jul 2009, 5:31am

I was asked the other day to define marketing.  Here is what I said:

“Marketing is understanding how people get and share information, experience things, and consume stuff — and responding accordingly.”

In other words, marketing doesn’t have to be complicated.  To be successful, you simply have to pay attention to what your audience/customer wants and need.  Armed with that information you can reach out and demonstrate how your product or service will meet their needs or satisfy their expectations.  And if your product or service actually does meet their needs or satisfy their expectations, the rest will pretty much take care of itself.

Want proof?

The weather in New England (I live in Cambridge, MA) has been pretty poor lately.  It has rained 8 of the last 10 days here and many believe that we simply won’t have a summer this year (which I realize is a pretty silly though, but it helps to understand how people are thinking).  Needless to say, if/when the sun comes out and the temperatures warm up, people get excited.

Enter Boloco, a burrito chain with roots in Boston (in fact the name is short for ‘Boston Local Company’).  When the sun finally emerged and the thermometer read 80+ degrees for the first time in weeks, the company sent out an email that read:

You saw it.  We saw it.  It was beautiful.  Some would even say it smelled good.  It was all over New England.

Yes, you guessed it…it was the Sun.  And with that Sun we all knew Summer had arrived! Finally…and yet only briefly.

Even though we all felt a slight chill in the air after the Sox lost…and even though most of us are now under some form of cloud cover and in most cases even taking cover from rain, we were all there and we caught a glimpse of the season we yearn for.  Summer.

So, in order to celebrate the sighting of that beautiful orb, and since Planet Earth looked and felt so darn lovely yesterday, we’re doing something special.

Simply visit your nearest Boloco, TODAY or TOMORROW, with a piece of trash off the street (yeah, seriously), throw it out in front of us, and get a regular-sized Summer Burrito for $3 (large $4).  There will be a bottle of Purell at each of our restaurants should you get aggressive on how much filth you choose to take off our streets, but by the end of tomorrow, the streets throughout some of New England’s most picturesque cities and towns will be cleaner.  And with a little natural rinsing from the powers above , we’ll see a new kind of beauty that even the sun can’t beat.

Happy Summer

*VALID ONLY Tuesday 7/8 and Wednesday 7/9, 2009.  Gotta have a piece of trash.  And don’t you dare complaint that this is late notice… it is, and we were inspired, so we just did it.  Enjoy it

No celebrity endorsement. No massive ad campaign or crazy interactive experience.  And the deal isn’t even that good — after all, I am the one who has to pick up a piece of trash and bring it to the store, and all I get in return is a small discount on a burrito.  But it worked.

How do I know it worked?  I am not on the Boloco email list or Twitter feed.  My wife sent me the email with a note that read “Cool marketing. Doing good. Simple.”  She isn’t on their list either - she had been forwarded the email from someone in her office.  But now we are both aware of the campaign and making plans to go pick up a piece of trash and buy a burrito.

Why did it work? The message was simple and related to our current life.  The ask wasn’t significant.  I felt as if I was doing something good for the world by participating.  And, I got something out of the deal. And the company didn’t have to spend millions of dollars for that to happen.

You see, marketing can be so easy.

TAGS : Boloco burrito cause marketing Marketing
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