Valentine’s Day is today and here are three cause marketing programs I love on this special day!
FRIENDLY’S CONE’S FOR KIDS FOR EASTER SEALS
This month Friendly Ice Cream Corporation launched its 31st annual Cones for Kids cause marketing campaign to support Easter Seals. This Valentine’s Day campaign rewards consumers donating $1 five Valentine’s Day cards, redeemable for free Friendly’s Kids Cones through Valentine’s Day!
This is a simple point-of-sale cause marketing program that just last year raised $675,000. That brought the total raised over the past 31 years to $27 million. This program clearly demonstrates the power of point-of-sale programs (i.e. “Would you like to donate a dollar to…”) as the best way for companies to raise money from consumers.
MACY’S CREATE A VALENTINE FOR AMERICAN HEART ASSOCIATION
Macy’s is a big supporter of AHA’s Go Red for Women. A part of this year’s program is Create a Valentine on Facebook. When you send a free conversation heart via Facebook, Macy’s will donate $2 to American Heart Association’s Go Red for Women up to $250,000.
This program leverages the biggest social media network on the planet for what is to-date the best way to raise money from a nonprofit and for profit partnership involving a social network.
THINK ENERGY’S TIME SQUARE VALENTINE’S DAY SCULPTURE
For Valentine’s Day, Think Energy, an energy provider to small businesses, is sponsoring a 10-foot-tall interactive heart sculpture in New York City’s Times Square.
Think Energy is donating a dollar up to $10,000 for every picture taken in front of the heart sculpture to the Hope & Heroes Children’s Cancer Fund, which supports children with cancer at Columbia University Medical Center.The sculpture consists of 400 transparent, LED-lit acrylic tubes that form a cube around a suspended red heart. As people touch a heart-shaped sensor in front of the sculpture, the heart glows more brightly as the energy from their hands is converted into light. The more people interact with the sculpture, the brighter it glows.
These are three cause marketing programs that are sure to make your heart flutter.
A story that might soften it a bit is this one on Dan Dewey who orders 14 to 20 Starbucks drinks every Thursday for the patients getting chemotherapy at Michigan Cancer Institute. It’s a great story that I hope makes your Valentine’s Day a little more special.
