Pizza Chain Uses Co-Marketing to Raise Funds for Causes

For 33 years Papa Gino's and its sister company D'angelo have been raising money a buck at a time for Easter Seals and The Genesis Fund.

What always distinguished this point-of-sale program from any other is that Papa Gino's and D'Angelo didn't use a traditional pinup. They chose a coupon book.

I've been buying the coupon book for years! I remember that it always had money-saving coupons for the two restaurants.

This year I noticed the pizza and sub chain added coupons from other businesses: Showcase Cinemas, Boston Red Sox, AAA, Battleship Cove, Modell's, Boston Duck Tours, iParty and The New England Revolution.

I'm a big fan of co-marketing with cause marketing. We've used the strategy ourselves. It adds value for the customer at the register and entrepreneurial causes can use co-marketing to recruit additional partners and raise money.

For example, with our co-marketing coupon books and pinups partners either had to pay to be included or sell the book/pinup in their stores.

Businesses love co-marketing because it gets them in front of potential new customers. The downside of traditional point-of-sale programs is they usually target the choir: your customers. Co-marketing brings your message to a new  audience.

All the partners listed above are interested in Papa Gino's family demographic. But what would have made this program even better is if retailers like Modell's and iParty had also sold the book.  You would raise more money and enhance the co-marketing impact for everyone.

However, that doesn't diminish the success of this program, which will raise raise hundreds of thousands of dollars this month. With hundreds of locations in New England, this pizza and sub chain packs quite a wallop all by itself.