“Take a penny leave a penny” is a welcome sign at cash registers.
Sadly, I’ve seen far fewer of these spare change jars as retailers would rather weigh my pockets down with 97 cents of change rather than giving up 3 cents that could go toward rent, workers, utility bills and suppliers. The recession has clearly made even once-generous businesses of all sizes into penny pinchers.
That’s why I was pleasantly surprised to see this week’s innovative corporate social responsibility campaign from Pepsi.
In the first test of the philanthropic power of the GPS-based social network Foursquare, Pepsi is pledging 4 cents to the not-for-profit Camp Interactive for each point earned by Foursquare users. The campaign encourages more iPhone , Blackberry and Android users to “check in” with Foursquare all around town, all day, knowing that the pennies will add up.
What does Foursquare get out of the deal? Thanks to a good cause and a deep-pocketed sponsor, Foursquare will experience a supercharged rate of entries to its database from users who log in their favorite hip bars, restaurants, coffee shops, health clubs and other venues. In fact, I just added the New York Public Library’s new Grand Central branch to Foursquare (that’s 4 cents more, Camp Interactive).
Harnessing the excitement of consumer technology will continue to set innovative brands apart in 2010. A few years ago another Pepsi brand, Dorito’s, was among the first to stage a YouTube-based contest for the funniest amateur ad, to be aired on the Superbowl. Since the advent of inexpensive mini camcorders, like Cisco’s Flip and Kodak’s Zi series, it’s become affordable even for charities in third-world countries to create engaging content for global audiences. (Nokia sponsored a contest around the crowd-sourced translation of those videos for the charity PlanUSA.org)
It took just one visit to the website of Camp Interactive, the Bronx-based youth program that mixes technology with outdoors activities, to see another creative CSR linkage to another Fortune 500, Chase.
Unlike Pepsi’s decision to spend 4 cents at a time, Chase made its budget clear at the outset: $5 million. Through a very smart Facebook application, the bank is using crowd-sourcing in a very different way. Facebook users are rallying support for their favorite charities, and Chase will divvy up its $5 million based on that input.
The San Francisco-based social media agency Context Optional worked with Chase and is also behind super projects that highlight socially responsible programs for Toyota Prius, Target and ToysRUS.
As print and broadcast spending slows, CMOs appear to be channeling more resource into their community-giving outreach via social media. Working with the New Jersey firm S3, coffee and tea maker GoodEarth is pledging 50% of its profits to charity through the end of February. The larger, Nasdaq-listed Green Mountain Coffee, which uses the platform JustMeans for its responsibility program, is extremely active and global, making loans to hurricane-ravaged growers in Mexico and sponsoring river cleanup efforts closer to home.
With mass media atrophying and consumers refusing to be swayed by spin, it will become increasingly critical for organizations of all kinds — small and large businesses, associations, NGOs, political candidates, celebrities, etc. – to demonstrate their commitment to doing good. Professional communicators tuned into best practices will be far more likely to win new business, promotions and a seat at the table in this new paradigm.