The 2008 Cause Marketing Golden
Halo Award Winners
Each year, the Cause Marketing Forum recognizes one
business and one nonprofit organization for their
leadership and outstanding efforts in the field of cause
marketing. Our 2008 winners are::
McDonald's
McDonald’s commitment to being a good
neighbor has been a fundamental part of its business for
more than 50 years. Its disaster relief, employment
opportunities and environmental efforts are grounded in
founder Ray Kroc’s heritage of giving back to the
communities McDonald’s serves. McDonald’s has supported
Ronald McDonald House Charities’ work to improve the
health and well-being of children since 1974. That
alliance, which encompasses numerous initiatives and
involves everyone from top company executives to
franchisees and hourly workers, may be the world’s
best-known cause-related signature program. World
Children’s Day, its largest annual fundraiser, has
enabled McDonald’s to raise more than $100 million since
2002 for RMHC and other children’s charities.
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
Since
1962, corporate alliances have raised tens of millions
of dollars for this premier center for the treatment of
catastrophic diseases in children. One of the most
successful annual group events in cause marketing
history is St. Jude’s 4-year-old Thanks and Giving
campaign, which in the days following Thanksgiving
raises money through consumer donations at checkout and
the sale of specialty merchandise. In 2007, about 50
partner companies participated in Thanks and Giving. The
St. Jude staff creates customized programs with many of
its corporate partners. In 2007, for example, the fifth
annual Create-a-Pepper to Fight Childhood Cancer
campaign sponsored by Chili’s Grill & Bar, generated
$8.2 million from customer and company donations. Like
so many St. Jude partners, Chili’s has made a long-term
commitment to St. Jude: It has a 10-year goal of raising
$50 million.
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Campaign Awards
An interdisciplinary judging panel selected winners
on the basis of conceptual strength, execution, business
results and cause results of campaigns that ran in whole
or in part in 2007.
Best Transactional Campaign
Gold: Heroes at Home, Sears Holdings Co. and
Rebuilding Together
Sears
developed this program to provide home repair assistance
to military veterans and their families because it
combined the company’s expertise (home services) with a
cause that would appeal to shoppers. Its first two
fund-raising drives in 2007 raised more than $3.7
million company donations and customer donations at
checkout and Sears credit card transactions. This
funding paid for renovations for more than 300 military
veterans and was judged such a success that it is being
expanded and repeated this year.
Silver: Crate & Barrel’s Distribution of
DonorsChoose.org Gift Certificates, Crate and Barrel and
Donor’s Choose.org
The dual objectives of this campaign were to deepen
Crate & Barrel customer loyalty and inspire civic
engagement via DonorsChoose.org. Crate and Barrel
provided funding to DonorsChoose.org and sent gift
certificates to select customers that enabled them to
browse the DonorsChoose.org website and apply the
certificate to funding the classroom project of its
choice. In the three waves of mailings that had been
conducted when the entry was submitted, more than 15,000
customers redeemed the certificates, an extraordinary
12% direct mail response rate. Market research revealed
significant increases in customer loyalty among program
participants – even those who had not taken the time to
redeem a certificate. The program has generated more
than $500,000 to fund 6,000 classroom projects reaching
more than 150,000 students and generated tremendous
publicity for DonorChoose.org which has led to new
individual and corporate support.
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Best Health Campaign
Gold: Skin Cancer Takes Friends: Protect and Love
the Skin You’re In, Procter & Gamble’s Olay and the
American Society for Dermatologic Surgery
This
program aimed to inspire women to protect themselves and
their loved ones from the sun. A core feature: free skin
cancer screenings at participating dermatologists’
offices from May to July 2007. PR support yielded
widespread broadcast, print and online coverage helping
the program attract more than 9,000 individuals for
screenings in 200+ towns in 45 states. An estimated
2,400 suspicious lesions were identified.
Silver: Albertsons Healthy Eaters, SUPERVALU
Albertsons and elementary schools in seven western
states
School districts across America have prioritized
teaching young children about nutrition, but face budget
challenges. The Albertsons Healthy Eaters program
reinforces the nutrition and healthy living curricula
taught in schools and, where it is lacking, fills in the
gaps. In 2007 83,000 students participated in 2,850
field trips to their local Albertsons supermarket where
they visited departments related to the five food groups
as well as hands on activities and sampling. Tour
leaders are trained local store personnel and teachers
are provided with a variety of materials for use in the
classroom. The program has received high marks from
educators and Albertsons is confident that the program
is building customer loyalty among teachers, parents and
future generations of shoppers.
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Best Environmental/Wildlife Campaign
Gold: Chase The Extraordinary, InterContinental
Hotels Group
To raise
employee attention about the environment, IHG organized
a mobile tour to all 203 company-owned hotels US,
Central and South America engaging over 12,000
employees. A specially outfitted hybrid Ford Escape
kicked off the tour at IHG headquarters in Atlanta. At
each stop, management talked about how employees can
make an impact in their communities and explained the
company’s environmental initiatives including a program
requiring properties to replace incandescent light bulbs
with compact fluorescent lamps. That program alone
resulted in the changing of over 200,000 bulbs which
will save millions in energy costs and significantly
reduce carbon carbon dioxide emissions.
Silver: Save Our Selves, Esurance and Live
Earth
Since launching its completely online approach to
selling and servicing auto insurance in 1999, Esurance
has made environmental commitment a core value – its
nearly paperless experience saves trees, landfill space
and CO2 emissions. In 2007 the company developed a
partnership with Live Earth to promote client change
awareness. Esurance integrated Live Earth’s Save Our
Selves campaign for a climate in Crisis in television,
radio, print, online and PR communications which drove
consumers to a website full of tips on reducing one’s
carbon footprint. Ads proved highly popular with target
consumers generating consumer interest far longer than
the average Esurance campaign, elevated the company’s
position as an environmental leader and engaged hundreds
of thousands of people in learning about ways to impact
the environment.
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Best Social Service/Education Campaign
Gold: The Game Show Network’s National Vocabulary
Championship, The Game Show Network, several educational
organizations including the National Association of
Secondary School Principals and 700 high schools
nationwide
To help
disadvantaged kids improve their college entrance exam
scores, this cable television network created a hip game
show that starts in the classroom, provides test prep
materials from program partner The Princeton Review and
culminates in an exciting final round with a top prize
of a $40,000 scholarship. From a business perspective
the program strengthened affiliate relationships and
engaged viewers. The program garnered extensive
editorial and public service support, and in its second
year, the number of participants tripled to 100,000.
Silver: State Farm’s 50 Million Pound Challenge,
State Farm Insurance
State Farm, America’s leading car and home insurer,
created a 14 city tour to educate African Americans
about the risks associated with being overweight as a
way to enhance its relationships with that community.
The 50 Million Pound Challenge leveraged the draw of
celebrities like comedian Steve Harvey and singer Patti
LaBelle to attract consumers to a party with a purpose.
Attendees were motivated to register on the Challenge
website which offers ongoing advice and support
developed by Dr. Ian Smith to help people lose weight.
To date, hundreds of thousands of people have taken the
Challenge and collectively lost more than 2 million
pounds.
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Best Cause Marketing Event
Gold: : Live Earth, Live Earth, numerous media and
marketing partners and the Alliance for Climate
Protection
On July
7, 2007, Live Earth held the largest global
entertainment event in history, staging simultaneous
concerts in New York, London, Sydney, Tokyo, Shanghai,
Rio de Janeiro, Johannesburg and Hamburg, as well as
special broadcast events in Antarctica, Kyoto and
Washington, DC. Partnered with Al Gore and his Alliance
for Climate Protection, Live Earth’s 24 hours of music
across seven continents delivered a worldwide call to
action to solve climate change and provided individuals
with the solutions necessary to answer that call. The
day featured more than 150 musical acts – a mix of
legendary artists like The Police, Genesis and Madonna
with the latest headliners. Through TV, radio and the
Internet, the concert reached an estimated two billion
people.
Silver: A Day Made Better, OfficeMax and
Adopt-A-Classroom
It’s estimated that teachers spend $4 billion out of
their own pockets annually on basic supplies for their
classrooms. Officemax decided to raise awareness of this
unacceptable standard in the education system by teaming
up with Adopt-A-Classroom on an audacious event:
simultaneously surprising teachers in 1,000 classrooms
in 25 markets at 10 am on October 2 2007 with major
classroom donations. The campaign exceeded its media
goals by generating 53 million impressions nearly all of
which mentioned OfficeMax, nearly quintupled individual
donations to Adopt-A-Classroom in the month of October,
and generated a groundswell of appreciation from
teachers, consumers and OfficeMax employees.
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Best Joint Message Promotion
Gold: Destination Joy presented by Lays, Frito-Lay
and Make A Wish Foundation of America
This campaign brought together two types of “joy”: 1)
the joy of eating Lay’s potato chips made with heart
healthy sunflower oil and 2) the joy of granting wishes
to children with life-threatening illnesses. The
multifaceted program included media, celebrity wish
granters, online, direct mail, promotional packaging and
special events. In its first year, it engaged consumers
to volunteer and donate, generated $2.5 million in
sponsorship revenue for the foundation.and helped
increase Lay’s sales.
Silver: Save Our Selves, Esurance and Live Earth
Since launching its completely online approach to
selling and servicing auto insurance in 1999, Esurance
has made environmental commitment a core value – its
nearly paperless experience saves trees, landfill space
and CO2 emissions. In 2007 the company developed a
partnership with Live Earth to promote client change
awareness. Esurance integrated Live Earth’s Save Our
Selves campaign for a climate in Crisis in television,
radio, print, online and PR communications which drove
consumers to a website full of tips on reducing one’s
carbon footprint. Ads proved highly popular with target
consumers generating consumer interest far longer than
the average Esurance campaign, elevated the company’s
position as an environmental leader and engaged hundreds
of thousands of people in learning about ways to impact
the environment.
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Best Cause Marketing Print Creative
Gold: Gifts for Greater Good, Target, The Salvation
Army and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital
For the
holiday season, Target relied heavily on print
advertising to promote gift items that generated
donations to The Salvation Army and St. Jude Children’s
Research Hospital. The print campaign (an award winner
last year as well) appeared in many forms – as full page
ads and 4-page inserts in many newspapers and bus signs
and billboards to name a few.
Silver: Pedigree Adoption Drive, Pedigree and
numerous animal shelters
A two-time winner for best print creative, the
Pedigree Adoption Drive campaign once again melted our
hearts with its depiction of dogs awaiting adoption.
While competitors have done occasional promotions on
this theme, Pedigree has embraced the issue of dog
adoption with fully integrated, large-scale evergreen
programming under the tagline “Help Us Help Dogs” The
campaign has helped Pedigree make significant sales
progress in a highly competitive category and donate
over $1 million toward adoption.
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Best National/Local Integration
Gold: The Warm Coats & Warm Hearts Drive, ABC
News’ “Good Morning America”, Burlington Coat Factory
and One Warm Coat.
It was a
match made in heaven when One Warm Coat, “Good Morning
America” and Burlington decided in November 2007 that
they wanted to help fight the winter cold. Launched with
celebrity involvement, media, retail support and the
cooperation of 185 local nonprofit agencies, this
national coat drive brought in 165,000 coats, generated
more than 401 million impressions and led to 15,000
redemptions of Burlington “thank you” coupons given to
consumers who donated coats
Silver: Lets All Play…It Matters, Hasbro and
Boundless Playgrounds
After working together for some time, Hasbro decided
in 2005 to increase its commitment to Boundless
Playgrounds with the goals of growing the Playskool
brand; raising awareness of the nonprofit’s mission
inspiring communities to build boundless playgrounds for
children with and without disabilities. This resulted in
the 2006 launch of a “Playskool Win a Boundless
Playground Essay Contest” that attracted entries from
nearly 1,000 communities thanks to outreach coordinated
with more than 80 national organizations and media
partners. The program culminated in the November 2007
grand opening of a boundless playground at McCullough
Elementary School in Claridge, Pennsylvania. Hasbro and
Boundless Playgrounds report that the program more than
delivered on its objectives.
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