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Greetings!
It's back to school time and retailer Office Depot is, for the second year, turning to a cause-celebrity combo to entice teens and tweens into stores. In this highly competitive season, sales from this year's campaign are already out-performing last year's effort. We turned to Emery Skolfield, Office Depot's senior director of digital, brand and PR to discover what they've learned.
Last year, the office supplies store launched an anti-bullying effort, 'We Supply Kindness', that partnered with Lady Gaga's Born This Way Foundation featuring limited edition products and a guaranteed $1 million donation. The Gaga partnership garnered huge exposure, though not always positive.
The 2013 effort enlists boy-band phenom One Direction to wave the anti-bullying flag with a specialty product line-up. This year, 15% of the sales price goes to the Office Depot Foundation to support anti-bullying education in schools with an identical, though not promoted, donation guarantee.
Lesson #1: Link Core Products
 Last year's effort showcased limited-edition, specially branded products such as sticky notes and Sharpies. This year's campaign goes back to basics with over 10 items that are primarily back-to-school essentials such as notebooks and page dividers (each band member has their own branded line resulting in over 50 SKUs total). According to Skolfield, product sales are "much better" than last year's cause products and more importantly, customers are increasingly adding other items to their carts when purchasing One Direction-branded products.
Lesson #2: Go Where Your Customers Live
 Engaging with a socially-prolific and well-followed celebrity entity turned out to be a smart move for Office Depot in 2012. Venturing back into the social media universe where students orbit around celebrities was a must-do for Office Depot again this year.
"The social media component has been enormous," Skolfield shares. According to Mashable, One Direction's combined 75 million twitter followers helped an Office Depot-promoted tweet to generate more site referrals during the campaign than the amount of referrals Office Depot saw in the entirety of 2012. Additionally, Office Depot Facebook fans have grown more than 67,000 - a 19% increase.
Lesson #3: Celebrity is to Cause as Teen is to Mom
The cause+celebrity combo works well in a back-to-school market where teens and tweens are focused on cool products and mom's paying the bill. Controlling the narrative by focusing on an empowering, positive message reinforced by authentic celebrity spokespeople is a win-win for teens and parents and aligns well with the Office Depot's desired brand positioning.
You can see other examples of back-to-school cause marketing on our 2013 Cause Marketing Campaigns Pinterest Board.
Enjoy these dog days of summer!
David Hessekiel
President
Cause Marketing Forum
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August 22, 2013 1:30pm - 2:30pm ET
Cost: $99 or FREE to CMF Members
 According to a new study from Blackbaud, 50% of all donors have given money at a retail store's checkout counter, making it the most popular means of giving. Are you taking advantage of this point of sale opportunity?On August 22, Join Clark Sweat and Sarah Waters to learn how Children's Miracle Network Hospitals has creatively revitalized their point of sale programs and to learn their secret to efficiently raising tens of millions of dollars each year. You Will Learn:- Ways to differentiate your program in a crowded marketplace
- How to educate employees and build program confidence
- The power of local programs
- How to effectively integrate incentives
- Digital tools that take campaigns to the next level
Presenter Profiles:
 Clark Sweat, Chief Corporate Partnership Officer, Children's Miracle Network Hospitals
Clark Sweat is the Chief Corporate Partnership Officer for Children's Miracle Network Hospitals where he has more than 19 years of experience. Over the years Clark has developed more than 75 corporate partnerships and currently oversees the fundraising efforts of nearly 90 corporate partners.
 Sarah Waters, Vice President, Corporate Partnerships, Children's Miracle Network Hospitals
Sarah Waters is the Vice President of Corporate Partnerships for Children's Miracle Network Hospitals. In this capacity, Sarah leads a team of nine account directors who manage the charity's U.S. national corporate partner relationships. Collectively, these relationships generate more than $155 million in annual fundraising.
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SEPTEMBER WEBINAR: Why Bad Presentations Happen to Good Causes*
* And good companies, too!
Setember 19, 2013 2:00pm - 3:00pm ETCost: FREE to CMF Members or $99  Do you know the first question to ask yourself before planning a presentation? How about the five mistakes that most undermine presentations? And can you identify the three elements that audiences eagerly look for in presentations they attend? You'll get the answers to these and many other questions in "Why Bad Presentations Happen to Good Causes," a one-hour webinar based on the book of the same name and geared especially to the needs of public interest presenters.
Presenter Profile:
Andy Goodman, Director, The Goodman Center
 Andy Goodman is a nationally recognized author, speaker and consultant in the field of public interest communications. Along with Storytelling as Best Practice, he is author of Why Bad Ads Happen to Good Causes and Why Bad Presentations Happen to Good Causes. He also publishes a monthly journal, free-range thinking, to share best practices in the field.Andy is best known for his speeches and workshops on storytelling, presenting, and strategic communications, and has been invited to speak at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, the Woodrow Wilson School of Public Affairs at Princeton, and the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University. |
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