Cause Marketing
Lady GaGa shines light on lupus.
We always say, there is no better advertising then word-of-mouth, especially when it comes from a celebrity. And the Lupus Foundation just hit the jackpot. A phenom right now, Lady Gaga, has recently opened up about a health scare, saying she tested “borderline positive for lupus.” It now has many of her millions of fans asking “what is lupus?”
Thank goodness. For a disease that affects over 1.5 million people, the medical research is seriously under-funded, and awareness of the overall disease is extremely low.
Up until 5 years ago, I also had no clue what lupus was either. Which is odd, being in healthcare marketing, I am engrossed in the medical world everyday. I only became educated after my dearest friend, my sister, was diagnosed with the disease. And while my sister has become an advocate for educating people on the disease, she is no Lady Gaga (no offense Nikki)!
So, a quick shout-out to miss GaGa.
Here’s hoping that her lupus scare will raise awareness, and ultimately funds for research so that people with lupus can have a greater chance to live a long and healthy life!
I hope that the foundation is in talks to have her become a spokesperson, even if she doesn't have the actual disease. We've seen first hand how much a celebrity spokesperson can bring to a cause. Just look at what Michael J. Fox has done for Parkinson's awareness. Prior to him being diagnosed, it was another "secret" disease that only those affected knew about.
What do you think? Would Lady GaGa make a good spokesperson for the Lupus Foundation? Or is there a better way to gain awareness that you can think of?
Social media blacks out BP.
Amongst all of the discussion about the BP oil spill, there has been plenty of speculation about the way it was handled in social media. With what seems to be a lack of effort and a disregard for their users, BP has remained mum on the topic except for a few PR statements, prompting a backlash in the social media community.
Well that seems to have been the wrong way to handle the situation because now instead of just boycotting the gas stations as a means of protest, you can black out BP across the web. A Firefox plugin has been created to place oil splotches over anything BP related. This includes photos and words such as BP oil, BP gas or BP worldwide.
Do you think social media has gone too far with the Black Oil Firefox plugin or is it our right to determine what we do and do not want to see across the web? Either way, I hope this widely publicized incident will prove as a warning of what not to do when a company makes a mistake.
Embracing life with emotional connections.
As advocates of making an emotional connection, I have to blog about the Embrace Life spot that rates 10+ for EC. It got forwarded to me a couple months ago thru the adworld, and my sister (non-adworld) just forwarded it to me. Which tells me this internet phenomenon is now reaching stay-at-home moms. Now she's a very intelligent gal, and she thought it was pretty, but she wasn't sure she got what they were trying to communicate - hence, her question to her adsister. She got the main message - Wear Your Seatbelt - but she was looking for something deeper...Why is his family there? Are they saving him? Are they the reason he should wear it?
All good questions, and all likely part of the message intent. The key point is it made the emotional connection for her to begin questioning and thus, interacting with the communication...and bravo, she understands the main point - Wear Your Seatbelt! I passionately explained the whole emotional connection thing to my sis to which she responded, "hmmmm...so, are you bringing your broccoli salad Sunday?..."
We do a lot of social marketing (we call it "oughta marketing") and this is one of the best spots I've seen. I believe the beautiful emotional connection (love) has created this beautiful viral phenomenon (6 million plus views). If you haven't seen it yet, you really oughta click below.
Does it make your favorite commercial list?
Non-traditional advertising gets less traditional.
Ever wrote a tweet so funny that you wanted to put it on a billboard for all drivers to see? Ok maybe not, but Conan O'Brien did just that.
As his microsite puts it, "Conan has lost his home and his rightful place on millions of screens across the nation. His audience is also lost. Some are picking up the pieces of their lives, but many can't. Some are too young to know this isn't their fault: that they've done nothing wrong. So, until this talented, brilliant, voluptuously coiffed man has his show back, we shall offer him our screens."
This is just the latest example of how non-traditional advertising and social media can join forces for an impressively successful result. The possibilities are endless! Still skeptical?
Ever wrote a tweet so funny that you wanted to put it on a billboard for all drivers to see? Ok maybe not, but Conan O'Brien did just that.
As his microsite puts it, "Conan has lost his home and his rightful place on millions of screens across the nation. His audience is also lost. Some are picking up the pieces of their lives, but many can't. Some are too young to know this isn't their fault: that they've done nothing wrong. So, until this talented, brilliant, voluptuously coiffed man has his show back, we shall offer him our screens."
This is just the latest example of how non-traditional advertising and social media can join forces for an impressively successful result. The possibilities are endless! Still skeptical?
Innovative cause marketing.
Trying to explain how cool this interactive cause marketing campaign for the homeless is just can't do it justice. You have to watch the clip below. I promise it's worth the minute of your time. You are forced to "not ignore" the virtual homeless person on the streets of NYC. You can control the situation by making him open a door to a home.
Then after you're engaged, you can text a donation. Kudos to Pathways to Housing for this imaginative, innovative, interactive campaign. We do a lot of cause marketing and it gives me goosebumps when we can really make a difference. Hopefully, this campaign will not go unnoticed, like its subject matter, and truly make a difference for the homeless.
So what did you think...was it worth your minute?
The Red Cross boosts sales with a hot new product.
What is the product? Hope. During the holidays, the Portugal Red Cross opened a retail store in one of the busiest malls in Portugal, with the idea to sell tangible donations of hope.
What a brilliant non-profit marketing and fundraising idea. Leo Burnett Lisbon developed the campaign that helped the Red Cross climb into the top ten for sales at the mall. Here is a brief snapshot of what they did.
The Red Cross has now opened additional stores in Spain and Portugal but will sell Stories of Hope this time. Books being sold have titles such as, The Children who learned to Smile, The Engineer Who was a Super Hero and The Girl who Forgot to Cry. The books are completely blank inside other than a marker and a note that reads “You can help make each book a happy ending by donating to the Red Cross.”
I hope that the Red Cross continues to raise money in this new venture, and that it soon makes it to the States. What do you think? Would you be more willing to donate if you were actually able to “shop” for your donation?
Flash mobs: a joyous occasion.
I notice some of the most interesting things while driving to work in the morning. Whilst pulling out of my subdivision a couple of weeks ago, I noted that the church across the street changed their sign. It read “Joy Flash Mob 2/12/10.” Really? A flash mob used for religious purposes? Unheard of. So what does one do when they want more info? Google it of course!
After doing a little digging I found that a Joy Flash Mob is a dance performed to share the joy of Jesus. I also learned that the practices were being held at the church I mentioned before as well as online for those that couldn’t attend. On top of that, I realized these flash mobs appear several times a year at different festivals around Michigan. How did I not know this? I’m a flash mob fanatic! And why hasn’t it drawn more attention?
It really made me wonder… do flash mobs need to have popular music and a well choreographed crew to be successful or could a flash mob focused on joy and religion really bring the same amount of attention?
Check out the video of a Joy Flash Mob at last year’s Winter Blast.
Healthcare marketing - social media boosts organ donor drive.
Through my work in organ donation healthcare marketing over many years, I have learned that organ donation is a topic that people either don't want to think about - or one that is near and dear to their hearts. I fall into the latter category. You can't hear the life-changing stories from organ recipients and families of organ donors and ever be the same. Which is why I'm so excited about the opportunity to use social media tools to extend the Donor Drive 2010 message for our long-time client, The Gift of Life Michigan.
Part of the problem with getting people to sign up has been getting them to take the time to register online (btw, just signing your driver's license is not enough!). Hence, this quick-read, yet multi-functional microsite is designed to make it VERY simple. The widget allows you to sign up right there. You can share the widget via Facebook and Twitter. Email messages can be sent to family and friends letting them know you've just registered and encouraging them to follow suit. You can see the total count of registered donors, even by county. Compelling recipient and family donor video testimonials and opportunity to share your own organ donation story provide the emotional connection to seal the deal.
It's only been a couple of weeks and already over 5000 widget impressions and over 125 widget installs. Help share the gift of life. Sign up on the widget below and share the widget.
And know that you've made a difference. Just one donor can save or improve the lives of 50 people. And there are thousands in Michigan just waiting for your help.
Let us know your thoughts on this social media strategy and any other successful cause social media strategies you've used.
The speed and ease of mobile SMS benefits Haiti - big time.
If we’ve learned anything about Mobile Marketing in the past couple weeks it’s been that this mobile medium can be very useful when it comes to getting speedy results/responses - like getting people to donate money to Haiti relief. Although millions of dollars have been donated through the medium of web sites like Worldvision.org and The American Red Cross, mobile has broken through as a very impressive vehicle for engaging people on a whole new level. When a mobile user enters the text “HAITI” to 90999 - this would donate $10 by charging the user's phone bill.
There are some “indicators” out there that say that only a certain age person, usually a younger demographic, is willing, knowlegable, and even trustworthy of using a medium like mobile text messaging to make a purchase or in this case to donate money to a cause. More than $30 million have been raised for Haiti relief though SMS (text messaging) calls to action - with the American Red Cross leading the way. I doubt that all this money came through a younger group of people, but from a collective group of people that set aside their doubts and embraced a technology that they probably weren’t comfortable in using. I applaud these people.
I am excited about the possibilities that we can offer our clients to also benefit from this medium in reaching out to their consumers. Whether it be retail, BtoB, healthcare or even minority marketing I believe that we are at the tip of the iceberg regarding what we’re about to see happen in mobile. Have you participated in any mobile marketing on a consumer level? How do you feel about it? Does the Haiti relief responce make you more supportive of the medium? Let me know.
Soon to come - a series of blogs on mobile marketing. Stay tuned.
Creative social marketing example #20: United Nations Campaign.
Sometimes creative not only breaks through the clutter but breaks new ground in what is possible. It’s pretty mind-blowing to imagine a poster campaign that talks. This is truly interactive at it’s best. The UN Voices Project combines cutting edge mobile phone and image recognition technologies. The campaign is used to put out the message of those who would otherwise go unheard. People around Sydney were encouraged to take a mobile phone photo of the persons mouth and sent it as a picture text to the number on the poster. The sender then receives a return phone call with a pre-recorded message from the person they have photographed. The call to action is embedded in the phone message where people are then encouraged to leave their own comments through the UN website. I applaud the creatives that came up with this idea and the technologists that made it happen. It is inspires the rest of us to push ourselves to create new ways of communicating our messages. Have you seen any other groundbreaking examples of creative that re-invent the way we engage? Please share if you do!
This blog post is #20 in the series, 21 creative social marketing examples.
|
marketing |
 |
 |
 |
 |
