Captivating Connections.

helping to make helping easier.

How cool is this?

"A new initiative led by the CMO Council offers companies a way to contribute to worthy causes at the same time that it assists them in efficiently connecting with hard-to-reach consumer segments for marketing research.

The 'Pause to Support a Cause' initiative is creating a global opt-in research panel comprised of millions of consumers willing to provide detailed profiles and take online surveys in return for donations made to their chosen causes.

The objective is to channel up to 10% of funded marketing research to non-profits. It's estimated that about $18.9 billion is spent annually on market research.

'The basic idea is to enable companies who are going to spend this money anyway to accomplish their research objectives in a way that has the potential to significantly improve the lives of many, many people around the world,' sums up Ed Martin, who heads up international research for The Hershey Company. Martin has made it a personal mission over the past five years to develop the initiative, with the goal of creating a program with sufficient scale to make a real difference."

cause marketing alive and well.

Just because we're in a recession, it doesn't mean that people no longer care...

"The economy may be causing marketers to scale back on expensive, high-production efforts, but one area is still likely to see some growth this year: cause marketing.

According to IEG, North American companies will spend about $1.55 billion on cause marketing efforts in 2009, a roughly 2% increase over 2008. That is down from previous year-on-year increases in the cause marketing arena, but in the current economic climate, any increase in a marketing program is worth noting, says Dan Kowitz, vice president of IEG Sponsorship Consulting.

'As consumers, if there's anything we want to see a company spend money on, it's a cause that's important to us,' Kowitz tells Marketing Daily. 'And marketers know that.'

As evidence of consumer interest in sponsorship, Kowitz cited a Performance Research survey from February 2009 in which 41% of Americans said companies should increase their spending on cause marketing, compared with 13% who said they should increase spending on sports sponsorships and 20% who said they should increase sponsorship of cultural events."

check it out: safer sex in the city.

Hey All-

 

There's an amazing event I wanted to spread the about, Safer Sex In The City, the sizzling annual benefit for AIDS Service Center NYC. It's this Thursday, and tickets are going fast, so check out the details and get your tickets. It's an amazing organization and they've put together a killer event...

 

WHEN: Thursday, June 25, 2009, 6:30pm-10:00pm

VIP Champagne Lounge and performances, hosted by Broadway diva Flotilla DeBarge

 

WHERE: Duvet, 45 West 21 Street (bet. 5th – 6th Avenues), www.duvetny.com

 

WHY: Join celebrity host NYC drag legend Flotilla DeBarge, Vivid Girl Savanna Samson,

dance-pop singer Reina, the evening’s DJ, Vic Latino, and many more special guests for the summer’s sexiest fundraiser, promoting safer sex in the age of AIDS. Pamela Anderson and Margaret Cho have also joined forces with ASC as part of this year’s benefit committee.

 

NYC’s

Museum

of

Sex

will showcase a curated sampler of the museum’s renowned collection on human sexuality. Fun-filled, uninhibited presentations will spotlight ASC’s innovative safer-sex education and HIV risk reduction programs.  Guests can bid on fabulous silent auction items.  

 

WHO: AIDS Service Center NYC (ASC) is a community based non-profit at the forefront of the fight against HIV/AIDS and the effort to ensure that all New Yorkers have access to HIV prevention, services, and treatment.  ASC fulfills its mission of helping many, one by one by providing culturally relevant, tailored programs that help NYC’s most vulnerable individuals and families to maintain the highest quality of life and health in the face of HIV/AIDS.  For more information about AIDS Service Center NYC visit www.ascnyc.org.

 

For further information, please visit: http://www.safersexinthecity.org/. 

inclusive ads.

Companies know now is the time for cause marketing, more so than ever. A lot of them are even putting the people they help into the ads:

"Many marketers are talking up their good deeds and social responsibility projects in advertising. Some now think the way to stand out in the clutter of look-at-me, do-gooder messaging is by featuring some of the people they say they are helping through social programs or business practices. If consumers like these projects, maybe they'll feel better about the brand. Marketers 'understand that being regarded as a socially conscious brand is going to become more and more important,' says Chuck Porter, co-chairman of ad agency Crispin, Porter & Bogusky in Miami.

Levi's isn't the only company to go for the heartstrings--and the purse strings--in putting a face on its good works. In April, Procter & Gamble, which is trying to defend its brands from private-label rivals, launched a redesigned version of its Tide laundry detergent bottle. The labels now include the faces of people who have been helped through mobile laundry services Tide has provided to victims of natural disasters since 2005. The company is also running TV commercials that feature people who have been given access to laundry facilities during Hurricanes Gustav and Ike.

Many more companies are putting people they supposedly help overseas in ads. Consumers can't find Paul Mitchell hair care products in stores--they are sold through salons--but the company behind the shampoo and conditioner, John Paul Mitchell Systems, apparently isn't so elusive or exclusive in Africa. Its latest print ad efforts feature one of several philanthropies, including its year-old Food4Africa effort. One ad shows company co-founder John Paul DeJoria with eight or so of the 8,000 African children Paul Mitchell says it helps feed. Jenny Overdevest, director of public relations for Paul Mitchell, says the company uses the campaigns to spread awareness, both of the causes and of what Paul Mitchell is about as a company."

disney plants trees.

Can't complain about doing good:

 

“To promote the first full-length theatrical film launched under its year-old Disneynature documentary label, the Walt Disney company is offering to plant a tree for every

U.S.

ticket it sells during the movie’s first week of release.

 

The entertainment giant has announced that it will plant a tree in honor of every moviegoer who sees the new eco-documentary ‘Earth’ in its first week in theaters. The movie opens nationwide on Earth Day, April 22.”

kfc fixes more than your fried cravings..

Not only can KFC fix your fried-chicken craving, now they can fix...your potholes??

"Don't be surprised if you see Col. Sanders out filling potholes. In an unusual cause-marketing push, KFC is tackling the pothole problem in Louisville, Ky. in exchange for stamping the fresh pavement with 'Re-freshed by KFC,' a chalky stencil likely to fade away in the next downpour.

While KFC seems more suited to pot pies than potholes, the company is likely to build a reservoir of goodwill among the general population.

'This program is a perfect example of that rare and optimal occurrence when a company can creatively market itself and help local governments and everyday Americans across the country,' said Javier Benito, exec VP-marketing and food innovation at KFC. Louisville Mayor Jerry Abramson noted in a statement that budgets are tight for cities across the country, and finding funding for road repairs is a dirty job. 'It's great to have a concerned corporation like KFC create innovative private/public partnerships like this pothole refresh program.'"

It's random, but, hey, if they're giving back to the community and making it a better place without expecting much back, go for it.

cause marketing during an economic crisis.

While many people think that, as soon as economic hard times hit, consumers are willing to ditch efforts like sustainability and giving back in order to look out for their bottom line and save money on their groceries, that's not necessarily true, according to a new global study:

"Some 71% of consumers globally said despite the recession they have given just as much -- or more -- time and money to causes they deem worthy, according to the second-annual Edelman Goodpurpose study. More than half of the 6,000 consumers surveyed said even in the throes of a recession they would be prepared to pay more for a brand if it supported a good cause. And more than two-thirds said they would be willing to pay more for eco-friendly products."

Check out the chart:

What's really interesting is how Mitch Markson, president-consumer brands and global creative director at Edelman, sees it.

As he explained, "the study shows an interesting balance of what matters most to consumers during tough financial times and that, regardless of all the belt-tightening consumers and marketers have been forced to do, consumers are standing by their causes and expect the same from marketers.

'On one hand, [there are] all the realities of the recession and people wanting more value [for their money],' he said in the agency's New York office. 'But on the other side, they also want more values in a different way.'"

cause consumers & their behaviors.

Cone has released their first Cause Consumer Behavior Study.

"As the term 'cause-related marketing' reaches its 25th anniversary and a sea of pink ribbons washes over the U.S. this month, a new consumer behavior study confirms that cause-related marketing can exponentially increase sales, in one case as much as 74 percent, resulting in millions of dollars in potential revenue for brands.

The 2008 Cone/Duke University Behavioral Cause Study, released today by Cone and Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, validates for the first time that cause-related marketing can significantly drive actual consumer choice."

I'm not sure if it's really the first cause consumer behavior study EVER, but it's great to get some solid consumer data on what they think about and how they react to cause-related marketing.

Check out some of the findings:

"Substantial cause-related sales lift for two of the four consumer packaged goods categories tested:

• 74% increase in actual purchase for a shampoo brand when associated with a cause(47% of participants who saw the cause-related message chose the brand while only 27% of those who saw the generic corporate advertisement chose the brand)

• 28% increase in actual purchase for a toothpaste brand when associated with a cause (64% of participants who saw the cause message chose the target brand vs. 50% who viewed the generic corporate advertisement)

• Modest increases in the other two product categories tested (chips and light bulbs) – Qualitative consumer responses showed that the issue, the nonprofit and the inherent nature of products were key factors in making cause-related purchasing decisions and helped explain why movement in these categories was not significant."

There is a ton of other information in the research, including priorities, measurement of attitudes, and information on communication (and communication disconnects).

Check it out. 

if you aren't giving back, you should be.

Interested in whether or not cause-related marketing makes a difference to your bottom line?

"Cone Inc. is releasing its latest data on the effectiveness of cause-related marketing, including the results of a study that shows linking products to causes is enough to generate double-digit sales gains.

In the first part of the two-tier study--conducted in partnership with Duke University's Fuqua School of Business--researchers asked 182 adults, ages 18 to 62, to read through a magazine. (They were told they were evaluating its potential for national expansion.) They were then invited to shop in a mock convenience store, stocked with items that had been advertised in the magazine. Sales of a toothpaste brand that had been linked to a cause went up 28% compared to a control group; sales of a cause-related shampoo increased 74%. Brands that had been advertised as cause-related also generated much higher recall than those that hadn't.

The researchers then replicated the experiment online, using a nationally representative sample of more than 1,000 shoppers. While increases in sales were smaller in that group, they were still impressive: Toothpaste sales among the group that had seen the cause ads gained 19%, and among women in the online group, shampoo sales gained 14%."

It's important to remember that doing cause marketing is not enough. If you look at past posts I've done on cause marketing, as well as the Vested Interest looking at it, you'll see that there are some key values that you need to include, including being genuine, honest, having full disclosure, etc.

However, it's true: people, especially now, want to know where their money is going, and want to know it's going to a good cause.

cause marketing all stars.

Now this shouldn't come as a shock:

"According to a new survey from First Call, a division of sports and entertainment agency Octagon, McLean, Va., both [Brad] Pitt and [Angelina] Jolie were among the top celebrities or athletes whose actions and causes were cited in responses from nearly 500 executives who either decide or strongly influence how their companies budget their cause marketing dollars. Specifically, Pitt's work in helping to rebuild New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and Jolie's association with Unicef and full-time efforts for Unhcr were top of mind among responders.

Love them or over them, they really are two people who really put their money where their mouth is, living their lives the way they encourage others to.

For those who are interested:

"The top 10 also included, in order: Bono (for his work with RED), Tiger Woods (The Tiger Woods Learning Center/Foundation), Bill Gates (for various causes), Pitt, Al Gore (global warming), George Clooney (Darfur), Michael J. Fox (Parkinson's disease) and Peyton Manning (PeyBack Foundation)."