Cause Marketing Grows
Here are two recent articles from Marketing Daily describing the current state of play of cause marketing in the U.S.
In the first, sponsorship giant IEG projects that $1.55 billion will be spent on cause marketing in 2009. IEG cites survey data saying that 41% believe companies should increase their spending on cause marketing, as compared to 13% who would increase spending on sports sponsorships and 20% who would increase spending on sponsorship of cultural events.
And here, cause marketing firm Cone suggests that in difficult economic times, "cause lite" — use of a bit of humor — might be the best approach to recession-weary consumers.
Authenticity is critical to successful cause marketing, as consumers can easily use the internet to learn the truth about company practices … and use that knowledge and social media to wreak havoc on "pretenders."
Tom
The findings from IEG come as no surprise to us at Groupable (http://groupable.com), as we have also found that cause marketing can be more effective than traditional advertising platforms. We work with many groups who self-organize around specific causes, and they are always excited to work with companies that show a real interest in what they are doing. In turn, these groups become and usually remain loyal to those companies and whatever product/brand they offer.