Cause-Related Marketing

By simon | 22 December

It might actually seem obvious once someone explains it to you, but cause-related marketing is one of the big growth areas for 2010. Maybe its the aftermath of the Obama-related helping your neighbour goodwill philosophy that swept across America last year, but using your marketing dollars to 'do good' in local communities is a big push next year.

And one of the biggest advocates of this new direction is Pepsi, who've moved their entire Superbowl advertising budget of $20million and redirected it into its 'Refresh Everything' campaign, awarding local grants to community-based projects as dictated to by the consumer.The website is limited at the moment, with a lot of 'coming soons' but it feels like Pepsi are trying to develop their own social network, driven by the consumers.

Sounds all too familiar but with their budget and the back of millions of cans to communicate with, if anyone is going to succeed it should be Pepsi. And really, despite the fact that new community projects around America might have a big blue, red and white logo slapped on the side of them, is it fair to criticise a brand that's taking away millions of dollars from out of the pockets of another large corporation or a rich pop star, and putting it where its needed most?

Cause-related marketing is a very different beast to simply donating money to charity. The former is much more interactive, and beneficial for all parties involved. You could simply donate $1000 to charity, or you could use that $1000 to encourage others to donate even more to the same cause. See the difference? A simple donation will give you a nice glowing feel for a day or two; the second, whilst probably more work and more effort will deliver better results to those you're trying to help and your own business.

Take a look at your impact on your local community in 2010 and see if there are any cause-related marketing opportunities for your business out there. If you'd like to chat about any ideas or concepts, give us a shout.

(Pepsi info via PSFK)