CAUSE MARKETING TODAY 

August 2011

Greetings!

 

For many businesses, back to school is second only to Christmas as prime selling season.   At a time of economic stress, it's testimony to marketers' faith in the power of cause that we're seeing so many new and expanded purpose-driven initiatives emerging this month. 

 

Protecting Athletes Through Concussion Education
Dick's sporting goods is putting $1 million in cause marketing muscle behind athlete concussion monitoring and education via a program they've dubbed PACE (Protecting Athletes Through Concussion Education).  Dick's will donate $1 to PACE with each consumer shoe purchase (in store or online), Foursquare or Facebook Places check in and sharing via Facebook and Twitter.  The money is expected to fund baseline neurocognitive testing of more than a million athletes via school athletic departments.  

 

Pennies from Heaven
JCPenney has rolled out its largest cause marketing initiative ever, supporting a variety of after school programs with its Pennies from Heaven challenge.  The campaign leverages an in-store cashier round-up program, combined with a robust virtual campaign that seeks to donate $1 million once users collectively generate 100 million virtual pennies.  Nonprofit partners include FIRST, 4H, YMCA and Boys and Girls Clubs of America.

GIVE Education
In mid-July Proctor and Gamble launched GIVE Education to increase awareness of the student dropout crisis in the U.S. and raise funds to help keep students in school.  With each redemption of P&G's specified brandSAVER coupon, the company will donate $.02 to Communities in Schools, a leading national nonprofit focused on dropout prevention.  The donation is uncapped.  The campaign also leverages a Facebook page that generates an additional $.25 donation for each video watched.

We'll soon be tracking cause marketing campaigns even more closely and sharing them with you via our blog.  So if you happen upon unique cause programs, send them our way!

And speaking of sharing information, who do you know that might benefit from September's Webinar on Cause Marketing and the Restaurant Industry?  Invite them along!

Enjoy the remaining days of summer,

  

David Hessekiel

President

Cause Marketing Forum

webinarSEPTEMBER WEBINAR (We've upgraded!)   

 

restaurant table Food for Thought:  

Cause Marketing and the Restaurant Industry with Carrie Welch, Little Green Pickle   

 

September 15 from 1:30 to 2:30 pm EDT

Restaurants provide a bounty of opportunity to create unique and meaningful cause partnerships, both on a large-scale, national level and within local neighborhoods.  Learn how causes can support food-focused partners and how restaurants can leverage cause to increase their reach and resonance with customers.

 

Free to CMF Members, $99 Non-Members

Register Now    

  

In This 60-Minute Webinar, You Will Learn:

  • Why the restaurant industry and causes are a particularly appetizing match 
  • Best practice case examples for pairing restaurants with causes 
  • Tips for identifying and recruiting the right partner
  • How to set mutual expectations around shared marketing and promotion

carriewelchSpeaker Profile

Join former VP of PR for the Food Network, Carrie Welch, as she provides food for thought on the prospects and potential for partnerships within this industry.  Carrie launched successful shows for now ubiquitous celebrity chefs Rachael Ray, Bobby Flay, Ina Garten, Alton Brown, Paula Deen, and Duff Goldman.  She is now owner of food-focused PR agency,Little Green Pickle.  Carrie will be joined by Chef Jenn Louis of Lincoln and Sunshine Tavern restaurants in Portland, Oregon, who will bring her personal experience of partnering with nonprofit organizations for mutual benefit.

 

Register Now    

Cause Marketing Must-Reads  

 

Even though vacations abound, there's still great writing circulating in the cause marketing community.  Here are some of our bookmarks over the past month. 

 

3 Lessons Cause Marketers Can Learn From the Music Industry on the Companies and Causes blog.  Megan Strand examines the "Hope, Love and Rock & Roll" cause marketing t-shirt collection and chats with CMF Member City of Hope and music giant Live Nation to get the inside scoop.

 

The Three "I's" of Effective Cause Marketing Georgetown's CSIC intern Amira El-Gawly takes a look at how cause communications are integrated (or not) over social media channels.

 

In Viva Cause Marketing! CMF President David Hessekiel shares with Marketing Daily readers why the CSR should embrace, not shy away from, cause marketing.

 

There's a steady stream of news you can use on the companiesandcauses.com blog.   Why not subscribe to the RSS feed today?
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