The two have teamed up for a cause marketing pinup program called the Great American Shake Sale at ten Shake Shack locations on the East coast. This modern roadside burger stand is committed to raising at least $25,000.

I love the pinup SOS and Shake Shack created for this program. (If you are unfamiliar with pinups, read this post.)

• It’s a simple, attractive design
• It sells for just $2
• All the money raised goes to SOS’s No Kid Hungry
• It’s a good example of a nonprofit targeting a mid-size company (where there’s more opportunity for the average nonprofit than with the big companies well known charity’s target)
• The best part: you donate $2 and you get a free shake worth $5

People give a buck or two because they want to and don’t need a shake to motivate them. But it sure does make a great thank you!

Share Our Strength is a national charity, but there’s no reason your local nonprofit can’t identify a company and run a successful pinup program. You could raise $25,000 like SOS will, or even more (Muscular Dystrophy and Lowe’s Home improvement raised $7.6 million earlier this year).

My goal with Six Figure Cause Marketing – The Power of Pinups is to show local nonprofits how to create, sell and execute successful and lucrative pinup programs.

This two-part webinar includes my book, Cause Marketing for Dummies and is just $99 at CharityHowTo.com.

There’s an option for some additional training with me if you need some extra help getting your program going.

You can check out all the details here.

Thanks to my Friend Emily Kokernak in New York City for discovering and sharing this program with me!

“I went in to buy a shake, and of course for $2 I did it – the shake alone is $5 there!”, said Emily. “It’s a GREAT deal! Free shake – without having to buy anything. And – the people working there were really nice and tried to sell it – explaining the cause, etc. They had banners strung across the ceiling and it was really tasteful in keeping with their clean decor.”

Thanks, Emily. That’s what good cause marketing is all about!

In this episode of CauseTalk Radio, Megan and I talk with Phil “The Godfather of Cause Marketing” McCarty about the signature cause marketing program he helped create, St. Jude’s Thanks and Giving. Phil also offers some great advice and insights for nonprofits that want to realize their own Thanks and Giving aspirations.

I generally don’t recommend QR codes for web pages. You might as well use a plain old hyperlink. But if you’re planning to listen to CauseTalk Radio on the go, scan the above code with your mobile device and you’ll always have a direct link to our podcasts on iTunes.

Resources

Phil’s company: Good Scout Group

St. Jude’s Thanks and Giving

The Six Figure Cause Marketing Program – the most comprehensive and successful cause marketing training program on the planet – returns May 29th as a two-part webinar at CharityHowTo.com (SG.com’s exclusive webinar partner).

All the information about the program can be found here.

This program has everything you need to create and execute successful pinup programs with local business partners. Unsure of what pinups are? Check out this post. Here’s my elevator pitch: Pinups are paper icons that are sold at the register for a buck or two. They are hands-down the easiest and most lucrative cause marketing program you can execute with a business partner.

Here’s what you get with the program:

• The supporting slides from the webinar
• A copy of my book Cause Marketing for Dummies
• A 60-minute consultation with me to fine tune your individual program (You can schedule for one call or spread it over the calls out as you need them.

You get this all for $229, half of what it would cost you if you purchased the book, webinars and consulting separately.

[Update: A lot of people asked for a more affordable option. How about the two-part webinar and book for $99! If you're interested in the consulting, which is useful if you feel like you'll need some extra help getting your program up and running, you can arrange it with me separately.] 

This program is hands-on, practical and jam-packed with advice (All delivered with a charming Boston accent that will have you giggling for days!).

Here’s what a few past participants have said about the Six Figure Cause Marketing Program.

“I tapped into every note I had from your 6-Figure Cause Marketing course and tagged pages in your Cause Marketing for Dummies book (2011). Both were invaluable resources in helping me put this entire campaign together. I tried to keep it simple, use something new (i.e. QR Code), keep it centered on the corporate partner’s desire to do good, keep it local, and make a difference. To all established and emerging cause marketers, I wholeheartedly, without reserve recommend you invest in yourself for your clients and causes by enrolling in in Joe Waters’ 6-Figure Cause Marketing Course and purchase his book. Both are the Encyclopedias to Successful Cause Marketing and should be on your shelf. What I know for sure: the investment I made in Joe’s course and book will allow us the opportunity to raise thousands of dollars raised for the homeless in Savannah, Georgia.”

- Maggie Keenan (Read her story 6-Figure Cause Marketing Grad Uses Pinups, QR Codes to Help Homeless)

“I’m so glad I signed up for this program. I’ve already identified businesses in town that I’d like to partner with, and now I know how to approach them, and with what ideas.”

“I have thoroughly enjoyed the sessions and have learned much.  Now to put what I have learned into action which will translate into dollars!”

“You’re awesome! Nice, nice job of offering a comprehensive overview of your cause marketing programs. Your generosity is amazing, thanks so much!”

“YOU ROCK. Thanks so much!”

Still not convinced? Here are six organizations that are on the road to Six Figure Cause Marketing success.

6-Figure Cause Marketing Grad Uses Pinups, QR Codes to Help Homeless

40 Local Companies Partner with the Ellie Fund for Cancer Care

Discount Retailer Breaks $1 Million with Cause Marketing

Cause Marketing Success Story: Jake’s Ride

Check-Out Line Charity a Perfect Fit for New Balance, Komen

“Create-A-Sweater” Cause Marketing Program Weaves Bond Between Kids, Seniors

This is the only cause marketing program out there that’s focused on raising money through win-win partnerships with businesses in your area.

If you’re interested in the marketing of causes, look elsewhere. If you’re interested in real cause marketing, the kind that can raise your organization an extra $100,000, $300,000, even $500,000 (regardless of your size or reputation) this is the program for you.

Sign-Up Now

In this episode of CauseTalk Radio, Megan and I talk with Carol “The Mother of Cause Marketing” Cone about a new study Edelman has just released on the state of cause and social purpose in the world.

We also ask Carol the question we all want the answer to: How did she get the title Mother of Cause Marketing?

I generally don’t recommend QR codes for web pages. You might as well use a plain old hyperlink. But if you’re planning to listen to CauseTalk Radio on the go, scan the above code with your mobile device and you’ll always have a direct link to our podcasts on iTunes.

Resources

2012 Edelman GoodPurpose Study

Sustainability, Purpose, Citizenship, CSR, Shared Value: Don’t Get Stuck on the Name… Continue the Journey! [Huffington Post]

Joe’s two thumbs up review of Carol’s Book: Breakthrough Nonprofit Brands

Edelman Business + Social Purpose is hiring at all levels and worldwide. Carol encouraged interested candidates to email her directly at carol.cone@edelman.com. Or check out the career section at Edelman.

For Watch City Brewing Company’s owner Jocelyn Hughes and brewers Aaron Mateychuk and Kelly McKnight, it all started with a desire to help a family that had lost its husband, father and provider in a terrible fire.

It was December 8, 2011, when firefighter Jon Davies ran into a burning building in Worcester, Massachusetts to search for a missing tenant. He never came out. Jon left behind a fiance and three sons. Brewer Aaron Mateychuk’s brother, Jamie, a member of the Worcester Fire Department, was looking for ways to help Davies’ family and Aaron offered to help. Together with Jocelyn and Kelly, the Waltham, Mass. based pub brewed Rescue One Kölsch to honor Davies and raise money for his family.

To date, the German-style golden ale named after Worcester’s Rescue One Fire Company has raised $3,000 for Davies’ family. It’s raised thousands more as supportive firefighters from across New England have purchased the beer in bottles and kegs and auctioned them off at local firefighter events.

The response has been tremendous. “We’ve brewed and brewed and brewed,” said brewer Kelly McKnight to Boston’s local Fox News affiliate. “We can’t even keep up with the demand almost.”

Rescue One Kölsch isn’t the pub’s first beer for a cause. In 2004, they worked with Red Sox ace Curt Schilling on a Scottish ale to fight ALS. Watch City has even brewed ale to help the Bermuda Family Centre. “There’s more poverty on the island than people realize,” said Hughes. “We responded to where the need was.”

However, most of Watch City’s giving is local, and Hughes said they’re looking at animal charities to help next. Will it rival Rescue One Kölsch, which owes its success to the firefighters that flocked to its tap? Hughes isn’t so sure, and neither am I. Watch City tapped a deep vein of loyalists with Firefighters. As someone who started his career working with firefighters, I know firsthand how dedicated they are to each other.

While dog and cat fans may not match firefighters, the larger lesson for businesses is to commit themselves to causes they care for first, and then to target causes with loyalists that bring energy and money to the effort. A big reason why we see so many pink products and ribbons in October is because companies know they sell more with pink than not.

For Watch City Brewing Company, the priority is making a difference first, but the benefits of cause marketing are clear. They’ve sold a lot of beer and a distributor has already approached them about expanding their business. At the very least Watch City has earned a few karma points.

According to John Craven, founder and CEO of BevNET, a recognized authority on the beverage industry, Watch City won’t be the last local brewery to mix malt and hops for a cause. ”With almost 2,000 breweries in the U.S. craft beer market, connecting with the local community is very smart business on the part of local and regional craft brewers,” said Craven. “And what better way to do that than to support a good cause. It’s a win-win for everyone.”

Watch City is a great example of how cause marketing is trickling down to local businesses. The trend is being fed by a larger desire for all things local. Hughes was quick to point out that the community is a priority for Watch City. They source as much as they can from local suppliers. “The less the food and ingredients travel the better.”

Small businesses that buy and give locally are something we can all raise a glass to.

In this episode of CauseTalk Radio, Megan and I talk to Tonia Zampieri, Mobile Strategist, Atlantic BT about how mobile technology is changing nonprofit communications and cause marketing partnerships. We discuss having separate mobile strategies for smartphones and tablets, and some interesting new research on the connection between emotion and mobile ads.

Tonia also walks us through a new contest being sponsored by Atlantic BT that will give one lucky nonprofit a mobile makeover worth $25,000!

I generally don’t recommend QR codes for web pages. You might as well use a plain old hyperlink. But if you’re planning to listen to CauseTalk Radio on the go, scan the above code with your mobile device and you’ll always have a direct link to our podcasts on iTunes.

Resources

Atlantic BT Contest Site

Making People Cry Isn’t a Good Nonprofit Mobile Strategy

Don’t Miss an Episode! Subscribe to Cause Talk Radio in iTunes

In this episode of CauseTalk Radio, Megan and I talk to Chad Royal Pascoe, Vice President, National Strategic Alliances, March of Dimes about its new cause marketing platform Imbornto (I’m Born To).

This is an interesting new endeavor as it reflects a growing trend among nonprofits to own a particular month or season and to bundle advertising and other promotions for maximum impact. For March of Dimes it’s the time between Mother’s and Father’s Day.

 Chad explains why everyone should be connected with March of Dimes and how companies can benefit from hitching their cause marketing efforts to this new effort.

I generally don’t recommend QR codes for web pages. You might as well use a plain old hyperlink. But if you’re planning to listen to CauseTalk Radio on the go, scan the above code with your mobile device and you’ll always have a direct link to our podcasts on iTunes.

Resources

Imbornto website

Imbornto press release

I write a lot about the important role emotion plays in cause marketing. If you don’t lead with emotion, you’re toast. I also talk a lot about mobile technology, which will be a key driver of cause marketing in the years ahead. But here’s the rub: emotion and smartphones may not be a good mix.

That’s my conclusion after reading a post by Mediapost’s Steve Smith on research by A .K. Pradeep, founder and CEO of Nielsen NeuroFocus, on the connection between brainwave analysis and ad response. I won’t repeat what Steve has done a fine job of summarizing, but I will share what I like to call his Famous Last Words – that thing we should remember after all else is forgotten.

As screen size decreases so does the viewer’s emotional response to what they are watching.

Think about the implications for nonprofit marketing. You’ve worked hard to create a strong emotional message with your nonprofit videos but on smartphones it will fall on blind eyes.

So, if you can’t make people cry on their smartphones, what should your goals be?

Get their attention. Just because you can’t engage people emotionally on smartphones, that doesn’t mean you can’t get their attention. You might need to grab them with something totally unexpected, or emphasize another component such as audio. The background music to a video, among other things, may play a bigger role in getting and keeping a user’s attention.

Timing is everything. The impact of emotional messages depends on where and when it’s viewed. This makes sense to me. When I had the chance to add a QR Code on a pinup sold at the register I didn’t link it to a video on my nonprofit. Who has time to watch a video when you have to lug the groceries out to the car? Instead, I linked it to a question and answer page on the program so people could quickly find out to what they just gave a buck to – a common question/complaint after shoppers donate at the register. But you might be more successful with a video if the QR Code is on a cause product that people can scan after they get home and have the time and inclination for a good cry.

Focus on tablets. Nielson’s research shows that some of the emotion lost with smartphones is restored on their big brother, tablets. Nonprofits may want two mobile strategies. One for tablets, the other for smartphones. That latter may require a more practical, utilitarian approach. If sales of Apple’s iPad 3 are a good indicator (3 million sold in 3 days compared to the 80 days it took the first iPad to sell 3 million units) the word mobile, at least for nonprofits, should mean tablet.

Of course, Nielsen’s research isn’t the final word on emotion and mobile technology. A lot depends on what emotion is being engaged .

I’d love to talk about this more, but my 9-year old just sent a video to my phone that he says will make me LMAO. Gotta go.

Scott Pansky of Allison + Partners is one of the most knowledge guys I know on cause marketing. Not long ago I said he should write a book. The other day he sent me his bullet points for 5 Tips for Developing Cause Marketing Partnerships.

Well, I guess it’s a start!

Of course, Scott made some excellent points. To them, I’ve added posts I’ve written that elaborate on them. They’re a poor a substitute to what Scott could write on the subject. But until Scott writes his book on cause marketing it will have to do!

#1.  Is Cause Marketing Right for Your Organiztation?

• Do you have dedicated staff people? My post: Don’t Hire a Full-Time Cause Marketer
• Do you have strong assets in addition to talent? My post: 3 Easy Steps to Cause Marketing Success

#2.  Do Research on the Company Before Reaching Out to Them

• Research their marketing, PR, sales goals and objectives. My post: Want Better Cause Partnerships? Research Partners on Social Media
• Do both your goals align? My post: How to Choose a Cause for Cause Marketing

#3.  Be Brief, Be Bright, Be Gone

• Help them see a marketing return on investment, not a fundraising problem. My post: How Businesses Can Measure ROI on Cause Marketing
• Use a brief powerpoint or word document. My post: Selling Local Sponsorships for Nonprofits: Closing the Deal

#4.  Be Creative

• Don’t do cookie-cutter cause marketing. My post: The Best Local Cause Marketing of 2011

#5.  Have Fun! Build It and They Will Come!

• Cause marketing is just another fundraising tactic, don’t use it to replace traditional funding tools. My post: Want to be More Successful? Stop Focusing on Cause Marketing

A common question I get is how can a local nonprofit land a cause marketing deals with a national chain when the latter will only work with large, national nonprofits. It’s simple: don’t target national chains. Instead, target regional, mid-size chains that are more likely to work with a local charity that’s more visible in their service area.

Look at the list of America’s Best Supermarkets to the right. In the 2012 ranking, there are four supermarkets I’ve never heard of – and with good reason. These supermarkets are located outside Massachusetts.

Take the Stater Brothers supermarket chain. Don’t know them, but you probably do if you live in Southern California where they have 167 stores. As far as I can tell they don’t work with a national nonprofit. This press release highlights their work with local food banks.

Another example is Raley’s, which has 137 stores, mainly north of San Francisco. Their latest press release talks about their support for Sacramento parks.

Harris Teeter is another example with 200 locations. Fairway opened its 100th store in 2011.

These midsize chains are excellent candidates for cause marketing programs. They have plenty of locations and foot traffic for a pinup program, which commonly raise a lot of money in supermarkets.

However, don’t stop with supermarkets. Target other mid-size chains as well (e.g. convenience stores, restaurants, even fast lube chains).

I’ve had success with all sorts of mid-size businesses and here’s what they all had in common: you’ve never heard of them, because they are native to my area.

So, if you’re searching for a cause marketing partner, forget the big national chains. They’re busy with their big national cause marketing programs. Go where you’re known, welcomed and loved. Visit your local market. Tell ‘em I sent you!

* * *

Speaking of supermarkets, check out this cool idea from Budgens supermarkets in the U.K. Here’s how The Guardian describes it.

Wooden blocks roughly the size of box of Maltesers branded with the single word “hope” will be interspersed with groceries at branches of Budgens in Crouch End and Belsize Park in London in a pilot scheme. Shoppers will be urged to take them to the till where they will be charged £1 per block which the retailer will forward to the Alzheimer’s Society – the block is returned to the shelf.

I asked the same question after reading this: what’s a box of Maltesers? I found this image.

I like how the blocks are on the shelves just like any other item. This might be a good alternative to a traditional pinup programs, which are getting a little overdone in supermarkets. The challenge of swapping pinups for blocks is that without the ask from the cashier (e.g. “Would you like to donate a dollar to Alzheimer’s Society?”) you should plan on raising a lot less money.