(RED) Campaign – Distraction or Lifesaver?

by Nedra Weinreich | Oct 13, 2006 | Blog, Cause Marketing

Driving home today, I caught the tail end of a broadcast by radio talk show host Michael Medved in which he was discussing the (RED) campaign. In case you missed my post on this campaign when it was announced, here’s a recap based on information on their website. “(RED) was created by Bono and Bobby Shriver, Chairman of DATA to raise awareness and money for The Global Fund by teaming up with the world’s most iconic brands to produce (PRODUCT)^RED branded products. A percentage of each (PRODUCT)^RED product sold is given to The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. The money helps women and children affected by HIV/AIDS in Africa.” (RED) Products are sold by companies such as Motorola, American Express, the Gap, Apple and other fashionable brands.

Michael Medved’s point was that this type of cause marketing is not helpful in addressing issues like AIDS or poverty in a place like Africa because it serves as a distraction from the root causes for these problems — corrupt, repressive political systems that keep their citizens from joining the global economy. Instead of encouraging more rampant consumerism, he says, we should be working towards political solutions to bring the African countries out of poverty, which would also reduce the problem of AIDS. When the focus is moved to other approaches that don’t solve that basic problem, the world feels like it has done something and does not pursue the harder, but more effective, work of transforming Africa’s political and economic systems. At least, that’s what I’m extrapolating from the few minutes I heard of the show, so forgive me if I’ve misquoted him.

I think Medved definitely has a valid point. People in many of the African countries are living under thuggish dictators who want to keep their citizens poor and ignorant so that they can remain in power. And corruption is so widespread that the economy simply does not function — people cannot run businesses, travel or get health care without paying graft to officials at each layer of the bureaucracy (including the police). This absolutely must change before people in most African countries can improve their standard of living.

But does that mean that we can’t simultaneously attack the problem from several angles at the same time? Even though these companies are making a bundle from selling the (RED) products, they are also buying and distributing anti-retroviral medicine to people who would not be getting it otherwise. And if consumers would be purchasing products from the participating companies anyways, why not buy the version that will help to save a life?

Bono seems to understand this. Here’s what he says on the website:

Enter Product (RED). (RED) is a new idea we’re launching to work alongside the growing ONE Campaign to Make Poverty History. Over the past year, almost 2 million Americans have joined ONE, in churches and chatrooms… on soccer pitches and movie sets… at Nascar races and rock concerts. By 2008, we’re aiming to have 5 million members – that’s more than the National Rifle Association. Just think for a moment of what that kind of political firepower could achieve for the poorest of the poor…

Where ONE takes on the bigger, longer-term beast of changing policy and influencing government, (RED) is, I guess, about a more instant kind of gratification. If you buy a (RED) product from GAP, Motorola, Armani, Converse or Apple, they will give up to 50% of their profit to buy AIDS drugs for mothers and children in Africa. (RED) is the consumer battalion gathering in the shopping malls. You buy the jeans, phones, iPods, shoes, sunglasses, and someone – somebody’s mother, father, daughter or son – will live instead of dying in the poorest part of the world. It’s a different kind of fashion statement…

…There are though still 4.3 million Africans without drugs, which is why 100% of (RED) money is going directly to the Global Fund to support the work they are doing. (RED) uses the power in your pocket to keep people alive. ONE uses the power of your voice to create a more just world where people can earn their own way out of poverty. This means tackling more than AIDS. It means fighting corruption. Insisting on good governance. Getting kids in school. Changing trade rules. Getting businesses to invest in Africa. Ali and I started a company called Edun – a fashion line that makes clothes in Africa – because so many Africans we met said what they wanted more than anything was a job.

Seems to me that these campaigns work together. Hope they work.

Technorati Tags: red, (red), bono, AIDS, Africa, Medved

Cause-Related Marketing: Brilliant or Horribly Misguided?

by Nedra Weinreich | Jul 18, 2006 | Blog, Cause Marketing

Inger Stole at the Center for Media and Democracy offers a thought-provoking piece entitled “Questioning CRM: Social Causes and Marketing Don’t Mix.”  She discusses the pros and cons of cause-related marketing, which is when a business and a nonprofit link up to bring attention and/or fundraising to a good cause while generating goodwill (and often profits) to the corporate partner.  I consider this area of marketing separate from social marketing, which is behavior change-focused and generally does not have the ultimate goal of profiting a corporate entity (though a corporation may provide the funding for a social marketing campaign).

Inger describes seven main types of CRM arrangements (she actually says there are six, so perhaps two of these are supposed to be listed together?):

1. Advertising, where a business aligns itself with a particular cause and uses ads to communicate the cause’s message; 
2. Public relations, where a business calls press and public attention to a strategic partnership between itself and a non-profit group; 
3. Sponsorship, where a business helps fund a particular program or event;  
4. Licensing, where a business pays to use a charity logo on its products or services;
5. Direct marketing, where both a business and a non-profit raise funds and promote brand awareness;
6. Facilitated giving, where a business facilitates customer donations to the charity … or to themselves! [e.g., under the guise of helping other low income utility customers pay their bills]; and
7. Purchase-triggered
   donations, where a company pledges to contribute a percentage
   or set amount of a product’s price to a charitable cause or
   organizations.

While CRM would seem to be a win-win situation, Inger provides plenty of reasons for caution by nonprofits entering into a cause marketing relationship.  They include:

• CRM partnerships are often far from equal, with the business that is providing the funding holding most of the power in the relationship.
• Benefactors of CRM campaigns generally shy away from any issue that might be controversial or not sufficiently publicity-worthy.
• Some companies tie their identities so closely with their CRM efforts that they appear to be a nonprofit themselves (e.g., Working Assets – the “socially responsible long distance telephone and credit card company”)
• The implied endorsement of a particular product or company by a nonprofit may end up being harmful to the nonprofit (e.g., the American Medical Association and the Sunbeam Corp.)
• A company may use CRM to mask problems that they are directly or indirectly responsible for.
• The nonprofit sector may become nothing more than a marketing tool for business, and so dependent upon these types of relationships that they alter their approaches and services to become more attractive CRM partners.

While Inger raises some important ethical and social issues that nonprofits need to consider before entering into a cause marketing partnership, I think her title “Social Causes and Marketing Don’t Mix” is a little too alarmist (especially speaking as a social marketer for whom social causes and marketing absolutely mix).  When nonprofits and public agencies build a partnership with a corporate entity based on strategic considerations, albeit without entering into it blindly, this can be an excellent way to reach new audiences and shape their own brands.  It is up to them to take these issues into consideration and decide whether the relationship would actually be brilliant or whether it would turn out to be horribly misguided.

NetSquared Conference

by Nedra Weinreich | May 23, 2006 | Blog, Cause Marketing

From Britt Bravo, some information about the upcoming NetSquared Conference:

On May 30-31st in San Jose, CA the NetSquared Conference will convene early adopters, technologists, corporations, philanthropists, and nonprofit and non-governmental leaders to discuss and take concrete steps towards using social web tools like blogging, vlogging, tagging and podcasting for social change.

You can participate in the conference remotely in 3 ways:

1. Participate in the NetSquared chatroom where speakers like Mike Linksvayer of Creative Commons, Scott Heiferman of Meetup.com and Robyn Deupree of Bloglines will be sharing info. and answering questions.
http://www.netsquared.org/remote#chat

2. Chat it up in the Conference Hallway chat room. We’re using Gabbly.com for both chats which is super easy and user-friendly.
http://www.netsquared.org/hallway

3. Post a question to be asked at a conference session, or write a blog post to start the conversation online. Just peruse the conference sessions (link below) and click on a theme and session topic that interests you. At the bottom of the session description you can add your question or blog post.
http://www.netsquared.org/conference/conference-sessions

Also, we will have folks recording the conference for you on our

blog: http://www.netsquared.org/blog
podcast: http://www.odeo.com/channel/41065/view
and vlog: http://www.netsquared.org/tags/vlog/

so you don’t have to miss a moment!

For more information contact net2@techsoup.org

The remote conference (live chat with speakers from the conference) has a couple of potentially interesting sessions for health-oriented social marketers including:

5/30 9 am (PDT) Judith Feder on “Health care and web 2.0 patient communities”

5/31 12 noon Enoch Choi of Palo Alto Medical Foundation on “Tech Tools in Medicine: Personal Health Records, Mobile Devices, Blogging,Podcasting, Health Search & Tagging @ Google Co-op”

Other sessions focus on additional ways to use technology for change, whatever the issue you are working on. I’m looking forward to seeing the reports from the sessions.

Love this Picture

by Nedra Weinreich | May 17, 2006 | Blog, Cause Marketing

Here’s an ad from an optician in India with a graphic that says it all without spelling it out for you. Immediately you can see who the target audience is and what the very salient benefit is to them of using the product. What’s not as well done is the tagline “Over 53 years of eye care” in a tiny font that might not be seen by those who need the product. Beautiful picture though.

via TWENTY FOUR

Olympic Heart of Gold

by Nedra Weinreich | Feb 21, 2006 | Blog, Cause Marketing

How do you convince someone to contribute to your cause – whether in time or money? This is the eternal question for most nonprofit organizations. Another big question is how to get your cause in front of millions of potential donors.

Canadian organization Right to Play seems to have done something right. They are “an athlete-driven international humanitarian organization that uses sport and play as a tool for the development of children and youth in the most disadvantaged areas of the world.”

After winning the Olympic gold medal in speedskating, American Joey Cheek announced that he would be donating the entire $25,000 that he would receive from the US Olympic Committee to Right to Play to support their programs for refugee children from Darfur who are now in camps in Chad. After placing second in Saturday’s race, he pledged the $15,000 he would receive for his silver medal. Even more impressive is the fact that, as a speedskater, he is not rolling in corporate endorsement deals — $40,000 is a substantial proportion of his income for the year.

In the traditional post-competition news conference, gold medalists generally describe the thrill of victory and the agony of previous defeats. But Cheek would not address that lighter side until he had made his announcement, well aware that the world might never again pay attention to him.

“I can take the time to gush about how wonderful I feel,” he said, “or I can use it for something productive.”

Cheek challenged his corporate sponsors and other Olympic advertisers to match his donations. Since his gold medal win, over $250,000 of pledges have come in from ten corporate sponsors and other donors via Right to Play’s website. Their website received about 100,000 hits in just two days after his announcement.

How has Right to Play succeeded in bringing all of this attention to itself? First, the president and CEO of the organization, Johann Koss, is an Olympic speedskater himself, who donated the proceedings from his own gold medal to RtP’s precursor organization. He has assembled an international roster of hundreds of athletes who serve as ambassadors and supporters for the organization’s message. As a role model, he is able to motivate his peers to join him through his credibility and understanding of what other athletes need in order to participate.

Second, the organization is promoting itself in a venue that is logically tied to the program’s mission and target audience. Having a presence at the Olympics is an obvious piece of the strategy. They have a “hub” in the Athlete’s Village in Torino where the athletes can learn more about Right To Play and pledge their intentions to be a Right To Play Athlete Supporter. They are sponsoring a photo exhibition in downtown Torino that highlights the work RtP is doing around the world. Athlete-signed merchandise is being auctioned off on eBay, and they also have their own branded sweatshirts and other items on sale in Torino.

Finally, they provide compelling programs that channel athletes and sports fans into a way of helping less fortunate children and communities that utilizes their existing skills and interests. The focus of their SportWorks program is child and community development, while their SportHealth programs “leverage the convening and influencing power of sport to provide health education and encourage healthy lifestyle behaviours. Specifically, SportHealth teaches the importance of vaccinations, HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria prevention.” What athlete wouldn’t want to do what they do best while also helping save lives? Right to Play capitalizes on the appeal of their program methodology, not just their outcomes.

For a look at other programs communicating about health through sport, take a look at the Communication Initiative’s latest issue of the Drum Beat.

UPDATE:
Nancy Schwartz at the Getting Attention blog has posted an analysis from the other side of the coin — what did Joey Cheek do right to bring attention to both the cause and himself?