Brands use content marketing to tell stories they hope their
customers will consider relevant. Sometimes the stories involve the brand
specifically, sometimes they offer insight into the industry as a whole, and
sometimes the content just reflects the brand’s outlook on life. Companies have always done content marketing,
but it has taken on added importance in a world that offers a near-endless
number of ways to distribute messages.
One of the oldest forms of content marketing is cause
marketing. Involvement with a charitable
endeavor can offer value to a company in areas other than marketing, including
improved employee morale and tax deductions. Customer-facing benefits, however,
derive from public knowledge of the relationship. The same principles in vogue
for content marketing apply to crafting messages about cause marketing.
The customer must first choose to investigate your
communication, via click-through, channel guide, or picking up a brochure. She
must then choose to read, watch, or listen to it. Because she can so quickly
click to a competing content source, the need to entertain or otherwise engage
her has become more acute than ever.
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| Engagement : a fan-created sign incorporating the logo of a charity hockey game sponsor. Even 15 years ago, consumers could choose whether or not they would engage with your brand, |
So what messaging works to reel in the fickle cause-marketing
information consumer? Of course, you have to do a good job crafting the
communication, with solid creative/copy and production values appropriate to
the medium. Above all, remember that content marketing isn’t about you. That
concept is especially important in cause marketing, because you want to build
brand equity through the reflected value of the philanthropy, not the specific
benefits of your product.
In personal conversation, a braggart who gushes about his
own generosity turns you off. A consumer reacts the same way when you appear
more concerned with telling her about your presence within the charitable
endeavor than the aims of the endeavor itself.
Don’t tell the consumer you care. Show her something worth
caring about and help her to care about it, too. If you want to use a
charitable alliance to lead her to form an emotional connection with your
brand, you can’t dilute the part that causes the actual emotional response. You
might not even need to mention your company anywhere, especially if your media
channels host the content. Many times, the charity itself, appreciating your
contributions, will take care of letting interested parties (and even outside
media) know who helped them.
We earlier identified cause marketing as a form of content
marketing with some history. Check out this example from the early days of the
NFL’s involvement with the United Way.
You never see an NFL logo over the 60 seconds. The copywriter
made the takeaways “the people of Chicago care” and “the United Way works in
Chicago.” It’s okay to showcase some company assets when they advance the
storytelling. In this case, it feels like the NFL has lent the charity Revie
Sorie’s fame as a football player to add value as a spokesperson, rather than
co-opting the charity to call attention to the league. In the non-sports world,
a similar approach can sometimes work with employees who have personally
involved themselves with a cause.
Pro football’s long-running UW campaign hasn’t always gotten
that ratio correct, but it did in 1978. Ironically, a Saturday Night Live
parody nearly did, too. Other than the NFL shield at the end, the entire
content of the (tongue-in-cheek) message was directed at showing the benefits
of parental mentoring.
Not all leagues or companies get that balance correct. In-house
foundations have to be especially careful with it.
The ideal way for a sentence like “Company A does great work
with Cause B” to be created is by a consumer. Perhaps she utters it in an
online comments section or to a friend over coffee. It indicates she has made
the choice to designate your brand as an ally in her devotion to Cause B.
Content marketing has become so important because consumers
can tune out, or even criticize, messages in ways they couldn’t when the NFL
made its Revie Sorie spot. Would you rather be more direct with spotlighting
your company, as you might in a traditional advertisement? Maybe you or your
CMO would, but what you want isn’t important, remember? If you can’t achieve
your goals with consumer-focused communication, don’t do the campaign at all.
In any form of content marketing, and especially in the sensitive world of
cause marketing, it’s what the consumer wants that matters.
Rush Olson has spent two decades directing creative efforts for sports teams and broadcasters. He currently creates ad campaigns and related creative projects for sports entities through his company, Rush Olson Creative & Sports.
RushOlson.com
Linkedin.com/company/rush-olson-creative-&-sports
Facebook.com/RushOlsonCreativeandSports
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