I’ve read the many posts on the Komen/KFC cause marketing partnership , most of them bashing KFC for cause washing. The logic is that eating fried chicken causes weight gain, a pre-condition of breast cancer. Yet when causes choose a brand partner that hurts their mission, they rarely take ownership of their poor strategic management. wrote a long post on the topic a year ago, Brutal Truths About Cause Marketing when “social media for social good&# was the meme of the day. It tarnishes the Komen brand and causes more harm than good. MORE >>

Zoetica teamed with Network for Good to co-author Cause Marketing through Social Media, a free eGuide ( you can download it here ). Frame the Campaign. There are many types of corporate-sponsored social good campaigns of all types. Companies deploy matching grant contests that ask participants to rally the most donations for their favorite causes. And others offer campaigns that ask people to pledge volunteer time, acts of kindness or donation dollars to achieve a common goal. The twenty page guide covers five basic steps: The Basics. Get People to Act. MORE >>

By now most of us are aware of various crowdsourcing campaigns being used to generate ideas, funds or support for a brand or cause. YouBloom is focused on emerging music cutting studios, agents and traditional marketing out of the equation to enable people to fund the music and bands they want to hear.  We have seen this changing of the guard time and again in the music, publishing, newspaper, and now marketing industries. Pepsi’s Refresh Project , Mystarbucksidea.com and Dell’s Social Innovation Competition are three well-known examples. MORE >>

More brands are waking up to their social responsibility and doing good work through cause marketing campaigns. Firstly, they are marketing ineffectively, and secondly, as a consequence their positive social impact is not maximized. Yet many still make the mistake of thinking that doing good (whether it’s supporting a cause or having their employees volunteer) will instantly win over their customers no matter what else the brand is doing. Firstly, the brand gets to effectively market itself through cause efforts that are meaningful to their customer base.  MORE >>

We are terribly underusing the power of positive storytelling in our campaigns and community building tactics. This was the first region-wide social good, online giving campaign that raised more than $2 million for more than 1,000 area nonprofits. But what’s most impressive about the campaign is nearly 18,000 people gave to a cause they cared about within a 24-hour period. This, my dear, is at the core of a successful social good campaign. Cause Marketing Marketing ifdy perez negativity online campaigns positive storytelling social good MORE >>