By Kate Olsen | @Kate4Good
A rival campaign didn’t fare so well. Its slogan was less tangible, not to mention wordy: “1 pack will help eradicate newborn tetanus globally.”
Be like P&G! Here are 3 reasons for tangible cause marketing messages.
By Allison McGuire | @Calimcg & Kate Olsen | @Kate4Good
We're closely monitoring the severe storms and tornadoes in Oklahoma and surrounding states. Companies have asked us how they can support relief efforts. Here are our recommendations:
- The American Red Cross Central and Western Oklahoma Region Chapters within the region dispatched team members, opened three shelters, provided Mass Care, conducted bulk distribution and staffed local and state Emergency Operation Centers.
- Feeding America will deliver truckloads of food, water and supplies to impacted areas through its network of more than 200 food banks and 61,000 agencies. The organization's food banks will also set up additional dropoff sites.
- The Salvation Army of Arkansas and Oklahoma is becoming active in disaster response to several areas as a result of weather related events. The Salvation Army is providing mobile feeding units for first responders and survivors.
By Katya Andresen | @KatyaN4G
The following is a guest post from Network for Good's CSO & COO. A similar version originally appeared on her blog, Katya's Non-Profit Marketing Blog.
Social media for social good is growing. Georgetown University’s Center for Social Impact Communication and Waggener Edstrom Worldwide just released a new study that delves into the perceptions, behavior and motivations for cause support (locally and globally) among digitally engaged American adults.
Here are some of the most interesting findings:
Conversations about causes are occurring primarily online, whether people choose to support the cause online or off. Social media is a go-to source of cause information, especially for global and faith-based causes. More than 8 in 10 respondents agreed that social media is effective in getting people talking about causes and issues. Animals and children topped the list of popular causes on social media (of course - puppies and babies win every time!).
By Allison McGuire | @Calimcg
It’s not surprising that Millennials like beer. Everyone likes beer. Okay, maybe not everyone, but many, many people enjoy a cold brew. Through their core business values, profit model, and internal organization, one company is drawing Millennials left and right: New Belgium Brewery.
Through a series of “happy accidents” Katie Wallace found herself at New Belgium. The employee-owned business embodies happiness itself. I had a chance to chat with Wallace about her work, and why the company operates the way it does. All quotations are from Ms. Wallace.
Being human. Jordan’s background in social work and marketing has brought a human touch to a business that is all about people. For starters, she insisted on New Belgium being employee-owned, with an open-book management policy.
“Honoring our humanness – we’re not machines – unlocks this amazing power in the business, making us more profitable and successful in the long run.”
By Allison McGuire | @Calimcg
You can read our COO/CSO Katya Andresen’s take on this data here.
Here’s a headline I like reading: Consumers Care about Buying from Socially Responsible Brands Now More Than Ever. It’s some good news from my favorite print magazine, Fast Company.
Good.Must.Grow., a socially responsible marketing company, recently conducted a poll of 1,015 Americans around conscious consumerism, and the results are encouraging. In 2011, 18% reported buying from socially responsible companies. In 2012, that number jumped to 30% saying they plan to purchase more goods from these companies.
What’s perhaps most interesting is that while 31% said they sought out socially responsible companies, 25% said they “avoided buying products from a company specifically because it wasn’t socially responsible”.
By Kate Olsen | @Kate4Good
Research shows that, above all, emotion is what galvanizes people to act.
Today, we release a brand new eGuide - The Brainiac's Guide to Cause Marketing by our own COO and CSO Katya Andresen - that explores how people’s minds really work, and what that means for your next campaign. By understanding how people think, you'll learn how to make them act.
Keep reading for a taste of what you'll get...
By Allison McGuire | @Calimcg
Soon-to-be college graduates Nikhil Arora and Alejandro Velez learned how gourmet mushrooms could be grown out of recycled coffee grounds. The idea – intriguing if nothing else – made them think: Should they forgo stable careers in the banking world for innovative entrepreneurship in the…mushroom world?
As you might have guessed, the answer is yes.
Their mission is simple: To make food personal again through the passionate development of tools that educate and inspire, one family at a time.
As are their values: Hustle. Passion. Family. Universal Happiness.
By Allison McGuire | @Calimcg
This is a continuation of a Follow Friday Feature with Sodexo.
Sodexo is a massive global quality of life services company, reaching 75 million people on a daily basis. In spite of its size, Sodexo is committed to the local communities it touches, keeping its 425,000 employees engaged, communicating those core CSR values, and giving back.
I was able to learn more about how such a big company communicates its CSR values, through an interview with Neil Barrett, Sodexo’s Group VP of Sustainable Development. All italicized text is that of Mr. Barrett’s.
Sodexo’s Better Tomorrow Plan is structured around four pillars and sets out 18 defined commitments.
This structure governs who we are, what we do and how we engage with our clients, consumers, suppliers, and communities, in fact all of our stakeholders in order to be a responsible company.
But that is a lot of initiatives to remember, so in order to share them with the general public, we looked for common themes and came up with those four communications priorities, based on what our research said people cared about most...
The four macro themes of Sodexo’s CSR communications are:
By Allison McGuire | @Calimcg
Sodexo is a global quality of life services company, reaching 75 million people on a daily basis. In spite of its size, Sodexo is committed to the local communities it touches and keeping its nearly half a million employees engaged in its mission and values..
Through an interview with Neil Barrett, Sodexo’s Group VP of Sustainable Development, I was able to learn more about how such a big company can be so personal. All italicized text is that of Mr. Barrett’s.
On being a local, global company:
By Allison McGuire | @Calimcg & Kate Olsen | @Kate4Good
There’s a recent HBR post entitled What the Marketing Agency of the Future Will Do Differently that’s worth a read for anyone interested in marketing professionally and/or considering marketing services.
Mitch Joel outlines five ways agencies can and should adapt to the content-is-king, consumer-is-queen age. We found three of these to be particularly relevant to cause marketers.
The marketing team (brand + agency staff) must be nimble and responsive to the market and new opportunities. While cause marketing might not be that nimble (yet), some brand marketers are moving in that direction already. When the power went out for 34 minutes at the Super Bowl earlier this year, Oreo responded via social media with “Power Out? No problem” accompanied by the image of a solitary Oreo and the caption “You can still dunk in the dark.” That type of response is not possible if marketing messages have to go through multiple levels of approval before they see the light of day (so to speak).
