Unused Cell Phones, Meet Verizon Hopeline

After some vigorous New Year’s desk organizing, I unearthed two old Blackberrys in the back of one drawer. I’m fairly certain that I kept them around because I had no idea what to do with them at the time.

While working with the Verizon Wireless team on their sponsorship of a past project, I learned that the company has a charitable program called Hopeline that recycles and refurbishes unused cell phones and accessories to support domestic violence shelters. It’s a smart idea because it transforms recycling into something even more emotionally satisfying: donating.

So, I just brought the phones down to the Verizon Wireless store yesterday and dropped them in the collection bin. Being saintly is as simple as that.

The program really has had some impressive impact and reach. From their website:

Since the launch of the cell phone recycling program, HopeLine from Verizon has:
•    Collected more than 7 million phones
•    Awarded more than $7.9 million in cash grants to domestic violence agencies and organizations throughout the country
•    Distributed more than 90,000 phones with the equivalent of more than 300 million minutes of free wireless service to be used by victims of domestic violence
•    Properly disposed of 1.6 million no-longer-used wireless phones in an environmentally sound way
•    Kept more than 200 tons of electronic waste and batteries out of landfills

So now you know how to put an end to your own cell phone desk cemetery.

-Matthew DiGirolamo, Cause Catalysts
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Don’t Forget Men in Cause Marketing

The 2010 PRWeek/Barkley PR Cause Survey was just released with a male-centric headline. Men, the survey discovered, are just as likely to support cause marketing programs as women.

Though a handful of brands have directly or indirectly targeted men in their cause efforts, they are in the minority. This means there is a significant opportunity to engage a demographic that is highly invested – and interested – in supporting cause efforts, finds this year’s PRWeek/Barkley PR Cause Survey. For the first time, this year’s study polled 536 men about their attitudes toward cause marketing, in addition to 79 marketers about their companies’ cause marketing programs. Of those surveyed this year, 88% believe it’s important for companies to support a cause, compared to the 91% of women that responded the same way in last year’s survey.

I understand it’s the job of publicists to make news by teasing out a surprising angle in a study like this, but what surprises me most is that it took a national survey to find that men also connect on a deeper personal level with companies that are good citizens.

Sure, men and women may relate to different kinds of issues or causes based on their own gendered experience. And they may have different reasons for supporting a given cause.

But it has never been my experience as a marketer (and, well, as a human) that only women are interested in brands exhibiting a higher level of social consciousness.

Sure, if you brand a cause with the color pink then men will get that they are not being “targeted” and will tune out. But pink does not equal purpose. Promoting a brand’s core values cuts across gender. The desire of people to live with a deeper sense of purpose — a purpose motive — is not gendered. It’s a universal pursuit.

This is only breaking news to those who don’t understand the real power of cause marketing: uniting people with a common sense of purpose.

Supporting a cause as citizens — and as consumers — can lift us all up to the level of humanity.

-Matthew DiGirolamo, Cause Catalysts
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Colonel Sanders Has a Case of Pink Eye

So much criticism has already been heaped on KFC for its “Buckets for the Cure” cause marketing partnership with Susan G. Komen.

Various accusations of “pinkwashing” have come from cancer researchers, nutritional experts and other cause marketing analysts and there is no need to rehash them all here.

Yet as a communications strategist, I feel compelled to comment on an issue that I haven’t yet seen raised.

From my perspective, what helped the campaign rise to the level of absurdity was the terrible timing of KFC’s corporate communications.

Simply put, I’ve never seen a company’s brand message so poorly planned, managed and sequenced.

At its best, a cause marketing campaign is a story about a group of ordinary characters (a corporation, a charity, often a celebrity) who find their purpose motives aligned in some important way and decide to do something extraordinary together.

However, when it seems like one of the characters shouldn’t be in the story — when they appear out of nowhere or out of sequence — the whole narrative feels forced, inauthentic and inappropriate.

KFC became one of those characters.

Continue reading…

USA Today Takes Kindness Community to Twitter

I just stumbled upon the USA Today’s Twitter hashtag charity campaign — #AmericaWants. And it ends today.

I fancy myself plugged in to this world so I’m surprised I didn’t hear about it. I guess it was just one of those weeks.

Twitter users are being asked to tweet for their favorite charitable organization. All participating tweets must include “#AmericaWants (insert full name of charity) to get a full-page ad in USA TODAY.”

The 501c3 with the most qualifying tweets wins a full-page, full-color ad in the USA Today valued at $189,400.

While a clever use of Twitter, these kinds contests favor the charitable haves over the have nots. Most community-based organizations — the ones who are truly desperate for the national attention that this advertising can bring — don’t have the social media muscle to compete against the likes of celebrity-sponsored organizations with tens of thousands of followers. (A case in point)

Either way, it’s refreshing to see traditional publishing trying something new in the social media and social cause space.
-Matthew DiGirolamo, Cause Catalysts
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Focus Grouping the Future

Ad Age recently reported on a joint project between BBMG New York and Los Angeles-based Passenger dubbed The Collective.

The Collective is a just-launched private online community that will connect cause-marketing brands (read: current and future BBMG clients) with a select group of 2,000 cause-minded consumers.

“To our knowledge, we’re launching the first private online community for connecting conscious consumers with sustainable brands and related causes,” says Mitch Baranowski, founding partner and chief creative officer of BBMG. “This is about much more transparent, trust-driven collaboration—co-creativity. It stops being … about marketing to consumers, but marketing with them.”

Community members are screened with an extensive battery of questions and must meet certain cause-oriented criteria (values and behavioral) to participate.

All of which leads me to this question: is “co-creativity” just a fancy new term for a focus group?

I’m all for marketing “with” consumers, and not “to” them, but is The Collective really anything other than a new online toolbox for an old offline marketing tool?

This is how the project’s purpose is described in the Frequently Asked Questions:

Our sincere hope is that The Collective becomes a vibrant forum for connecting with consumers for insights, innovation and advocacy that can drive more sustainable products, policies and practices. Rather than clients making imperfect assumptions about your likes, dislikes and what really motivates you, we’re inviting you into the process. Call it co-creativity. It’s going to be the next wave, we think.

I’m intrigued by the advocacy piece of this. If The Collective can become a platform for empowering these 2,000 influencers to drive further action online and offline — beyond the private, gated community — then it will be elevated it to a higher standard.

Even if the Collective is just a focus group with more fashion, it’s a smart move for BBMG. I see both consumers and brands lining up to be involved in this, which ultimately positions the agency as a key convener in the cause marketing space.
-Matthew DiGirolamo, Cause Catalysts
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Promoting Purpose Pays Off

Yesterday, BrandWeek reported on yet another survey that showed that consumers are continuing to warm up to the idea of supporting companies for their good corporate citizenship.

The survey measured consumer perceptions of corporate social responsibility practices and ranked companies that are the most responsible. It found that despite the recession, 75% of consumers believe social responsibility is important, and 55% of consumers said they would choose a product that supports a particular cause against similar products that don’t.

“[Corporate social responsibility] can be the olive branch between struggling industries and consumers in cases where consumers are experiencing the highest expectations and the biggest let downs,” said Scott Osman, global director of Landor’s citizenship branding practice, adding that the industries with brands that have performed poorly, are the ones in which responsibility is valued most.

The survey results don’t surprise me, but I am shocked by Scott Osman’s clumsy “olive branch” analogy for corporate social responsibility practices.

CSR and cause marketing are not about companies offering after-the-fact peace treaties with the consumers they have been warring with for years.

That is a cynical and inauthentic use of cause marketing.

To be successful, a company must practice social responsibility because they want to inspire, enlist and engage audiences to join an important cause from the outset, not because they want to pacify and bait consumers into buying more products from a brand they’ve already been disappointed in.

Read the whole article here.
-Matthew DiGirolamo, Cause Catalysts
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What Do Drugs, Guns & Kids Have in Common?

Photo credit: Flickr @anksmcskanks

The Body Shop wants you to know that they are all “sold on a street corner near you.”

Last week, The NY Times Media Decoder Blog shined a spotlight on the Body Shop’s campaign against the exploitation of children through sex trafficking, and I was impressed by the retailer’s comprehensive approach to issue advocacy.

In addition to issue research and the aggressive advertising campaign, the Body Shop also sponsored a film screening and panel discussion on the child sex trade.

Seeing their stores as “amazing communications platforms,” the company has trained their salespeople to be able to educate customers about the issue and direct them to their Web site for more info.

A special line of products was also created to empower customers to raise funds for two organizations, the Somaly Mam Foundation and the ECPAT International, a global network of organization working to End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes.

The Soft Hands Kind Heart Hand Cream urges customers to “lend a hand, or two” to stop the trafficking and sexual exploitation of children and young people.

Sexual exploitation is a tough, unglamorous cause and the Body Shop should be applauded for taking the risk on it.

Social advocacy campaigns are not new territory for the retailer, though. They have been taking on domestic violence as part of their core values for a decade.

The Body Shop is a company that understands the potential positive social impact of its brand.
-Matthew DiGirolamo, Cause Catalysts
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A Quick Inventory of Cause Marketing

Most marketers credit American Express with originating, in 1983, “cause marketing” as we know it today — the complex amalgam of corporate, charity, celebrity and cause brands, all coming together to create value for and engage consumers with social change campaigns.

AmEx’s original campaign raised $1.7 million for the restoration of the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, and it was also good for business. During the three month program, card usage increased by 28% and the new card holders increased by 17%.

Cause marketing has come a long way since then, and Geoff Livingston and David Hessekiel have both recently written wrap-up reports of their favorite campaigns.

In Mashable, Geoff praises Crate & Barrel, Target, Ford, Stonyfield Farm, Pepsi and Tyson. And in Advertising Age, David presents his top ten list, lauding brands such as Yoplait, Home Depot, Dove and American Express.

Neither piece offers deep insights or commentary on campaign strategy, but both are worth scanning as a refresher course.
-Matthew DiGirolamo, Cause Catalysts
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Wearing Seat Belts – For Love or the Law?

Find more videos like this on AdGabber

I came across this powerful ad today via Poke the Beehive (via Adgabber) called “Embrace Life.”

The issue of wearing seat belts has never been given this level of creative treatment before. As far as car safety messages go, it’s a refreshing departure from the fear-based “Click It or Ticket” billboard campaign that we’ve grown accustomed to here in the U.S.

The most effective cause communications are emotional, visual and metaphorical, and this video is a stunning demonstration of that.

But more importantly, what makes this ad so memorable is that it’s unexpected. It’s inspiring action through positive emotions and, as a result, re-framing the issue in an entirely new way.

I will never look at seat belts the same way. Before, they equaled the law; after watching this, they equal love.

And it accomplished all of this without a single word. It goes to show you: sometimes words just get in the way of the message.

This ad is exquisite and deserves to be watched a few times.
-Matthew DiGirolamo, Cause Catalysts

Pepsi Refresh – Let the Crowdsourcing Begin

Voting begins today for the Pepsi Refresh Project.

The public is being called on to vote for the best ideas across six categories of cause solutions – health, arts & culture, food & shelter, the planet, neighborhoods and education.

The winning ideas will win grants from Pepsi between $5,000 to $250,000.

Pepsi hopes to generate even more social media chatter through a celebrity challenge — Kevin Bacon versus Demi Moore, both of whom have submitted projects to be funded. I think we know who Ashton Kutcher and his 4.4 million followers will be supporting. Although Kevin Bacon does have the six degrees phenomenon going for him.

Lee Clow, chief creative officer and global director for media arts at the Pepsi-Cola agency, TBWA Worldwide in Los Angeles, told the New York Times that the project is an extension of a campaign his agency introduced last year for Pepsi, which carried the theme “Every generation refreshes the world. Now it’s your turn.” The goal is “to develop a mechanism for young people to create ideas to make things better,” he added, that “will ultimately become part of the global behavior of the brand.”

Good work Pepsi.
-Matthew DiGirolamo, Cause Catalysts