Rely on Your Folks and Make the Cause Campaign Fun: Time to "Create A Pepper" at Chili's to Support St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

My most sincere gratitude goes to Twitter for giving me the latest groundswell discussions on the topic I am interested in: like this morning I searched "#cause" and was directed to another awesome cause campaign in honor of Thanksgiving - St. Jude Children's Research Hospital's "Thanks-and-Giving 2009" - in the featured video our beloved luminaries Marlo Thomas, Jennifer Aniston, Robin Williams, Antonio Banderas and Reggie Bush all send the message: give thanks to the healthy kids in your life, and give to those who are NOT.

St. Jude is doing a great job of fundraising by partnering with a full lineup of corporations - my attention was instantly grabbed by Chili's Grill & Bar's "Create-A-Pepper to fight Childhood Cancer" campaign. The annual campaign has just witnessed its sixth success, and with less than $20 millions to go Chili's will fulfill its pledge of a 10-year, $50-million donation to St. Jude's, the largest one from a single partner campaign in St. Jude history.

So what's so special about Chili's "Create-A-Pepper"?

• It's fun. With a computer and Internet guests can create peppers embodying support for a cause and compete for popularity. Who doesn't want his/her artistic vigor flow with a grand purpose?
• It's viral. Supporters of the cause can view all peppers created at the Pepper Gallery and send the one they like to a friend, share it on Facebook or add it to MySpace page.
• It's got a great team. Team Hope really is the highlight of "Create-A-Pepper" Campaign - Chili's has been relying on its own employees, franchisees and vendor partners, and as a result the cause has become part of the corporate culture. Rarely did I see a corporation engage more internal stakeholders than external audience.
• It's sending the message that could strike a chord with guest supporters. Who are the most creative? Children. Who dream the most? Children. Who love fun most? Children. Who hold the brightest future? Children. Who are the primary beneficiaries of "Creative-A-Pepper" campaign and St. Jude? Still children. So when visitors hear the message from the PSA below - you bet how they'll feel.
  

• It's got an irresistible call-to-action. Most cause marketing cases are great at engaging audience but mediocre at gaining actual monetary support. "Create-A-Pepper", by incorporating a video featuring cancer kids' parents and personal stories of children with cancer in a separate page "Donate Now", is faring better with a call-to-action that's hard to resist.
• It's giving guest supporters identifiable credits for their charitable behaviors. What's better than wearing a specially designed T-shirt or using a customized pepper key to show off charitable behaviors? The tip here: let your supporters be the hero and give them badges to spread the philanthropic spirit.

What's your thoughts on Chili's "Create-A-Pepper" cause campaign? Are your cause marketing practices engaging, creative and fun? While deliberating you might wanna create a pepper here, and by the way, this is the pepper I like most from the gallery :) 

What I feel grateful for Thanksgiving...

Since it is Thanksgiving I might as well diverge a little bit and write about what I am thankful for for 2009.


I still remember this time last year I was sitting with a group of beggars and volunteers in a church, praying to God and enjoying turkeys, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie - that was my first real American Thanksgiving dinner, and I was grateful for spending it cooking for the poor and the homeless, listening to their sad stories, soothing their tortured hearts, and extending gratitude for the extravagant food and love. This Thanksgiving I'm sitting alone at my desk - there is even no turkey - but I can feel more joy and gratitude.

I am thankful - for all the difficulties that almost devastated me this fall, for my family, friends and professors who've been supporting me with great patience, for the bumpy journey of learning and navigating social media (my newly found passion), and for the most amazing serendipity of cause marketing and corporate philanthropy.


When I felt I could no longer sustain the pain I was told "this too shall pass" by Steven Gross, founder of Project Joy at Life Is Good; when I was mired in despair and almost lost hope I was told to make a wish to the Santa Claus at Macy's; when I was indulging in my own miseries I was told there were angels expecting merely a doll or sweater for the Christmas; when I was a little crushed by negativity and pessimism the movie "My Sister's Keeper" told me how cancer patients were fighting for their happiness and spreading their optimistic spirit... when I first embarked upon the journey of exploring causes and philanthropy, it was like an outlet for my pain and grief. But more and more I realize how wonderful it is to align brands with causes. If I were a brand I've become stronger, more optimistic, loving and responsible through learning all the little, cute, warm stories... what about for other brands and businesses? I feel cause is no longer just the embodiment of CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) - cause actually helps a business understand the meaning of "love" "humanity" and "responsibility"; cause helps a brand connect to its customers, employees and the community, but more importantly, it helps it connect to its core value, its significance, its mission and unfinished tasks.


Just like the words of wisdom from the Life Is Good Book: 

Takers may eat well, but givers sleep well.

Take your love everywhere you go.

I am proud of spreading the message: With Love, Here for Good. I am thankful for relearning myself through participating in cause. What about you? What are you thankful for?

Häagen-Dazs Loves Honey Bees: the Right Cause Could Be the Best

I love ice-creams. I love honeys. But little did I know millions of bees have been disappearing from their hives in a poorly misunderstood phenomenon known as Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). How can I still enjoy those honey flavors without the hard work of adorable bees? Häagen-Dazs told me the story about bees' dire situation in an interesting viral video:





When I first watched the video on the microsite dedicated to the campaign "Häagen-Dazs Loves Honey Bees" - I think the video was not properly conducted - there were no explanation, no story, no call-to-action. But when I found out the video was viewed by more than 1 million people I was amazed. And some of the comments are as follows:


"A funny video to raise awareness of a serious matter!"
"HaHa!!! The DJ is hilarious!!!!"
"Love the music!!!"
"A funny video to raise awareness of a serious matter!"
"Kool!
"lollololololool..."


Undeniably there were negative comments but pale in comparison to the positive ones. As I ponder over the seemingly untraditional way of doing cause marketing, I realized how important it is to align your brand with a cause that really resonates with your main stakeholders.


So who'd be an ice-cream brand's major consumers? Kids, young people... you'd say. That's for sure.
This is why a fun hip-pop music and dance could gain such popularity with online groundswell. And you think those healthy, carefree, energetic, sweet-tooth, fun-loving, ice-cream fans would feel more affinity to cancer patients, the poor and the homeless than diligent honey bees? I doubt. Obviously the latter has more to do with what they consume - isn't it enormous pain that they could not savor their favorite honey flavors?


That's my point - don't jump on the bandwagon and follow the "latest cause". The fittest could be the best.


In addition, do research regarding the media channels your major stakeholders/consumers find information. If they are 18-34, most likely they will be glued to their computers searching online 7/24. Social media, interactive Web sites, and viral marketing must kick in to engage the audience. Offer some freebies too - look for Bee Store and get a bee wall paper and screen saver for free.


So, are your brand still try to squeeze into the cohort supporting the most "prominent" cause? When are you planning to find your "Cause Right"?

Ready for TweetsGiving on Thanksgiving? Express Gratitude While Doing Good

TweetsGiving 2009 from LittlePurpleCow Productions on Vimeo.


Thanksgiving is around the corner... for individuals and companies dedicated to causes and philanthropy, this is your chance to express gratitude while doing good - join Epic Change, participating online 2009 TweetsGiving and live events to support spreading hope and social changes around the world.


It takes one to think of a brilliant idea but millions to get it accomplished.


2008 TweetsGiving was a huge success. During the 48-hour celebration of gratitude, $10,000 was raised to help build a classroom in Arusha, Tanzania. The event was build in only six days by volunteers and launched two days before 2008 Thanksgiving, but it quickly became the No. 1 topic on Twitter - thousands tweets filled the stream expressing gratitudes and the blogosphere was buzzing with thankfulness and goodwill.


I don't know how touched "Mama Lucy" Kamptoni was - if I were her - an awesome women with a grand idea (building a classroom for kids in Arusha), persistent courage (selling chickens to fulfill the idea) but limited income... I would be blown away by the power of the mass, the groundswell that was enabled by social media, new technology, and millions of philanthropic spirits.


So what you can do in 2009...

• Become a member of 2009 TweetsGiving community and tweet your gratitudes.
• If you have a blog, write about what you feel grateful for, and mention Epic Change and TweetsGiving.
• Go to the local TweetsGiving party and meet wonderful like-minded people.
• Make a donation - the amount is less important than your willingness to help.
• For corporations, consider sponsoring the event locally or globally for greater social media exposure and reputation.

So are you ready? I'm definitely going to the party in Boston on Tuesday, November 22, and will write a blog post about the event and my gratitude for 2009. What are you going to do? Better act quick!


Finally, I'd like to express my thanks to Scott Henderson - without reading your blog post The Rise of Creative Philanthropy I wouldn't know the upcoming 2009 TweetsGiving. Your blog Rally the Cause is inspiring and respectful :-)

Are You Sure Your CSR Programs Are Bringing Measurable Results?

During today's business research class we had a heated discussion about measuring the results of corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs. As potential market researchers my friends and I are curious about quantifiable benefits brought about by cause-related marketing initiatives. As the year 2009 closes an increasing number of reports and surveys are coming out indicating CSR programs are positives viewed by the C-suits and stakeholders. The problem is - does intention and attitude really translates into behavior and revenues?


Probably not.


When your consumer do not care about you as a brand in the first place; when your CSR programs do not resonate with your targeted audience; when you mismatch your causes with business, and when you donate without your consumers' awareness... 


But even if you did everything perfectly... how do you measure your CSR benefits on the business?


Here the advantage of consumer participated cause marketing kicks in. As I proposed - there are two basic forms of cause-related practices - corporations either cut a small portion of their yearly revenues and make a direct donation to the foundations/charities of their choice, or they could ask for their consumers' engagement. For example, JCPenney's Adopt-an-Angel and Macy's 2009 Believe have consumers be the heroes who spread warmth and kindness during the holiday season. Lands' End's Big Warm Up steps further by providing entice (discounts) for consumers' do-good behaviors. 


For the first type - direct donation without consumers' participation - as companies you really need to correlate year-end earnings with customer awareness of the programs, attitudes and intentions in a long run... not to mention numerous distracting factors that might render the correlations invalid. For the second type things become much easier - how many consumers are actually participating? Are they loyal customers or just getting attracted by the corporations' riveting responsible behaviors? When every penny/good donated is connected directly with consumer participation... now you do the maths.


The greatest challenge encountered by every market researcher is to translate intentions into real behaviors - survey participants are influenced by things they are unaware of or unpredictable, which could lead to drastically different behaviors from answers they previously give on a survey.


So easiness of measurement constitutes another merit of audience participated cause marketing initiatives. The others are related to participants' "feeling-good" psychological value, direct impact they can track, or monetary reward (discounts or special offers, etc. ) So why not embrace this innovative method and let your customers play the role of heroes?

Case Study of Luna Bar: Tips that Show "You Care"

Consumers are smart, conscious and empathetic. When market shelves are cluttered with products serving similar purposes, they look for brands that show care, that impart confidence, and that have built those added value into their image and corporate culture. Marketers are talking louder and louder about "responsible corporate citizenship", "cause branding", and "philanthropy", but the point is - how to achieve consumers' trust, how to dispel their cynicism that you are just pushing and thrusting your "goodwill" messages into their suspicious minds?

You need to start by believing in the great social impact you are going to create. You need to see through the lens of your consumers (what exactly do they care?) And you need to build the momentum using their connected power. You need to listen, engage, and trust them. You need to say - TOGETHER WE will make a difference.

I am compelled to share the above thoughts after reviewing the Pure Prevention campaign sponsored by Luna Bar and the Breast Cancer Fund. My original purpose for this post was writing about the alignment between cause and brand, but after browsing Luna Bar's Web sites it stuck me that the best practices are really not about isolated causes - but about living and breathing in what the brand stands for and believes in.

So what are the good tips and lessons we get from this case? Here's what I think:

• Start from the brand's consumers' perspective. What do consumers care about? What are their problems and concerns? What are the causes that resonate with them? What causes can enhance their participation and engagement? REMEMBER it is not your cause but YOUR & YOUR CONSUMERS'.

What does Luna do: align the nutrition bar specially made for women with breast cancer - the chronicle health issue plaguing women. It is a perfect match because consumers will care.

• Taking the products to the next level. What are the added value of the products or services? Can they inspire, comfort, declutter, or encourage? Consumers are looking for something more with similar price range.

What does Luna do: "Food for Thought" - Luna images its nutrition bar as the kind of food that "feeds our souls, life our spirits, nourishes and sustains us."

• Bring your consumers together and help them support each other. What are the consumers' shared concern? Can they inspire each other? What are the ways that help them support each other and spread your messages (forums, clubs, events, festivals, etc.)?

What does Luna do: Consumers can give credit to the person who inspired them by writing notes on Luna's Web site. They are invited to join in LUNAFEST. Teams and mom clubs are available for those who want to reach out. Consumers name it, and Luna fulfills their needs.

• Content is the King. Overviews, Q&As, newsletters, messages from authorities, testimonials, newsrooms, etc. - offer as much as information in an ordered and multimedia fashion - consumers will appreciate your efforts.

What does Luna do: incorporates all the ingredients mentioned above. Uses videos, photos, texts and delivers rich information on the brand, products, health issues.

• Tap into the viral nature of social media. The impact of any cause will be multiplied if consumers and employees are willing to be your ambassadors. The Word-of-mouth marketing has seen its power.

What does Luna do: for the Pure Prevention Campaign, participants are able to send E-cards, badges and banners to friends (The cards are simple but beautiful in my eyes). They can also link to social networking websites such as MySpace, Facebook and YouTube.

• Make the cause actionable. What exactly do you want your consumers do? Do you want them to donate, to participate in an event, or to spread the words? Is it difficult for them to do so? Make it clear and easy to conduct.

What does Luna do: Pure Prevention Campaign proposes three steps: Ask, act, and live. For every one of them there are specific things participants can do to either protect themselves from breast cancer or send the messages or help others.

What are the other things you could think of regarding this case? I'd love to hear your thoughts and vision about building better causes and optimizing brands value. Thanks!

Let the Consumer Be the Hero - Chase Community Giving on Facebook

I was checking my Facebook homepage this morning and stumbled upon Chase Community Giving page. After exploring for a little bit I understood Chase is partnering with Facebook to let the huge community of Facebook users vote for local charities they want to help - Chase is listening to their customers and giving them "a say". I was excited at this highly original grassroots campaign. Obviously Chase understands the power of groundswell - the intersection of social media and cause marketing has promoted a new way of corporate philanthropy - the way that'll work in the Web 2.0 era. In this new age people are tired of being told what to do - they want to tell the giant corporations who they care; they want to "decide what matters" to them and the world.

The slides I shared yesterday talked about 5 quick mantras of crafting cause-marketing messages. And in my view Chase fulfilled almost every one of them to perfection:

• Place the consumer at the center of the story. When Chase stops telling me it is choosing the grandest cause and giving me the opportunity to be a hero, I am beginning to give it more credit because I regard Chase as humble, collaborative, and sincere. In this era when social media connects people together and grants free and transparent information - everyone begins to feel important. The long-held authoritative corporate voice is becoming increasingly irrelevant - corporations needs to loosen up a little bit and gives other voices due respect.
• Fulfill consumers' need to make a difference - even me (somebody who is not endowed with a cynical gene) sometimes would think - yes I get it - you corporations want to make people feel you are honorable so we will buy your products and services. It's almost impossible to erase the thoughts because we're living in this materialistic society - but corporations could tamper the "black side" of cause marketing by sending this message: it's not only OUR cause, but YOURS. You can make a decision, and your active participation can make a BIG difference. Chase is smart by letting people feel good - by asking them to decide and by focusing on local charities. People naturally resonate more with things happening around them rather than good deeds thousands of miles away.
• Be specific. Chase is doing a great job by providing the specific timeline of the campaign. Participants can count on the "milestones" knowing their votes would have some impact and I believe great buzz will be generated around each significant date.
• Make it personal. I like the tagline "you decide what matters". And when I looked into the campaign it felt like Chasing was talking directly to me: "it can be incredibly powerful when your vote has a local impact...". The language is conversational. It is one-to-one. It makes me feel compelling to give out my choice.
• What happens next? Don't distract. One at a time - this is where the "milestone" feature comes into play again. I know exactly when the result will come out. I know what I could expect of. Even if the cause I voted for do not come to the list, I would know it is fair - and there are other causes that have received stronger support.

So what do you think Chase Community Giving campaign? If you are a Facebook user committed to helping those in need, are you compelled to make your vote? If you are a corporate philanthropist, do you admire the act and aspire to follow suit? Please air your opinion here because your say matters.