by Justin Kersey
October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month (NBCAM) and with it comes an onslaught of pink ribbons for what might arguably be one of the most successful cause marketing campaigns in the last 50 years. Since 1991, the pink ribbon has been a ubiquitous marketing tool that has led to endless sponsorships and promotions in the name of raising awareness for early-detection screenings.
Yet statistics show that mammography screenings are not reducing the number of breast cancer deaths and more startlingly, we may now be over diagnosing the disease. Even more shocking are the health-harming foods and products being slapped with a pink ribbon (remember the KFC Fried Chicken for the Cure campaign or the Smith & Wesson Breast Cancer Awareness 9mm pistol?)
All of this begs the question – are the multitudes of pink ribbons really increasing breast cancer awareness? Furthermore, don’t businesses and nonprofits have a duty to consumers to be transparent regarding what impact a sponsorship campaign is having and for whom?
I thought about this back in 2014 when I created Cake Cause Marketing (Cake), a platform that helps businesses and nonprofits create mutually beneficial online fundraising campaigns.
Cake allows businesses to pledge a certain amount of money up front and the nonprofit partner agrees to drive supporters to their campaign page through social media and email marketing. Each time a supporter clicks a specified link on a campaign page, the business donates a fixed amount of the pledged money to the nonprofit. In this way, Cake partners are able to create cause marketing campaigns that make a direct social impact, such as our $10,000 campaign between Offit Kurman and the Georgetown University Lombardi Cancer Center.
If pink ribbons have taught me anything it’s that cause marketing is a delicate balancing act of credibility and profitability–creating measurable social impact in addition to successful return on investment. Rest too heavily on either side of the equation, and a well-intentioned campaign can be mired in controversy faster than you can say “pinkwashing.”
A successful cause marketing effort must address a real need, feature real people, and make a real difference. More than anything, the partnership has to make sense to the consumer. That’s why each Cake campaign page provides the purpose of the campaign, the fundraising goal, and real-time data on the amount of support a campaign has received. That way, nonprofits raise the funds they need, businesses can measure the return on their investment, and consumers can confidently support the causes they are passionate about. After all, there’s no reason why ‘doing good’ shouldn’t be profitable for everyone.
Justin Kersey is the founder of Cake and Eats for Good, two cause marketing startups that bring together good causes, businesses and consumers. He believes in the Law of Reciprocity and creating shared value.