After I got my weekly dose of 24 last night, I rifled through AdAge searching for examples of Marketing for Good like Jack Bauer seeking hidden nukes. I showed little mercy for the stories on the Network TV upfront and had just passing interest for P&G’s triumphant Crest. Three quarters of the way through the issue, I struck the mother load in a special advertising section (yes, even ad sections can be good sometimes!) that featured the winners of the Cause Marketing Halo Awards.
Organized by the Cause Marketing Forum, the Halo Awards “honor outstanding companies and causes for teaming up to do well by doing good.” The Golden Halo Award honorees in 2007 included corporate winner, Whirlpool and non-profit winner First Book. Whirlpool was recognized for its on-going commitment to Habitat for Humanity, helping Katrina victims and supporting it’s “Cook for the Cure” program that has raised $5 million in the fight against breast cancer. First Book, “a highly entrepreneurial literacy organization dedicated to providing new books to children from low-income families” was recognized for the creative partnerships it built with Borders, Build-a-Bear and Universal Studio’s Cat in the Hat Challenge.
A number of other companies were recognized with Halo Awards (Colgate, Boost Mobile, Pedigree, etc) but I’d like to spend a little more time reviewing Whirlpool’s efforts. First, it is worth noting that Whirlpool is not a newcomer to Cause Marketing having worked with Habitat for Humanity for eight years and the Susan G. Komen foundation for the last six years. For Habitat, Whirlpool has contributed over 73,000 appliances thus far and is committed to donating a refrigerator and range to every Habitat home built in the next four year! Whirlpools commitment is instructive not just for the length of the commitment, it also illuminates important criteria for successful cause marketing efforts:
- Relevant: What could be more relevant than Whirlpool products and a new home.
- Meaningful: A refrigerator and a range are hugely important to the owners of a new home.
- More than money: Whirlpool employees provide hundreds of volunteer hours to help build the homes.
Kudos to Whirlpool for showing us all how to do Cause Marketing right.