Pepsi Refresh is a refreshing example of Marketing as Service, combining CSR, crowd sourcing, social media and just plain fun.

Brugal Rum created free road signs where none existed to help Dominicans find their way around the island AND remind them of the brand wherever they went.

While touting Marketing as Service relentlessly over the past few years, I’m also keenly aware that this approach may not be right for every brand or category. One category that I had my doubts about is Spirits. Relying heavily on visual brand statements in print and outdoor, it was unclear to me if a more service-oriented approach could drive people to drink. Well, I’m happy to report that a pitcher full of new campaigns have convinced me that Marketing as Service pours it on here too.

DonQ, a rum brand, recently launched a clever web campaign that answers some of the “tougher” questions men face today like how often to call their mothers and how quickly after the break-up can you ask a buddy’s ex out. The answers are provided by a large panel of ladies who’s responses can be segmented by age, relationship status, region, education, personal style and even “socialization.” According to a report by MediaPost, the campaign is designed to “engage men where they live these days — online and on their mobile phones.”

Word-of-mouth for the service — and further engagement with the brand — is being built via social media, including Facebook and Twitter and newer comers such as Foursquare, Tumblr, BuzzFeed, Nerve, Mixologist, HappyHoured and The Deck Network.

Given that the liquor category tends to be heavily reliant on on-site promotions and sampling and “one-way” advertising, there was “a clear space” for DonQ to enter with a service-oriented marketing perspective, adds Clay Parker Jones of New York-based digital strategy firm Undercurrent, who is the lead strategist on the project.

I’m also a fan of The Glenlivet Whisky Season Open and its smart sponsorship of the World Golf Tour program. Transporting me to the virtual dunes of St. Andrews, The Glenlivet introduced me to a highly engaging online golf game that is both challenging and addictive. Though I didn’t take the time to perfect my virtual swing, you can tell by the Leader Board that thousands have, no doubt many of them ending their round with a proper toast to their host, The Glenlivet.

Jack Daniel’s created an interesting “toast” application in celebration of the founders September birthday. Over 6,000 toasts were sent and this effort helped the brand attract over 370,000 fans on Facebook! Here’s a brief overview from MediaPost:

The “Give A Toast” application analyzes a user’s Facebook friend list, uses their profiles to automatically screen out any friends under 21, and identifies friends to toast based on their profile information or activities on the network. The user’s friends are ranked into seven categories based on their data: social friend, photogenic friend, musical friend, mysterious friend, all-around friend, active friend or interesting friend.

The app does all of the work for the user: No need to answer questions or manually select friends to send toasts to. The toast and the Jack Daniel’s cocktail selected by the user are posted on friends’ Facebook walls. The app also identifies those friends who have September birthdays, and encourages users to toast them.

I have lots more examples but will have to save them a later post.  In the meantime, cheers to the brands who DO something for their target versus those who just SAY something.  As the old sage advised, “actions speak louder than words.”

I ran out the door last night to attend “Curriculum Night” at my son’s school. As I left, I looked at my to-do list and realized with chagrin that I’d forgotten to write a post for Blog Action Day. Yes, at that moment I was a metaphor for most of us, just a bit too busy to save the planet. So, I go about the business of curriculum night, nodding like I actually remembered physics and pre-calculus until we reached the last class of the night. It was, you guessed it, Environmental Science. Doh!

The teacher of this class was a high-energy whiz, emphasizing the science over the politics. This class was clearly not a walk in the park but rather one to rival the challenges of biology and chemistry. As she described the curriculum, she noted that the first semester was reasonably upbeat as they learned about earth science, eco-systems, weather and population dynamics. Then she moved to the 2nd half of the year, that often provoked the reaction from her students, “isn’t there anything we do as humans that doesn’t wreck the planet?”

I left the room thinking, well at least my son and his buddies will have a thorough understanding of the challenges and maybe just maybe they’ll take the time to do something about it. I also left the room thinking maybe being one day late for a blog post on climate change wasn’t all that terrible since 32,000 other bloggers reached 18 million readers yesterday. Good for them, good for us.

And just case you want to know a bit more about blogactionday here are some highlights from the organizers:

We count at least three major world governments as active participants in this year’s event. UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown posted the first Blog Action Day entry in Britain at the stroke of midnight this morning, which was followed by Foreign Minister David Milliband and many others from the UK stationed around the world. The PSOE governing party of Spain hosted a bloggers event focused on climate change and transformed their website for the day to promote Blog Action Day. And late in the day, President Barack Obama’s White House blog joined in become part of the global movement of bloggers shaking the web.

Of course, well-known bloggers were a big presence today as well. Check out the Featured Posts on the blogactionday.org homepage for an extensive list, which includes The Official Google Blog’s green tour of the company’s campus, Mashable’s post asking what you’re doing to reverse climate change, and The Unofficial Apple Weblog’s suggestions for “Five apps to help save the world.”

Have a climatically friendly weekend.

Twitter Has Limits

The limits of Twitter for brands are as vast as the opportunities. Public companies have to be extremely sensitive to not violating SEC guidelines since every Tweet could sway investor opinion one way or the other. Big brands also face the challenge of finding a voice that is both worth following and true to the brand. Most brands that Twitter offer up banal and self-serving content that is devoid of personality. These kind of adver-tweets simply add to the clutter and do nothing to involve the consumer. They do not create an opportunity for dialogue. They do not entertain, enlighten or engage. Compare that to the VW Twitter tool that prescribes a VW model after analyzing your tweets. This is both entertaining and engaging. Another issue brands need to acknowledge with Twitter is that most Tweets go unread and are lost to the universe. This is simply the price of entry in this ethereal nexus of monologue, dialogue and epilogue.

Another limitation of Twitter is that it might not reach your intended target. If you are an alcohol brand targeting 21-29-year-olds, you may be surprised how slowly this demo has been to adopt Twitter relative to older generations. That said, if you are a mutual fund targeting boomer males between 48-55, you might find your bulls-eye here since this group indexes quite high on Twitter.

Dive in Anyway

All that said, every brand should have some presence on Twitter for any one of the following reasons:
-customer service (Comcast, JetBlue, Starbucks, H&R Block, BestBuy)
-crises management (Domino’s)
-news & promotions feed (Dell, Molson)
-customer engagement (Zappos, Whole Foods)
-to drive web traffic (Samsung, Marvel)
-dissuade impostors (lots of consumers are pretending to be brands Capt’nMorgan, CoorsLight)

Tweet From Your Point of View

To be effective on Twitter, brands like people need to have a distinct point-of-view. This point of view needs to be rooted in a brand truth and enable the brand to speak with clarity for and against certain topics. Once they can define their point of view, finding something worthwhile to tweet about is relatively easy. Keep in mind that the brand does not need to generate all original content, but rather it can add its own particular flavor to existing news items. Sharing this content with brand-appropriate commentary via Twitter can be a genuine service to prospects and customers alike.

Tide Detergent might take the point of view that no matter how much dirt gets thrown, they’ll be there to clean it up and provide links from literal messes (Twitpic links to muddy disasters) to figurative messes (like the situation in Albany). Bud Light could take the point of view that every one accomplishment big or small is worth celebrating and then call attention to minor accomplishments with text/photo links (here’s to you Mr. Dressed Like You’re Ready to Take Center Court Guy).

A few weeks ago I had an interesting conversation with Todd Wasserman of BRANDWEEK about the evolving role of the CMO. Todd’s insightful article appeared this week in both ADWEEK and BRANDWEEK and included a few quotes from yours truly which he interpreted as complaints. Since my thoughts were more observations than laments, I figured I’d post my notes from our conversation:

The CMO has evolved from Chief Miracle Officer to Chief Minutia Officer. The CMO used to be charged with creating a marketing miracle, finding that magical ad campaign that would have a multiplier effect on awareness, excite the trades and ultimately drive sales. If the CMO couldn’t deliver such a campaign either he/she or the agency lost their jobs and replacements were found. Just about every CMO wanted a mass media brand-building campaign like the Aflac Duck or the Geico Gecko.

Then along came Google complete with truly measurable results and tectonic plates of marketing started to shift. Suddenly CMO’s were emboldened to say “I only want to do what produces measurable results” and the super savvy ones had a dashboard with real time information from search clicks to web traffic to online buzz to 800# calls to retail sales. Jim Garrity, the former CMO of Wachovia was on the forefront of this trend, studying all the data points with unrelenting passion. Business Week profiled Garrity back in 2006 and noted he “sounds like a man who never met a data point he didn’t like” and “Garrity and those like him are quietly reworking the advertising mix of the American corporation.”

This new kind of CMO is less interested in the monumental and more in the incremental, seeking a steady diet of singles and doubles over the infrequent but more showy grand slam. This is not necessarily a bad thing either. The more metrics that a client has in place the more likely that an agency can prove that what it does for the client actually works. It also means that the CMO has a better chance of keeping his/her job for more than 24 months. CFO’s are far more likely to increase the budget if the business case is there to justify such an increase. This methodical approach also dovetails nicely with the current “make more out of less” economy.

For the record, I applaud this new kind of CMO since they make sure marketing aligns with sales and the metrics for success are clear from the beginning.  Without these two factors in place, it will take more than a miracle for even the best of agencies to build a successful partnership.

WAD TXTG is ABT2 B come a P2C2E. B4YKI U-L B a 4NR or ACORN. 4tunitly, LG cre8d a DTXTR. Bcuz this is a P2C2E, c MediaPost (and if you’re curious see translation below):

Parents who are having trouble understanding what their teens are saying to each other via text messages have a new resource for translation. LG Mobile Phones has set up a new Web site, www.LGDTXTR.com, that gives the meaning of more than 2,000 popular text abbreviations, such as MOS (mom over shoulder), PRW (parents are watching) and RUSOS (are you in trouble).

“Teens are constantly creating new ways to communicate, and while texting is not a new phenomenon, the unique shorthand phrases that have been created as a result are growing daily,” stated Ehtisham Rabbani, vice president of product strategy and marketing for LG Mobile Phones, in a statement. “LG DTXTR (detexter) is a tool to keep everyone — young and old — current with the language, and as it grows, it enhances our understanding of what’s important to teenagers.”

Seriously, this is a fun example of Marketing as Service demonstrating that LG both sympathizes with the challenges of parenting and wants to help parents keep up with latest texting lingo. This kind of empathy and support certainly creates an opportunity for engagement that goes well beyond a :30 TV spot.

TRANSLATION OF INTRO: Without a doubt texting is about to become a process too complicated to explain. Before you know it, you will be a foreigner or a completely obsessive really nutty person.

A few months back I had a long conversation with the editor of Event Marketer on the subject of random acts of kindness. Their story on this topic ran in the April issue and featured Renegade’s long-running HSBC BankCab program. With Absolut Vodka promoting random acts of “Absolut Kindness” around London (as reported by PSFK), I figured it would be worth sharing the notes from my call with Event Marketer:

One could argue that it is more important than ever for companies and brands to show their good side. With Wall St. crumbling, Main Street welcomes every act of kindness regardless of the source. That said, like everything in marketing, some acts work better than others. In 2007, there was spurt of Random Acts including random visits from 76ers in Philly to “Pass the Cheer” ecards from Starbucks to “Be Hospitable” acts from Hilton. Arguably, none of these provided any lasting value for the brands. And there’s the rub. If they are truly random and just a brief moment in time, the consumer quickly forgets. For random acts to work, they need to be consistently delivered and of course, quickly become the opposite of random.

Marketers who embrace “random acts” do so at their own risk. The fundamental premise of “random acts of kindness” is to do something to make another feel good while expecting absolutely nothing in return, not even gratitude. Marketing by definition is about ROI, building brand preference, sales and repeat purchase. Thus random acts that are truly random and unbranded have limited impact on the brand and those acts of kindness that are well branded are simply not considered random. So the key here is not to worry about the random and focus on the kindness. That is the very notion behind Marketing as Service. I would argue that Samsung’s charging stations in airports are as a welcome act of kindness as any offered by any marketer.

The bottom line is that consistency carries the day. Random acts might generate a quick PR hit but everyday acts of service in one form or another will actually attract and maintain paying customers.

Providing free rides is not exactly a new idea even in the alcoholic beverage arena–Captain Morgan’s has been helping out party goers for a couple of years in select markets. So MillerLite’s decision to support the Kentucky Derby with free rides is hardly big news:

Thank you for visiting the Miller Lite Free Rides™ web site. The Miller Lite Free Rides program is a collaborative effort between transit systems, community organizations, law enforcement agencies, civic organizations and others to help keep our streets safe and prevent drunk driving on major holidays and throughout the year.

Take advantage of a safe transportation alternative during your Derby Eve celebration on May 1st. Miller Lite Free Rides will provide evening service to many popular destinations, including the Derby Eve Jam concert on the waterfront, restaurants, bars, local family events and neighborhood celebrations.

So why then am I writing about it? Well, simply as a reminder that Marketing as Service requires just as much consistency, commitment and creativity as other marketing approaches in order to cut through.  A one-day free ride program is hardly a sincere commitment to public safety.  Because free rides have been done so often they can’t really expect much PR or points for creativity.  I’m not saying Miller is wrong for doing this just that they should be careful not to offer it up as a meaningful pro-social activity.  Now if this is the beginning of year-long program to offer free rides at major sporting events then let me know and I’ll buy a couple of six packs and toast to their health (at home, safe, far from a car!)

To earn a return on your cause marketing efforts, you must spread the word. It helps you and it helps the cause. It’s not a case of bragging. If you do good — share it. No one expects marketers to be shy — good corporate citizens maybe, but not self-effacing saints.

Earlier this year, Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes used the Super Bowl to tell their cause marketing story, which is about as big a stage as one can find, featuring a TV spot for its “Earn Your Stripes” campaign.

The Earn Your Stripes campaign, first launched in 2004, according the website, “Aims to inspire kids to work hard, eat right and believe in themselves in order to achieve their goals and “be their very best” on and off the playing field.” The “Plant a Seed” spot which aired on the Superbowl, provides a warm-hearted look at how athletics help kids grow both physically and emotionally, thus rationalizing its effort to renovate playing fields. At the end of the spot, Kellogg’s invites viewers to nominate local playing fields for renovation at FrostedFlakes.com.

On this site, visitors are encouraged to “earn your stripes” by taking these four steps:
• PLANT A SEED. Nominate a field in your community.
• NURTURE IT. Show support for fields across the country.
• HELP IT GROW. Create your own seed packs and spread the word.
• STAY INVOLVED. BECOME A “plant a seed” SUPPORTER.

According to a spokesperson for Kellogg, “[they] are fully committed to supporting programs that encourage kids to be active and that have a positive impact in [their] communities.”

Kelloggs.com & Frosted Flakes enjoyed a substantial boost in traffic to its websites immediately after the Super Bowl. As you can see from this chart courtesy of Alexa.com, traffic tripled and continued to be strong long after the Super Bowl. In the three months since, an amazing 3,184 fields have been nominated.

Visitors are encouraged to email their friends about the contest, and since Frosted Flakes allows the consumer to vote on the nominees to select the 100 semi-finalists, there is a strong viral effect to this campaign. Kellogg’s also supported this effort with a major search buy to help steer interested parties to the Frosted Flakes site.

Because Kelloggs shared their story offline and online, they have ensured that a broad swath of consumers were made aware of the Frosted Flakes “Plant a Seed” program and had an opportunity to participate. Now that’s grrrreat.

I recently completed a brilliant (says me) speech on Cause Marketing that was recorded for release later this year. In the course of my research, I found a number examples of cause marketing that are worth sharing in bite sized blog chunks.

Brita has found a highly relevant cause with its Filter for Good program. While transparently self-serving, this program promotes the environmentally friendly case against drinking bottled water. The Filter For Good.com website encourages consumers to “pledge” to drink less bottled water, noting that one Brita pitcher filter can effectively replace as many as 300 standard 16.9-ounce bottles.  (Feel free to take “the pledge” like I did–it’s a quick and does make you think about buying less bottled water.)

On the site you can find out about all the layers of the program, including the recent Brita Climate Ride and The College FilterForGood Eco-Challenge, that solicited eco-friendly ideas from universities and from which Brita was so overwhelmed by good proposals that they elected to fund 5 of them.   The relevance of this effort is irrefutable, providing Brita a pure and simple way to do well by doing good

This example shows how Marketing for Good and Marketing as Service can overlap, as the cause is the service. From where I sit, its all good.

P&G keeps finding fresh ways to serve its customers. This one was spotted by a fellow Renegade (thanks Steph):

Procter & Gamble’s Charmin has partnered with SitOrSquat, a Web site that allows picky pottygoers to identify the cleanest (or dirtiest) toilets around. The application is available for download on most BlackBerrys and iPhones. Users enter their target city and state, and a host of available toilets—(some “sit” or “squat”)—pop up.

Since I’m on an airplane writing this, I can’t actually give this app a trial run but it seems like the Charmin team is definitely on a roll (keep in mind these are the same folks that brought you sparkling clean potties in Times Square.) They are certainly giving Scotts a run for their money. Some might say I’m piling it on just to make a point. Or that I’m trying to squeeze every last pun out of this meager offering. And of course, to them I say, plunge ahead, Marketing as Service in any form, is never number two in my book.

Giving away free samples doesn’t have to be boring.  Colgate proved that by cleverly embedding their message in the very foods that can cause tooth decay.  Here’s what they said about it at
Creativity

Colgate normally gives out small product samples at annual events like “Oral Health Month” to remind consumers, especially kids, to take better car of their teeth after eating sweets. This method does not drive strong results as most consumers tend to forget the message, even if they have collected the samples.

Instead of giving away product samples, ice cream and cotton candy were given out. The stick carrying the ice cream and cotton candy also carried a hidden message. Once consumers are done, the message printed on the tip of the stick shaped like a toothbrush reveals “Don’t Forget” with the Colgate logo. This simple message effectively reminded consumers to brush their teeth

With this clever promotion, Colgate is also providing a genuine service to its consumers.  Reminding someone to brush right after they eat something sweet couldn’t be more timely.  Put another way, it would be impossible for someone to brush away this helpful reminder.

Pedigree continues to cuddle up to dog lovers, unleashing this opportunistic plea to President-elect Obama as reported by MediaPost:

Pedigree wasted no time in getting a print ad to press following President-Elect Obama’s promise to his daughters to bring a puppy to the White House. The ad ran in last Thursday’s edition of USA Today and features an adorable shelter dog in need of a home. “…We think you’ll find that shelter dogs are among the most loyal, loving and special dogs in the world. And no dog is more in need of a little hope,” says the ad (see below).

I give this effort a double paws up, especially as it builds upon what I think is one of the best “purpose-based” marketing campaigns going (see my earlier post on Dogs Rule). So, who thinks the Obama team will heed the call?

Add this one to your lexicon of “new” marketing approaches–”purpose-based marketing.” Somewhere between Marketing for Good and Marketing as Service, this one is being touted by former P&G CMO Jim Stengel which helps explain why it was prominently featured in last week’s Wall St. Journal:

Starting Monday, the 25-year P&G veteran is opening Jim Stengel LLC, which will try to persuade companies to buy into a newfangled way of selling. It’s called “purpose-based marketing,” which Mr. Stengel says is about defining what a company does — beyond making money — and how it can make its customers’ lives better.

I am truly excited to see someone as prominent as Mr. Stengel endorse what for traditional marketers like P&G would have been considered a radical approach just a couple of years ago:

The well-known adman maintains that the idea of “purpose” isn’t just the latest cooked-up marketing-speak. He says dozens of companies and brands have used this approach. He points to P&G’s Pampers brand, which several years ago decided it had a higher purpose: helping moms develop healthy, happy babies, rather than just keeping babies’ bottoms dry.

So I write this open letter:

Dear Mr. Stengel:

If you have a spare minute, we should talk. I’ve been gathering cases that support your thesis for the last 4 years and have no doubt what you say is true. More importantly, while having a purpose-based strategy provides a solid foundation, you still need an agency that can create a transformative 360° experience–an agency like Renegade.

Finally, as a fellow punster, I love the title of your upcoming book, Packaged Good, and can’t wait to read it.

Cheers,

Drew

CEO, Renegade

In the world of extruded potatoes, it is often difficult to find genuine goodness. Here’s how Pringles is attempting to bridge that gap, as reported by BRANDWEEK‘s Elaine Wong:

Beginning this week, consumers can go to Pringles.com to play with its new “Can Creator.” The application allows users to design and print their own creations, which they can then tape onto their Pringles can.

For every can created, parent company Procter & Gamble will donate $1 to the Children’s Miracle Network (up to $20,000). The campaign runs through June.

Up to $20,000? Come on P&G, with $265 million in sales for Pringles alone, surely you can do better than that. Are we really supposed to prefer Pringles given such a modest charitable commitment? While I’m sure the Children’s Miracle Network isn’t complaining, this is the perfect time to step up and make a sincere commitment. I’d propose donating up to $1.0 million and shame the rest of the marketing world into doing good on a grand scale.

Would such a grand commitment be good for Pringle’s sales? You bet. More from the BRANDWEEK article:

The 2008 Cone Cause Evolution Study found that 79% of consumers said they would switch brands (provided price and quality were equal) to the one that is associated with a good cause. Eighty-five percent of respondents said they have a more positive image of a company when it supports a cause that is dear to them. And 38% have purchased a product associated with a cause in the last year.

I’m all for doing well by doing good. Just make sure your commitment is clear and sincere, otherwise there will be no pop in your sales.

This just in–cause marketing increases sales!!! And all this time writing about Marketing for Good, you thought I meant “good” as in good for your soul and not “good” as in good for your bottom line. Here’s the scoop as crafted by Ken Hein of BRANDWEEK:

Pier 1 Imports and Payless are likely to get a sales lift from their partnerships with Susan G. Komen during “Breast Cancer Awareness Month.” A series of new studies released today (Oct. 1) show that consumers are more likely to purchase brands that are associated with causes they care about.

The 2008 Cone Cause Evolution Study found that 79% of respondents said they would switch brands (provided price and quality were equal) to the one that is associated with a good cause. Cone, Boston, polled 1,100 adults polled online in August.

Eighty-five percent of respondents said they have a more positive image of a company when it supports a cause they care about. The same percentage said it was acceptable for companies to promote their affiliation with nonprofit organizations in their ads. And, 38% have purchased a product associated with a cause in the last year.

Knowing that consumers are interested in cause-related branding, how can companies make it more effective? Eighty-four percent of those polled wanted to select their own cause, 83% said it must be personally relevant and 80% said the nonprofit associated with the brand matters.

Even though companies are struggling, more than half of respondents (52%) said companies should continue to give to nonprofits. More than a quarter (26%) felt companies should give more.

A separate study, conducted in conjunction with Duke University, sought to see if consumers would put their money where their mouth is. In the “2008 Cone/Duke University Behavioral Cause Study,” 182 consumers were exposed to print ads (cause-related or a typical corporate ad) for one of four focus brands in a regional magazine. They were then sent to shop in a mock store that featured 150 SKUs.

All you marketers out there, take note. Now is the time to ramp up your Marketing for Good activities. Many non-profits are getting hammered by the collapse of the financial institutions that used to underwrite their activities. Ride to their rescue, align with a cause that makes sense for your business and or your target, get your employees involved so they feel good about working for you and do it now while your competitors sit on the rears waiting for the market to recover.

As the markets retreat and marketers regroup, non-profit organizations, especially New York-based ones, are sure to feel the pinch. The Wall St. Journal reported on this last week:

Officials at charities are trying to devise creative ways to stand out. They are making urgent appeals through direct-mail and email campaigns and taking to the airwaves. Charities also are gearing up to tap their wealthy board members and other well-off supporters for extra cash. If they fail, charities may have to cut staff or seek loans.

As I’ve noted before, brave marketers will dig deep and keep investing in their marketing for good activities. These commitments don’t have to only be in cash. Marketers like Home Depot have learned that they can make a huge impact on their local communities by donating the time and expertise of their employees. Here’s an inspiring example followed by a happy video that should cheer you up:

On Friday, August 22nd, 2008 volunteers from WNY AmeriCorps, Home Depot, and Hands On Greater Buffalo came together to revitalize the outdoor space in front of the Henry J. Kalfas Magnet School in Niagara Falls. Projects included planting a new garden in place of dead or obtrusive plants, installing paver blocks on either side of the walkway, building two benches, and painting the flagpole. A community cookout following the project welcomed local citizens to become invested in their school. Watch the video of the project day below!

I’m intrigued by a new program from Trip Advisor that a fellow Renegade (thanks Stef) shared with me:

Thought you might like to have another example of MFG in your back pocket. As far as I can tell, this is only a very thinly-layered one (doesn’t have too many legs to the marketing), but seems like a great fit for the Trip Advisor brand.

In November, Trip Advisor will donate $1 million to a worthy cause, to give back to the world that they help you travel in. Below is an email sent from their CEO, which I received because I’m a member. They appeal to me, as a TA member, to help determine where the dollars are donated. It’s as simple as clicking on the link, and presumably it makes you feel as though you’ve done some good for the world outside of your immediate environment (without moving off your seat or spending any of your own money).

Once you’ve voted, the Thank You screen offers you a few options to help spread the word, including adding to Facebook (MySpace, Digg, Delicious, etc), or sending to a friend. The follow-up email which you receive immediately also prompts you to Tell Your Friends. Because voting requires TA membership, the hope is that the viral activity will increase sign-ups for the TA site and services.

Dear TripAdvisor Member,

For years it’s been our mission to help travelers around the world plan and take great trips.

Now we want to help the places and people that we encounter when we travel. On November 12th, we’ll be donating $1 million to 5 great organizations that help these places and people.

Just as we believe in the power of the collective wisdom of our travelers, we believe in the power of your opinion.

Please vote – tell us where the $1 million donation should go.

 

Thank you,

Steve Kaufer
Founder & CEO
TripAdvisor LLC

With the market being down a zillion points again, I thought it might be time to look for some good, Marketing for Good, that is. Here’s a couple of recent examples that caught my eye:

1. Too Good by Jenny:

Here’s the dealio courtesy of Becky at BRANDWEEK: Actress/comedian Jenny McCarthy has signed with Los Angeles licensing agency Brand Sense Partners to develop a lifestyle brand called Too Good by Jenny, which will be positioned as providing safe, non-toxic surroundings for children. McCarthy rose to stardom in the ’90s after appearing in Playboy and on MTV as a show host. But she later became an advocate for a holistic approach to child development after her son Evan was diagnosed with autism in 2005. She has been vocal about such causes as staggering immunizations, adhering to a gluten-free diet and eliminating chemicals in everyday products, such as lead paint in toys or BPA plastic in baby bottles. She is also a spokesperson for an organization called Talk About Curing Autism.

Wow, she sure has come a long way from those Candies shoes ads in which she posed on a pottie!

2. Starbucks to Give Good: This one comes from Nina at MediaPost:

The restaurant will offer, exclusively, copies of the publication dedicated to current topics during the presidential election season. The goal is to spark conversation in the coffeehouses and online. At a time when Americans are talking about issues, Starbucks and GOOD will expand the conversation with this integrated media campaign.

As a big fan of the magazine, I think this will do it a lot of GOOD. As for Starbucks, it is certainly consistent with their other efforts to be responsible corporate citizens. That said, I’m not sure if will perk up their lukewarm business.

Love what Häagen-Dazs did to generate a little buzz about their ice cream this summer–it’s a great example of how Marketing for Good and Marketing as Service can overlap. The program which was written up quite succinctly in Brandweek:

The Challenge: Ice cream stalwart Häagen-Dazs was feeling the pinch when honeybees started inexplicably disappearing, since 30 of the brand’s 73 flavors use honey to contribute to their flavor. Strawberry just isn’t strawberry without some honey, really. So the brand decided to adopt the issue of the shrinking bee population by launching a multiplatform campaign, via Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, San Francisco. The effort is designed to raise public awareness of this honeybee deficit.

The Plan: A two-minute video called “Bee-Boy dance crew drops dead” was introduced in July. It features a dance crew in bee outfits, doing a “bee dance” to an instrumental hip-hop track, complete with DJ, also in a black and yellow bee outfit. It was disseminated to bloggers who tended to embrace social causes and youth efforts and was introduced in chat sites as well. After all of the dancers disappear, the viewer is directed to the helpthehoneybees.com site. The Feed Company, Los Angeles, handled the viral video aspect of the campaign.

The Results: The video generated more than 2 million views in two weeks and drew over 3,500 comments on YouTube. More than 150 blogs featured the video and it was part of over 11,000 Web forum discussion sessions. The video maintains a 4 1/2 star rating on YouTube.

Both the video and the website are nicely done. What I particularly like is The Bee Book which is both entertaining and educational for kids and adults alike. Kudos to Goodby for delivering genuine value to consumers rather than just reminding us how great Häagen-Dazs tastes.

Want to grow your brand beyond our shores without being perceived as exploitive global conquerers? Consider a new approach IBM is taking with the creation of their Corporate Service Corps program. About 600 IBM employees are volunteering their time in such far flung places as Ghana, Romania, Tanzania and Vietnam to help companies and non-profits deal with their IT issues. The WSJ article on this program is well worth reading.

A startling two thirds of IBM’s revenue comes from countries outside the US and undoubtedly IBM believes there is lots more opportunity to be found out there. By cultivating friendships in developing countries and delivering the equivalent of $250 million in service expertise, IBM is laying the foundation for future growth.

IBM employees who participate are having “once in a lifetime experiences” that further their loyalty and goodwill toward their employer. One employee noted that he felt like he “won the lottery” after being selected from the 5,500 IBM applicants for this year’s program.

All in all, this is really good stuff–good for the world, good for the employees, good for the brand. Should this program expand, don’t be surprised if folks from Wall Street to Timisoara (Romania) start to think of Big Blue as Good Blue.

Both VISA and American Express have been on the leading edge when it comes to leveraging social networks. I covered VISA’s recent programs with Facebook rather extensively in my article for iMediaConnection. So here’s a quick update on one of the more interesting efforts by American Express called the Members Project including this overview from MediaPost’s Marketing Daily:

For its second year, American Express has expanded the scope of its social responsibility, “Members Project,” making it easier for people to help shape projects that fit their interests, beefing up its online presence, and devoting more money to more projects.

“We’re putting more focus in how we leverage online,” says Belinda Lang, vice president of consumer marketing strategy at American Express. “We’re trying to make it that much easier for people to engage with us.”

To help get the word out about the Members Project and the individual ideas, American Express has developed a vast array of online tools, from Facebook and MySpace presences to widgets and online badges people can use to promote their projects. The initial phase of the Members Project–where people create and hone ideas for good works– will also be advertised heavily online, Lang tells Marketing Daily. “This is an online experience–our goal is to take advantage of what’s going on with that space,” she says.

A quick visit to the Members Project site and you can see this is a well thought through program and one that they expect to grow over time. With $2.5 million in “seed money” to support 25 projects that can “make a difference” locally, nationally or globally, AmEx is hoping to empower card holders to take charge instead of just charging (some more stuff). It is hard to imagine a more fulfilling “service” for AmEx to provide than one that helps their customers change the world for the better. And oh by the way, if saving the world is your thing, submissions are due 8/19!

Update:

One of the five finalists offered this video appeal:

Somehow I missed GSD&M’s creation of the Purpose Institute, despite the fact that they have enlisted some high profile execs including Ed Stengel, the former CMO of P&G. Here’s what Stengel said to AdAge about the Institute and why he was going to “consult” for them:

This idea of purpose-driven branding and finding the meaning and potential meaning behind each brand and orienting everything around that … is over my career what’s really inspired me. Now I simply want to take that to the next step and focus all of my energy on that.

Doing a little more homework on this, I found the bio of the founder, Haley Rushing, who sports the best darn title I’ve yet to see in our business, “Chief Purposologist.” Here are a couple of paragraphs on Haley that also help explain the purpose of the Purpose Institute:

Although she works for GSD&M, one of the top 25 ad agencies in the country, Haley Rushing doesn’t like to think of herself as being in the ad business. While her work may result in great advertising, her passion lies in helping organizations discover their Core Purpose, beyond making money, and uncovering the Core Values that create and define the culture of the organization.

When you meet her, she’s likely to begin the conversation by asking, “What difference do you really make? Would anyone miss you if you weren’t here?” Don’t take it personally. As Chief Purposologist, Haley leads a team of people who act as organizational therapists, anthropologists and historians. Every Purpose project involves a thorough exploration of the passions, underlying motivations, and strengths of the organization as well as a thorough examination of the impact of the organization in the lives of the people it comes in contact with.

First, it sounds like they are doing some really smart things at GSD&M (they are the folks who helped put Southwest on the map).  Second, the Purpose Institute feels like it provides the services of a branding firm but with a Marketing for Good bent. Finally, as companies look to expand their products/services from one core competency to another, they would be smart to study how GSD&M created a viable sub-brand with a clear purpose.

A talented young designer (thanks Julie) gave me the head’s up about a website that she’d thought I’d like and think was pretty cool. She’s right. It contains one of the most powerful and compelling introductory videos I’ve yet to see on a non-profit site. Just in case you don’t have the energy to go to the site, I’ve embedded the video here:

The site itself is essentially a repository of viral elements to help spread the word about The Girl Effect. They couldn’t have made it easier for me to embed the video you see above. They offer downloadable posters, stickers, logos, desktop wallpaper and even wallpaper for your phone. Facebook fans can befriend The Girl Effect and “tap into the movement.” The only thing you can’t do is actually give to The Girl Effect on the website. Why? Because The Girl Effect is an umbrella awareness campaign for a consortium of non-profits that are working to address the challenge including:

• Global Giving (a clearing house for global non-profits)
• Nike Foundation
• NoVo Foundation
• UN Foundation
• International Center for Research on Women
• Population Council
• Center for Global Development
• and Plan among others

The whole thing is really amazing. Help girls. Save the world. I’m in. How about some of you marketers out there?

Though I’ve been neglecting Marketing for Good for a bit, its nice to know that others aren’t. Here’s an email I received today from fellow Dukie, Victor Jeffreys II of All Day Buffet about a very good event in NYC on the 9th of June at the Delancy:

I’ve been working on an Internet Week event with alldaybuffet and Behance called Make Good Ideas Happen. Well it’s coming up (Monday June 9th from 7-10) and it should prove to be frickin’ awesome.

We’ll be bringing together three stellar nonprofits–City Year, Starting Bloc and Sustainable South Bronx– and all the creative people in alldaybuffet’s and behance’s networks on the roof of the Delancey for a night of drinking, thinking and world shaking change.

Each nonprofit will present ideas they are pursuing to change the world. Attendants will bring their idealism and leave Action Steps with resources, connections, and next steps to help make their ideas happen.

StartingBloc, which runs an amazing social entrepreneurship education programs with help from founding partners MIT Sloan and London Business School, has an amazing alumni network of 850+ from 40 different countries. They’ll be kicking off their fundraising summer at MGIH and looking for help with growth strategies and ideas on their web presence, communications and ways to raise funds to provide training for the creative community.

Sustainable South Bronx will be launching a new consultancy headed by Majora Carter (a MacArthur winning leader in environmental justice and “greening the ghetto” ) to bring SSBX’s strategies and learnings about urban greening initiatives to other municipalities. They’ll be looking for idea and help on what that should/could look like.

And City Year, which allows young people to dedicate a year to volunteerism, will be looking for ideas on how to make the most commonly asked question of a 17 to 24 year old is “Where are you going to do your service year?”

And of course, there will be drinks and fun hanging out on a rooftop on a summer night. So it would be great if you could come to give these nonprofits some ideas and help make their amazing initiatives a reality. There’ll be more about them coming soon to the alldaybuffet.org.

If you know anyone (designers, planners, advertisers, programmers etc.) who’d be interested too, by all means, tell them to stop by. And if you want to help out, that would be amazing. We could always use help getting the word out ( if you know/are a reporter, blogger, etc) as well as help at the event (we need facilitators, door people and a photographer).

Thanks so much all! Hope you can make it–should be a really GOOD night (7-10pm, Free) June 9, 2008

Ironically, I have a meeting at Children for Children that evening SO I can’t make it. For goodness sake, perhaps one of you could go and report back.

Lots of companies use cause marketing like a magic bat with which they hope to get a quick hit. The commitment from the sponsor is obviously insincere and ends after one at bat, a strike out with both consumers and the cause they supported. Marketers who support a cause should do so because they believe it is the right thing to do and plan on staying in the batter’s box season after season.

Major League Baseball has made this kind of commitment to Breast Cancer and is doing so in quite an innovative way. Here’s a bit about their program this year from MediaPost:

Major League Baseball launched a Mother’s Day campaign to raise money and awareness for breast cancer research. A full-page print ad ran in USA Today on May 9 depicting a flower made from pink baseball bats. “This Mother’s Day, give more than just flowers,” says the ad urging baseball fans to support the Susan G. Komen For The Cure foundation by attending MLB games on Mother’s Day, or by watching MLB games on TBS and ESPN. Special pink baseball bats were available for purchase at the stadiums and MLB will donate $10 to the Susan G. Komen fund for every bat sold.

I know this is at least the second time around the bases for this effort by the MLB. And as far as I’m concerned, this cause marketing program is a hit. It’s good for Susan G. Komen since it raises awareness and money (the pink bats are auctioned off). It’s good for MLB because it brings a little good will into an arena of otherwise self-obsessed, absurdly-paid and questionably-muscled athletes. And its good for the baseball fan–I for one found the whole idea of these macho athletes swinging pink bats both hilarious and touching–reminding us all that these players have moms too.

Got a nice reminder from TED regarding Pangea Day’s inaugural event tomorrow:

The program on Pangea Day, May 10, is a celebration of the power of film to unite us all. You’ll see films that are funny — sad — gorgeous — stark — powerful. Voices that have never been heard before. Things you’ve never seen. Scenes from worlds you didn’t know existed. A cross-section of our amazing, complicated, noisy, beautiful world. Tune in or find a viewing party to watch on May 10, 2008, at 6:00 PM GMT. Click here to find the many ways to watch.

As a marketer, Pangea Day is worth watching closely as it brings together a number of Web 2.0 possibilities:

• User-generated content
• Cause-based communities
• Video sourced from all over the world
• Education through entertainment
• For profit and non-profit collaborations
• Video from and to any source (see Nokia Mobile Film making awards)

And just in case you’d prefer to following along in Arabic, French, German, Hindi, Portuguese or Spanish, this too will be possible courtesy in ingenuous subtitling service called DotSub. DotSub was developed by Michael Smolens, who also happens to be a good tennis player, which is how I got to know him. More on DotSub:

dotSUB is a browser based tool enabling subtitling of videos on the web into and from any language. There is nothing to buy and nothing to download. Recognizing the potential of global communication powered by the Internet, the founders of dotSUB created a web-based tool that enables video to be accessed in an open, collaborative, “wiki” type environment. The dotSUB tool gives anyone the ability to translate video content into multiple languages via subtitles rendered over the bottom of the video.

Sedentary kids are a meaty social problem. Video games tends to exacerbate the situation, causing carpal tunnel and tooshie fatigue. Can WiiFit get these kids off the couch and help them burn a few calories? Dance Dance Revolution made some headway in this area and was even adopted by some school districts as a legitimate form of exercise (see previous post on DDR).

Here’s the blurb from Amazon about WiiFit:

Wii Fit features more than 40 activities and exercises, including strength training, aerobics, yoga, and balance games for play on Nintendo’s Wii. WiiFit will be released on May 19 and requires a Nintendo Wii game console to play.

Because the Wii itself has been such a phenomenal success on multiple levels, it should be a surprise that there is a huge buzz already building about WiiFit. Nintendo (at least I think it is Nintendo) has set up a very legit looking blog up called WiiFit.net that is even modestly self-critical:

The Wii Fit, meanwhile, sells the idea of the video game as a lifestyle solution. If, three years ago, a focus group had been asked whether they thought a video game could improve your memory or help you to lose weight, the answer would have probably been a rather bemused ‘no.’ Before Wii Fit, the idea of a fat-burning video game was an idea as outlandishly utopian as slimming beer or a carpet that reverses ageing.

But like it or not, Nintendo have pulled off an impressive marketing trick – they’ve convinced an entire untapped audience to buy their product, though it remains to be seen whether the nation’s waistlines will improve as a result.

Having worked up a sweat playing the regular Wii, I’m a big fan of this product and the lifestyle they are building around it. They have even created another support site called Wii Healthy that offers all sort of tips to eat and live a Wii bit better. This is quite a stretch for a gaming company but one that should embolden many other marketers.

Having attended three Olympics myself (’84, ’96, ’02), I truly believe that the Games bring people and countries together, making the world smaller and closer. I believe the Olympics can affect positive change like precipitating South Korea’s transformation into a democracy from a dictatorship (this really happened). And I believe that Olympic sponsors are doing good by supporting the Games. So you can imagine how it pains me to even ask “are the Olympics good?”

Let me start by saying this is not an issue you can race through. Opinions abound. Over the last few weeks, protesters doused the Olympic torch in many countries in protest of Chinese actions in Tibet and Darfur. Hillary Clinton, in the midst of a heated Presidential nomination bid, suggested “President Bush should not plan on attending the opening ceremonies in Beijing, absent major changes by the Chinese government.” And a New York Times editorial by Buzz Bissinger, called for the end of the Olympic Games altogether! It was this last one that really stopped me cold.

Mr. Bissinger, the author of sports TV shows like “Friday Night Lights” and “Three Nights in August” (I guess this makes him an expert), provided a history of all the problems associated with the modern Olympics since it founding in 1896. No doubt there have been many. He cites the (failed in his opinion) ideals of the modern Olympics as stated by founder Baron Pierre de Coubertin:

May joy and good fellowship reign, and in this manner, may the Olympic torch pursue its way through ages, increasing friendly understanding among nations, for the good of a humanity always more enthusiastic, more courageous and more pure.

But that’s about the last positive thing Bizzinger offers. Fortunately for those of us who love the sport and can overlook the darker side of the Games, an article in the New York Times by the long-time sports writer George Vescey, offered a different perspective. Here are a few highlights from Vescey’s column:

Every time I hear talk of boycotting ceremonies or canceling the Olympic Games, I find myself strangely defensive of the Games, as pretentious and bloated and dishonest as they may be.

…those Atlanta Games in 1996 gave two blessings to the world. The first was Samaranch’s very real support for female athletes like the softball team of Dr. Dot Richardson and the soccer team of Michelle Akers and their worthy competitors. The other came in the opening ceremony when Muhammad Ali, once reviled in his homeland as a draft dodger and Muslim convert, emerged on a platform to light the Olympic flame.

I would not trade the success of the women or the honor to Ali for any reflex action to shut down the Olympics.

In the meantime, Good Magazine ran an extensive cover story on why we needed to engage China and embrace the Beijing Games. That’s right, Good Magazine, which introduced its story called “What’s Up with China?” as follows:

In just a few months, the Olympic flame will arrive in Beijing, signaling the start of the 29th Olympiad. Beyond medal counts and race results, we will be engulfed in news about China—from government-sponsored agitprop about rapid modernization to alarmist drumbeats about a growing military and potential economic disaster. Somewhere in between the propaganda and the hysteria will lie the truth.

If the United States is the last remaining superpower of the imperialist era, then China is rapidly becoming the first of the information age. When the world last found itself with two superpowers things didn’t go so well; we’re hoping these stories will contribute to a more rational dialogue this time around. China’s deplorable record on human rights, political freedom, and the environment cannot lightly be cast aside, but it is sometimes necessary to look beyond it. Our two countries are inexorably linked, so let’s find out who our Eastern neighbor really is.

We have a better chance of affecting China’s policies in the future if we engage them now on all levels including the Olympics. Sponsors should not be boycotted for supporting the Olympic ideals even if those ideals are not wholly embraced by the host country today. These sponsors are an important part of the economic riptide that will ultimately pull China in a good direction, affecting the kind of change those calling for boycott are really seeking.

Call me sappy but I actually believe the Olympics are about the athletes and the ideal they represent. Like many sports fans, I love watching the intense competition and seeing the underdogs win. I’m generally amazed by the stories of the athletes and the hardships many endured to get to the games. And I’m partial to the sponsors who find meaningful ways to support the athletes (like Home Depot’s jobs program & Panasonic’s EyeOn Performance System at the US Olympic Training Facility).

And so I say with little hesitation, “let the games Beijing.”