November 23, 2011
Go Shopping and Pick Up Some Valuable Messages!
Most of us have been approached at the register when we’re shopping with the opportunity to give a dollar to St. Jude’s or Susan G. Komen. I’m often tempted to say yes because it’s such an easy way to support your favorite cause. As advertisers, we’re constantly trying to reach our target audience at every touch point possible. And, with some of the biggest shopping days of the year, the holiday season provides a great opportunity for social marketers beyond just traditional advertising.
What began over 150 years ago as change jars sitting next to the register has evolved into far deeper partnerships that generate significant results. St. Jude’s Thanks and Giving program has raised tens of millions of dollars for the hospital over the last 7 years. And look at Toys for Tots and the Salvation Army’s Red Kettle. Even if you’re not fundraising, retail provides great opportunities for public service campaigns that make sense.
The next time you’re shopping at Walmart, you may have the opportunity to learn about how to keep your family safe from food poisoning. For two weeks this month, our Food Safe Families PSA will be running on Walmart’s TV monitors at checkout in nearly 600 stores nationwide. It’s the perfect timing and placement for our messages. With Walmart superstores carrying holiday foods, including some of the 46 million turkeys that will be cooked this Thanksgiving holiday, customers will get the message at a time when they’re thinking about food preparation.
Filed under: Campaigns, Communications, Federal Government Communications, New Media, fundraising
Tags: St. Jude's, Toys for Tots
November 9, 2011
Crisis in the Horn of Africa: FWD the Facts
Many Americans aren’t aware that more than four times as many people are currently in crisis in the Horn of Africa than were affected by the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, and that a child dies in Somalia every six minutes. You can help. You can do more than just donate, you can save lives.
I’m joining USAID and the Ad Council to spread the word and support the FWD campaign to provide food, water and shelter to the hundreds of thousands of starving and sick populations in the refugee camps in Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia, where families fight every day to survive.
Here is an image of one of on such survivor, fighting for the lives of her children on a daily basis. Alima Ali Abdi, 37, holds one of her three children as she waits in line to be received at the Ifo refugee camp in Dadaab, Kenya on August 20, 2011. “The journey here was very difficult,” said Alima. Her family walked 16 days on foot from Somalia, and “it was hard on the children.” They were pastoralists in Somalia, with a herd of almost 50 cows and 30 goats. When asked if any of them were left, she said, “They were all washed away by the drought.”
The FWD campaign represents not only the issues of Famine, War and Drought that people in these countries face every day, but also the solution: Forward this message to your friends, your families, your co-workers.
The campaign makes it easy. Go online and use the tools available at www.usaid.gov/fwd where there are resources to help make a real impact in the Horn. Infographics, a campaign toolkit and messaging that can be posted on Facebook, tweeted or posted on your web page can all be shared with just a click of your mouse or a text message. Visit www.usaid.gov/fwd or text GIVE to 777444 to donate $10 to support famine and drought relief in the Horn of Africa.
A crisis that affects more than 13 million is too big to be ignored. It may seem impossible to believe that one person can make a difference, but you can be a vehicle for change by sharing this message. Our goal for today is to have one share for every person currently being affected in the Horn of Africa (a total of 13 million shares). Tweet, post and talk to your friends and family to help spread the word.
Do what I’m doing. Tell everyone. Tell anyone. Do more than donate. Forward the facts.
Filed under: Campaigns, Communications, Federal Government Communications, Social Media
Tags: Ad Council, Africa, Ashley Judd, crisis, famine, FWD, Horn of Africa, USAID
September 14, 2011
Homeowners Frozen in Place
Do you know what most people do when they realize they’re in danger of losing their home to foreclosure?
Nothing.
Surprising? Perhaps. But understandable when you think about it.
It’s just too humiliating. Too painful. Too complicated. Too scary.
As the bills pile up and the pressure keeps growing, people just…stop.
Our job was to get them going again.
Because if we could get them to pick up the phone, the Government could get them some help.
Not an easy task, considering the barriers people have erected.
Our agency’s motto is Think Again. Keep digging. Don’t settle. We created about 12 campaigns. In the end we decided that the best approach was to hold a mirror to the problem. To show people literally stopped—frozen, petrified, paralyzed by their mortgage struggles.
Consumer research confirmed our choice. “That’s how I feel,” people said as they looked at storyboards featuring a woman frozen on her front lawn, a factory worker stock-still as the conveyor belt moves untended bottles by him and a female runner unable to move as the race begins.
“This is going to need some super-cool special effects,” we said. “We need to make it look like people are really frozen in place while the world moves on around them.”
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