Where's the 'B?': Brands fight back to save powerful pollinators.

Brands are ditching 'B's to save the bees!

Bee colony collapse is a huge issue in today's society, and with good reason. Bee's are responsible for one in three bites of food we eat. Bees pollinate fruits, nuts, and vegetables and can pollinate up to 300 million flowers a day. In fact, bees are responsible for pollinating 70 out of the top 100 foods consumed by humans worldwide, which turns out to be almost 90 percent of the world's nutrition.

What's killing the bees?

There are a variety of factors contributing to the decline of the bee population. Drought, pesticides, habitat destruction, global warming and air pollution are all largely to blame. Because of this the bee population is dying off quicker than it is being replaced. Typically, worker bees are produced continually through the spring and summer months and lose about 5-10 percent of their population during the winter months. Normally the bee's lost in the winter would be replaced the following summer when reproduction is on the uptick again. Lately, however, the colonies have been losing near 30-50% of their worker bees, sometimes even more. This is an alarming number as the colonies do not have the capacity to replace their diminishing numbers.

This is super scary news for crop health.

How brands are stepping up to help:

Burt's Bees: Bring Back the Bee's Campaign

Burt's Bee's is asking Twitter users to drop the letter 'b' from their tweets when using the #bringbackthebees hashtag to raise awareness for their campaign. For every tweet with the hashtag, Burt's Bee's will plant 1,000 wildflowers in your honor! Not a tweeter? That's okay! Along with the hashtag, the company has also created a limited edition lip balm, which, when purchased, will also contribute to the planting of wildflowers in your honor!

The goal? To plan one billion (yes, billion, with a 'b') flowers to #BringBacktheBees!

Drink Water. Do Good.

S'Well Water Bottles Celebrates World Water Day

In 2010, Sarah Kauss launched S’well in hopes of ridding the world of plastic bottles. What she didn’t know at the time is how deeply she could help those who are disadvantaged through her company.

Clean water is something that is very heavily taken advantage of in our society. We turn on the faucet without even giving it a second thought. The accessibility of water is something we take for granted daily. Some people are not that lucky. There are many people in the world who do not have this access to clean drinking water. S’well is setting out to change that.

Since 2015 S’well has donated more than $200,000 to UNICEF provide clean water to the world’s most vulnerable children. With only $1 UNICEF can provide safe, clean water to a child for a whole month. UNICEF works in more than 100 countries.

In honor of World Water day, S’well will donate 20% of your purchase online to UNICEF to help provide access to clean water to underprivileged children worldwide.

Get your bottle today and donate 20% of the proceeds to UNICEF by visiting S'well's website.

Cones for a Cause: How to Score Free Ice Cream at Dairy Queen

I scream, you scream, we all scream for FREE ice cream.

Tuesday, March 15, Dairy Queen locations all over the nation will be providing free cones to anyone who visits  a participating store. The infamous ice cream company is offering one free small vanilla soft serve cone per customer all day long. All they ask in return is a small donation (hint: cones regularly cost $1.99) to the Children's Miracle Network, much like IHOP's Free Pancake Day.

Since 1984, DQ has raised more than $110 million for Children's Miracle Network Hospitals. Last year alone each Dairy Queen handed out an average of around 1,330 cones and collectively raised a total of $140,000.

So, go get yourself a free cone and support a good cause! And, as always, if ice cream isn't your cup of tea you can make a donation to the Children's Miracle Network by following this link.

6 Tips for a Successful Cause Marketing Campaign

1. Select an area or topic you would like to focus your mission on.
Make sure the topic you choose aligns with your the goals and mission of your organization.

2. Evaluate your competitors.
Knowing what your core competitors are focusing their cause related campaigns on can help you determine what social causes already being heavily funded. This will allow you to reach social markets that are not already drowning with other corporations fighting for their attention.

3. Choose your partners.
When choosing partners you need to assure their values and mission align with yours. Try to set out for a multi-year relationship to extend value.

4. Leverage both companies' assets.
When it comes to cause related marketing, assets come in many different forms. Assets may include in-kind donations, volunteers for events, event space, and advertising resources. One of the most important assets I came across in my research for this post is emotion. The ability (or inability) to connect with your consumer on an emotional level can make or break your campaign.

5. Implement the campaign
Select the channels you believe would work best for your campaign and go for it. Use as many media channels as possible, especially if your campaign is very interactive. Try to think beyond the typical traditional media and consider spokespersons, the endorsements of celebrities, or even special events. The more creative and innovative the campaign, the better.

6. Engage
Interaction with consumers during the campaign is very important. Through this communication you are able to see what is and isn't working in terms of your marketing channels and tactics and can also stir up interest in your brand through conversations online.

Pancakes with Purpose: IHOP Celebrates National Pancake Day

FREE PANCAKES!

As many of you may have heard, today, March 8, is National Pancake Day. What better way to celebrate than to go to the International House of Pancakes and get yourself a free short stack of their legendary pancakes! All they ask in return is a free will donation.

IHOP started it's National Pancake Day back in 2006. Since then, it has raised more than $20 million dollars for local Children's Miracle Network Hospitals and various other charities in the communities in which they operate.

This year marks the 11th annual National Pancake Day and IHOP was determined to make it a year to remember. The legendary breakfast food chain set a lofty goal of raising $3.5 million dollars for charity! Talk about great cause marketing! 

If pancakes aren't your forte, but you are still interested in donating to the Children's Miracle Network to commemorate the day, or just because, you can click on this link.


Learn more about National Pancake Day here.

The 10 Commandments of Cause Marketing: An Infographic from Selfish Giving

Selfish Giving, a cause-related marketing blog, is written by Massachusetts based consultant Joe Waters. Here's the link to learn more about Joe's blog. 

Joe collaborated with Karen Wu, a lawyer from New York City, to create this wonderful infographic or all of you who have questions about the legal issues that arise in cause marketing. To read more about this infographic visit Joe's website, Selfish Giving.

 For all of you who have questions about the legal issues that arise in cause marketing, the graph will be an excellent start.  - See more at: http://www.selfishgiving.com/blog/cause-marketing-law-infographic?utm_content=buffer21ddf&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer#sthash.a030GZCv.dpuf

 For all of you who have questions about the legal issues that arise in cause marketing, the graph will be an excellent start.  - See more at: http://www.selfishgiving.com/blog/cause-marketing-law-infographic?utm_content=buffer21ddf&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer#sthash.a030GZCv.dpuf

Share Your Ears

If you’ve been anywhere near social media the past few weeks you may have noticed many of your friends uploading pictures of themselves wearing a pair of the iconic Mickey Mouse ears from Disney World and captioning them with the “Share Your Ears” hashtag.

From January 29 to March 14th, Disney will donate five dollars to Make-A-Wish (up to $1,000,000), for every photo of the ears shared online with the caption ‘#shareyourears.’

Disney has had a long time partnership with the Make-A-Wish Foundation. In fact, the very first wish was granted in one of the Disney parks nearly 35 years ago. Together the pair have granted more than 100,000 wishes to children with life threatening illnesses.

Why share your ears? I can think of many reasons, but, honestly, Disney said it best, “A wish-come-true brings to life excitement and wild imagination, which is exactly the life-changing experience a seriously ill child and their family need to help them feel better – and sometimes, even get better. It’s only possible because of people just like you.”

Also, if you share your ears, you can enter to win these blinged out ears: 

 So, friends, if you have any of the old iconic ears laying around as reminiscent reminders of the magical time you had at one of the parks, pick ‘em up and snap a picture so more children can forget about the battles they are facing and experience a day in the wonderful world of Disney.

Check out other ear photos and learn more about Disney’s Share Your Ears promotion at: http://shareyourears.org/

Cause Marketing, What's That?

When first approached with the idea of doing a blog on cause marketing, I had little to no knowledge of what the heck cause marketing actually is. Out of curiosity, I asked several of my fellow classmates and was almost always confronted with the same, “What are you talking about?” look of dumbfoundedness.

So, friends, I am here to enlighten you on the wonderful  world of cause marketing.

What is Cause Marketing?:

Cause marketing is the partnership of non-profit businesses with corporations in order to benefit both companies. Both partners combine their assets in order to connect with a larger body of consumers, increase value both socially and economically, and to communicate the values of both organizations.

Why do it?:

Cause marketing is different than typical corporate philanthropy in a couple of ways. One major distinction is the proceeds generated from cause related marketing are not outright gifts to the organization as they are in philanthropic efforts and therefore are not treated like typical tax deductible gifts. Nonprofits benefit both from the added exposure from their corporate partner and their fundraising efforts. The corporations in turn benefit from increased brand loyalty and enlarged brand reputation. Typically brands who participate in cause marketing have an increased positive brand image, which leads to consumers choosing that brand over competitors when faced with a purchasing decision.

Cause marketing, if done correctly, can be seen as a win-win for both partners. Everyone gets expanding exposure and enlarged brand image, which in turn can lead to increased revenue for both parties!

If you’re wanting to learn more about cause related marketing, I found http://grantspace.org/tools/knowledge-base/Funding-Resources/Corporations/cause-related-marketing to be a particularly helpful site when writing this post!

Everyone Has to Start Somewhere: About ME

Hi everyone! I’m so happy you decided to stop by and check out my blog! This blog’s purpose is to educate readers about Cause Marketing and how much it impacts our society. You may need to bear with me as I am very new to the blogosphere! I am elated to learn along with you all as I aspire to be part of this exciting sliver of the marketing world in the near future! There are many exciting and interesting things happening right now in the world of Cause Marketing and I can’t wait to share it all with you.

Before we get to all of the in depth articles, I want to tell you a little about myself. I am currently a marketing student at a small university in northeast Iowa. My mom was always an integral part of the business world while I was growing up, and after spending many hours at her office, I definitely caught the marketing bug. I am obsessed with learning anything and everything about the marketing world. I also am very active in several organizations on my school’s campus that promote various non-profit organizations. When I was assigned to make a blog for class, I struggled to think of a way to combine these two loves of mine. So, how did I end up learning about Cause Marketing? My professor actually suggested it to me! All it took was one look over a few of my fellow blogger’s articles and I was hooked!

SO, please, join me as I begin this quest to educate you (and myself) on the wonderful world of Cause Marketing!