A Good Day to Tweet

Today was a Good day.

As I was rabbit-holing my way around the interwebs today, three very Good and innovative programs hit me in the face.

I tweeted all three. Guess which two got re-Tweeted within the hour. (!)

Milk Bone

Apparently, Milk Bone dog treats have been supporting the Canine Assistance program “for over 12 years.” Who knew?

Since they haven’t advertised it much until now, at first I thought they were just mimicking the Pedigree approach from TBWA/Chiat/Day LA (more on that, HERE.) It's an awesome approach, but in a category so similar, Milk Bone comes off like an "us too" player.

The lesson? If you’re doing something good, and your customers can help buy buying your product, then it pays to let them know about it.

(Anyone know if this is still handled by DraftFCB NYC?)
(UPDATE: Apparently, the work was done by DraftFCB/SF. Thanks to Brian M. for the info.)

Check out Milk Bone's website, HERE.

Snickers: Bar Hunger

Hello textbook strategy. If your brand position is “don’t go hungry,” then guess what your charity of choice will be?

So. Snickers is donating at least 3 million meals to Feeding America, fueled by customer participation. It’s simple, smart, strategic, and beats the heck out of just giving candy bars to those who can’t afford a meal. Nice work, Snickers. (I'm not sure how much TBWA/Chiat/Day New York had to do with this, but it seems they're at least involved, since they're Snickers' lead agency.)

It must be noted here – AGAIN with the Feeding America!

They’ve partnered with Quaker/Goodby/Edelman, and Mullen’s Bread Art Project, and countless others. Whoever’s in charge over at Feeding America is kicking ass with the brand participation. Someone give that do-gooder a candy bar.

Trendwatch 2009: Everybody’s Making The World A Better Place

Creativity Magazine highlights the best creative work being done daily.

In today’s online edition, I couldn’t help but notice how many agencies are making the world better in some way. Or at least pretending to.

DDB Brasil asks you to “Think Globally.”

Y&R Tel Aviv fights for a baby sea turtle.

M&C Saatchi makes an Australian cable company seem whale-friendly (naked branding in “good” clothing).

TBWA/Chiat/Day creates a celebrity radio station for the Tap Project, HERE.

Rubin Postaer is pushing its hybrid, the Insight. (A green product, but not green marketing at all.)


And of course, people are still watching Crispin’s collaboration with the Coen brothers for Reality (“there’s no such thing as clean coal”), and Leo Burnett’s collaboration with Alanis for WWF’s Earth Hour. (Already covered in earlier blog entries.)

Not to mention the Boxed Water packaging, and Agencies In Action hunger-fighting campaign.

All in one week.

Some of this is pure Cause marketing, and some of it doesn’t do much “good” at all. But it’s all pushing to make the world a better place.

Now if we can just get bigger brands to use their big ol’ budgets and mobilize their big ol’ consumer bases behind this kind of thinking, imagine the kind of change that could bring.

The people are buying.

Saving Dogs Sells: the Pedigree Adoption Drive

This is a perfect example of Societal Marketing. It's strategically aligned with customer values, it builds huge brand loyalty, it gives people a real reason to buy, it breaks parity, it elevates the conversation. Helping dogs, and helping sales.
The campaign started on a serious note. It was so successful, they kept it going. The creative evolved into - gasp - humor.
From TBWA/Chiat Day LA.




(Full credits here).

If anyone knows the story about the origin of this campaign idea, I'd love to hear it.