Citizen Brand

A Super Bowl idea....take II

The writers strike has impacted Citizen Brand.  It's rerun night.  I was thinking back to two years ago and the Super Bowl.  It was on February 7, 2006 that I suggested in this space that perhaps there might be an advertiser out there who would consider spending their money a bit differently on the Super Bowl.  Here is my rerun:

Really smart advertisers in the future might consider this scenario:  Budget enough money to buy four 30 second spots - say $10 million - but only buy one spot and donate the rest to a worthy cause.  Then take your one 30 second spot and promote that cause.  The company could start a campaign a week or ten days before the game promoting it through every avenue available to them and continue it right through the game and beyond.

Then imagine what a Super Bowl five years down the road might look like if it started a trend and think of all the good that could come of that approach.  And imagine what the public would think of the companies who took this approach.  And how it would make all the employees of those companies feel.

Who wants to start?

There is one difference.  The cost of a Super Bowl spot this year is $2.7 million.  Seems like an even better idea given the cost is going up.  I repeat - Who wants to start?  Anyone?

Interwoven Threads

A Barkley alum has made good on his dream of starting his own company.  It's called Interwoven Threads and here is a very nice article about this unique t-shirt company in Present magazine.  Congrats to Andy Woolard for a job well done.

Another holiday gift idea from your personal shopper here at Citizen Brand.

Be memorable in the mark that you make

If your best customer asked you, "What do you stand for?" Do you have an answer?

Trust. Credibility. Authenticity. These are the hallmarks of great public relations campaigns. None of them are easily attainable. And all require a lot more strategic thinking than simply sending out a few news releases. Yet there are still people out there who believe that public relations is still making sure the media is informed of an organization’s activities. Not so anymore.

An organization that wants to gain its fair, or more than its fair,  share of the customer’s mind today has to think about more than simply making sure the media knows what it is doing. It is not about just developing and delivering a message. It is about listening and finding ways to engage with customers.

Companies must be connecting with their customers emotionally and intellectually, as well as through the pocketbook. The key is to find ways to engage them in two-way communications or activities.

Today with the same retailers in strip malls on every other block in every city of every state, brands are more local than government. In order to remain viable, brands must be more attuned and responsive to the public. 

The solution is a marketing strategy to forge an emotional connection between a brand and its customers—cause branding.

A brand with a focused cause branding strategy aligned with a specific cause that is relevant to consumers can take the next step and stake a claim in the minds of consumers. “Brand X was there for us when the storm hit. It financially supports programs to improve adult literacy. Brand X is giving back to the community and investing in our future. I will support Brand X and tell my friends and family to do the same.” This is the potential impact on reputation that a focused cause branding program can have.

Cause Branding is a continuous, 365-day-a-year association with a cause via internal and external programs. In the purest form, a brand brings its core values to life by supporting a cause or nonprofit partner that embodies those same values. It is a true branding endeavor to align a cause and a brand’s support for that cause in the consumers’ minds. It is linkage:  Ben & Jerry’s and the environment; the National Football League and United Way; Lee Jeans and breast cancer. Lee National Denim Day was created 12 years ago and today it is considered by experts to be one of the most successful cause branding programs ever. Learn more about it and why it works.

Just how important is cause branding to your customer? What are other corporations doing to connect? Discover the latest research in the 2007 PRWeek/Barkley Cause Survey.

And then challenge yourself to figure out whether or not you have an answer to the question, "What do you stand for?"

Cause it's the right thing to do.....

Check out Razoo.com and their $10,000 contest to engage us to get more involved.  Razoo is a a new web platform designed to mobilize people for positive social change.  Or if you want to dip your toe in the Razoo water, you can check out their blog and see what they are all about.

This is also a great time to remind you that Lee National Denim Day is Friday, October 5.  This is the 12th year for this great grassroots program that has raised over $67 million dollars toward research and education about breast cancer.  There is a new way for you to get involved in Denim Day this year in addition to your workplace.  You can start your own team and get your friends, family or even strangers involved in helping to fight breast cancer.

Perhaps the coolest thing about Lee National Denim Day now is where your dollars are going.  The Entertainment Industry Foundation has launched its Women's Cancer Research Fund. Focused on early detection of cancer, the initiative is supporting EIF's Breast Cancer Biomarker Discovery Project—an ambitious, groundbreaking scientific project where a group of internationally recognized scientists and clinicians from some of the best scientific institutions in the world are collaborating to develop a blood test that will detect breast cancer in its beginning stages, when survival rates are highest.

I had the opportunity to hear a presentation from the group of doctors from the best universities and hospitals in the USA who are conducting this research.  The work they are doing will yield important results and it is so gratifying to be able to tell each person who donates five dollars and wears their jeans on Denim Day this year that their donation is making a REAL difference in the fight against breast cancer.

If your company has yet to sign up for Denim Day, please take the lead and get them to sign up and if you work from home - create your own team.  Either way, you will know you are doing something good.

The real reason to give back

Finally, we know the real reason why we should give back to society and do good.  It makes us feel better.  Thanks to Joe for the pointer.

This just in from Reuters.....

CHICAGO, Illinois (Reuters) -- Knowing your money is going to a good cause can activate some of the same pleasure centers in your brain as food and sex, U.S. researchers said Thursday.

People who participated in a study got a charge knowing that their money went to a charity -- even when the contribution was mandatory, like a tax. They felt even better when they voluntarily made a donation, researchers found.

Ulrich Mayr, a psychology professor at the University of Oregon, said the research sheds light on the nature of altruism and could help people feel better about being taxed.

"It shows that in an ideal world you could have a tax situation where you could be a satisfied taxpayer," said Mayr, whose study appeared in the journal Science.

The women were shown their money automatically being transferred from their account to a local food bank.

When the money reached the food bank account, it activated portions of the brain -- the caudate nucleus and the nucleus accumbens -- known for pleasure. The effect was even greater when the people got to choose to give the money away.

"What is interesting is that these pleasure areas are for really basic needs, like food, sex, sweets, shelter and social connection," Ulrich said in a telephone interview. "It's the area that tells the brain what is good for us."

As it turns out, "That very same brain area not only tracks what is good for us, but what is good for others," he said.

He and colleagues were hoping to find out whether there was something in the act of giving itself -- and not just the social and egotistical reward of being a philanthropist -- that offers satisfaction.

"The fact that we find pleasurable activity in those mandatory tax-like situations strongly suggests the existence of pure altruism," he said.

Of course, simulating a tax is quite different from paying taxes to a government with policies you may or may not support, he noted.

"What it shows is that, in principle, we are capable of feeling good about doing our share," he said.

"The question is, 'Why is it that so often we feel bad about filling out our taxes?' Our study shows it is worth looking for an answer."

I always wondered what my caudate nucleus and nucleus accumbens were for......

Lights; camera; cause

Thanks to everyone for their thoughts and prayers for my wife .  And thanks to my colleagues at Barkley  and our friends in Kansas City who are helping us during this journey we are on.  I am on a quick trip to New York City for a long scheduled speaking engagement at the Cause Marketing Forum.  Char insisted I keep this appointment.  My topic is causes and celebrities and here is a synopsis of what I will talk about to the Forum.

Cause and celebrities go together. It’s not new that the stars in movies, television or music get involved in issues that matter. Its been going on for a long time. Many point to Audrey Hepburn and her efforts on behalf of UNICEF as the opening act to today’s onslaught of celebrity cause involvement. In the intervening years, other notables that come to mind are Elizabeth Taylor and Elton John on behalf of AIDS. And what about Bob Hope and his tireless support of our troops as he visited America’s armed forces around the world? Today we have the much-hyped Bono fighting global poverty, hunger and AIDS in Africa. And so on.

In a sense you have to think of celebrities and cause today in two different ways. There are celebrities who are involved in what can be called issue causes—those causes that have political or controversial overtones to them. And there are celebrities who are focused on what I will call more mainstream causes—the ongoing causes that are always with us—health issues, hunger, housing, education. AIDS started out as an issue cause but has now become more of a mainstream health issue.

There is also a third type of cause that is caught in between and not receiving proper attention. There are issues that some don’t want to get too close to because of their perceived negative overtones. Violence against women and children is an example. It is a cause that everyone knows needs to be addressed, but some corporations do not want to associate their brands with family violence or other issues that don’t feel warm and fuzzy. Celebrities help in situations like this because their familiar faces and voices can help take difficult issues and create connections with consumers on behalf of the cause and the corporate partner.

That is just one example of how celebrities can be strategically used to enhance cause branding programs. The key word here is “strategically.” Partnering with a celebrity must be more than just a tactical decision to have a famous face show up at an event. Celebrity involvement must be a strategy. A celebrity alone will not make a campaign. Used correctly, though, a celebrity can be a huge boost to a cause campaign on all levels from awareness to education and, of course, fund raising.
Here are some guidelines for choosing and working with celebrities that will create a successful and strategic partnership:

∑ Establish clear objectives for how a celebrity will add value to the program.

∑ Create a list of the activities the celebrity will be asked to undertake and outline it in terms of number of hours or days of involvement requested.

∑ Identify a group of celebrities to contact.

∑ When making a cold pitch, approach the manager first, publicist second and agent third.

∑ Play fair. In many cases, the celebrity’s people do not all get along, so be careful not to get involved in the crossfire. Befriend everyone. Remember, you are building relationships for future celebrity searches as well.

∑ The celebrity should have a personal connection to the cause.

∑ As with any pitch, be succinct and clearly communicate what benefits the celebrities can expect for themselves.

∑ Be persistent in following up. And stay in touch after the current search is over. Agents call us all the time now with ideas for our programs.

∑ Always give preference to celebrities that have other activities going on simultaneously with their involvement in the cause program. It extends the reach of the cause effort if the celebrity has a new movie forthcoming, a hot new television show launching a second or third season, or a new recording. Their cause involvement will benefit their reputation as well.

∑ Once a decision is made, there should be an agreement drawn up whether or not the celebrity will be paid.

∑ The agreement needs to clearly spell out what both sides are providing each other.

∑ Educating the celebrity about the cause program and the key messages for the year is imperative. You need to conduct the training yourself and not rely on the celebrity’s people to relay the right information.

∑ Overall, remember that the people employed by the celebrity all are dedicated to serving their boss just as you are dedicated to serving your client. Recognize it, figure out how to cater to it and leverage it.

∑ Enjoy the journey while working with a celebrity. It can be painful at times, but it is also rewarding. When you find the right celebrity and have clear objectives for what you want to achieve, the cause is the beneficiary.

What we have learned is that celebrities can truly help a cause if the process is thought through in a strategic manner. There are always going to be critics of celebrity involvement in causes. It is certainly true that some famous folks do it to gain publicity or to improve their personal reputations. But the fact remains that if you take the time to think carefully about the objectives of your program and how a celebrity can fit into those objectives, the experience and the results will be positive.

Chicago Green Festival

Brady and Alicia of Two Hands Worldshop (aka - my son and daughter-in-law) spent Earth Day weekend at the Chicago Green Festival.  Visit the THW blog for their first person reports from the Windy City.

If you missed Chicago, there will be two more Green Festivals this year in Washington D.C. in October and San Francisco in November.

Cause Potpourri

Some interesting opportunities to think about from a morning of soaking up news and info from a variety of sources.

Hollywood big shot Michael Douglas appeared on ABC's This Week and talked about Global Nomads.  It is a program that brings together youth from all over the world using video conferencing to have a real time conversation about the issues of the day.

While perusing the New York Times online, this ad popped up talking about Ready, Willing & Able.  Here is what this organization is all about:

"The Doe Fund’s Ready, Willing & Able program offers life-changing opportunities to homeless individuals through paid work, transitional housing and comprehensive support services. The beloved “men in blue” who clean more than 150 miles of New York City streets every day have become integral to the quality of life in our city. They are supported by thousands of community residents who recognize and respect the hard work they do to rebuild their own lives while making New York City a cleaner, safer, more humane place for everyone."

And don't forget to think about attending the Social Marketing University hosted by Nedra Kline Weinreich.  Visit her blog, Spare Change for more information.  And readers of Citizen Brand can have a $75 discount by using the code CB75 when registering.  Thanks Nedra.

William Allen White

Besides death and taxes, there is one other absolute in my life - that I was going to attend the University of Kansas and have a life long love affair with all things Jayhawk.  When I turned 13, another absolute cropped up - that I was going to major in Journalism and become the next Walter Cronkite.  That Cronkite part turned out not to be an absolute.  But that's okay.

All of this background is to say that the marriage of the absolutes revolving around KU and journalism meant I would have the privilege of attending a great school of journalism - the William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications at KU.  I have been blessed in my career but it would not have happened without the jump start I had from KU and our great J-School. 

So last week I had a great honor and thrill to attend my first meeting of the William Allen White Foundation Board of Trustees -- as a trustee.  I was asked to join this group several weeks ago by the Dean of the School, Ann Brill, and the executive committee of the Board.  The group serves as an advisory group to the KU J-School and selects an outstanding journalist each year to be recognized with the Foundation's National Citation.

Needless to say, for me to be asked to serve on this Board is amazing when I think back about that 13-year-old writing a career paper about becoming a broadcast journalist and going to KU.  The Foundation has been in existence since 1944 and serves to continue the legacy of William Allen White and his incredible influence on journalism and the education of journalism.  The big names of Kansas journalism and media have served on this group over the years and it is an honor to be asked to do my part to continue the legacy of Mr. White.

So just who is William Allen White?  Simply stated, he was a pioneer and a giant of American journalism.  He was plain spoken.  He was a fighter for the things he believed in and did not back down from a fight.  And he didn't do his work from one of the great American metropolises where other giants of journalism were plying their trade.  He did it from America's heartland - from the Emporia Gazette.

William Allen White wrote the original "What's the matter with Kansas?"  He had owned the Gazette for a year or so when he penned this piece that catapulted him into the national limelight of that year's presidential election between William McKinley and William Jennings Bryan.  It was a clarion call that focused the eyes of the nation on fundamental economic and political issues of the day that were impacting not only Kansas, but the rest of the nation as well.

White got into a public debate about labor rights and free speech with a Kansas governor in 1922.  He was facing arrest and a possible jail sentence.  When the charges were dropped, he wrote his Pulitzer Prize winning editorial - To an Anxious Friend.  This excerpt is as relevant today as it was in 1922:

"You tell me that law is above freedom of utterance. And I reply that you can have no wise laws nor free entertainment of wise laws unless there is free expression of the wisdom of the people - and, alas, their folly with it. But if there is freedom, folly will die of its own poison, and the wisdom will survive."

William Allen White had his private side as well.  Tragedy struck he and his wife in 1921 when their daughter died in a horse riding accident.  His prose was never finer than in his tribute to Mary White.

"A rift in the clouds in a gray day threw a shaft of sunlight upon her coffin as her nervous, energetic little body sank to its last sleep.  But the soul of her, the glowing, gorgeous, fervent soul of her, surely was flaming in eager joy upon some other dawn."

This legacy of journalism serving the greater public good lives on at the School of Journalism that bears William Allen White's name.  At the Board meeting, we heard about two programs that are great examples.  One is called Covering Communities.  It's a site designed to bring together journalists, educators and citizen journalists to work together to create more meaningful journalism and create stronger and better communities.  These are the guiding principles of the program:

Name Your Aspirations.  You can produce coverage that has the greatest impact when you name your aspirations.

Know Your Community.  The ability to produce journalism that is authentic and carries authority begins with community knowledge.

Engage People.  People find the most meaning in community coverage when they are fully engaged.

Act Publicly.  What does it take for you to maintain credibility with the public?

This is a great project that is a collaboration of the KU J-School, the Harwood Institute and the Knight Foundation.

The second project has KU Journalism students spending time with 6th, 7th and 8th graders in the Rosedale section of Kansas City, Kansas and opening their eyes and minds to journalism as a career.  We had two of the KU students speak to the Board meeting and it was moving to hear the impact they were having on kids who might never have considered journalism as a career.  And to hear about the impact the young students had on the "older" students as well.

Hats off to KU professor Peggy Kuhr for providing leadership on both of these great projects.  Both are a great tribute to the man whose name graces the Kansas School of Journalism.

The day ended with the annual awarding of the William Allen White Foundation National Citation Presentation.  This year's award was given to a distinguished graduate of KU and one of the great photo journalists of all time, Rich Clarkson.  Clarkson was named by American Photo as one of the 50 most influential photographers of all time.

More evidence that the legacy of William Allen White lives on.  Take some time to study White and you will find someone who is as relevant today as he was in his own time.

Red Carpet Causes

As Forrest Gump might have said, causes and celebrities are like peas and carrots.  They just go together.  And I think it's a good thing.  Sure there are times when some might seem to be doing it for the wrong reasons, but for the most part it is one of the best ways for a cause to get attention and money.

   A new website called SixDegrees.org has recently launched.  It shouldn't be difficult to figure out which star is behind it - Kevin Bacon.  It's a cool site that has about 20 celebrities and their causes highlighted.  You can learn more about each cause as well as donate to them.  And as Kevin Bacon tells you in a welcoming video, you can become the "celebrity" for your own cause on the site.  Great concept.

We have worked with celebrities in our cause programs at Barkley for more than a decade now.  And we have new programs we are working on where we believe celebrities can play an important role.  Whether we like to admit it or not, all of us like celebrities, whether they be in movies, music, sports or politics.  We may not like all of them, but the ones we do like can influence how we think and what actions we take.  Especially when it comes to helping us decide which causes we are going to support.  I'm not suggesting it's the only factor, but celebrity influence does matter.

So if you can ignore the dumb and outrageous actions of the few Paris Hiltons in the world, the next time you see a celebrity pushing their favorite cause, give them a gold star.  It's a good thing they are doing.

Thanks to Britt for pointing out SixDegrees.org.