charity: water stands out with "THANK YOU!" messages in crowded cause-marketing space

I got three critical emails in my personal inbox today: One from Seth Godin, asking me to buy an ebook, which would help buy malaria nets for children in need. One from TOMS Shoes, letting me know about their founder's book 'Start Something That Matters'. One from charity: water thanking all donors for what they have given to the cause over the past 5 years. Just this little example goes to show you how crowded the cause-marketing scene is. Everyone wants your attention for something worthwhile. You have limited dollars and time. What's a smart marketer to do to break through the clutter? 

How about giving something back, instead of just asking? I got an email last night from charity: water saying they would be releasing the thank you videos online today. They would be thanking their donors starting at 9:30AM. I rmade a mental note to check out the site this morning. Of course, there they were: fun, genuine clips showing charity: water staff thanking all sorts of people who had ran campaigns, given up their birthdays and donated over the years. I thought it was cool, so I tweeted it. In less than an hour, charity water was following me back. 

charity: water made a point to connect and treated me as a VIP with premium information. They emailed me a thank you note and they entertained me with a series of videos, while showing me how others have donated over the years (including a 3 year old!). They thanked me again for Tweeting. At the end of my fifth video view, I didn't mind the donate button. I was at this giant, virtual birthday party.

This was labor intensive on their part, but the back and forth was an example of what true (social media) relations should be like. 

OK, one last point for staff members who were chugging Ouzo to thank Dimitri for his contributions to charity: water: Guys, you need to mix it with water and have some meze with it. You don't just gulp it down like that! But then, since you're hard core, I understand.  

 

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New twist on charity: water September 2011 campaign: Track Your Donations at Work

Every year charity: water, the non-profit that drills wells and brings clean water to populations in need, plucks our heart strings with touching human stories from the field. The crew opens our eyes to the lives of villagers in remote areas of Africa. This year, they're taking a different approach in sharing their story and drawing supporters into the donation process. 

Charity: water is inviting us to raise funds to help them buy an FS 250 drilling rig.

This investment will allow them and their Ethiopian partners to drill faster, and get to more places. In fact, this campaign is aiming to bring clean water to 40,000 people in 80 communities!

Ever wonder what happens to your dollars once you hand them over? As always, 100 percent of donations will go towards the good deed. Moreover, donors to this campaign will be able to track the truck through a GPS system. They will be able to see the gift of their donations 24/7 for years to come. 

This is not only a simple, but smart twist on location-based marketing, but it's also organizational responsibility. Charity: water is transparent in its communication and is treating loyal followers as true partners. 

To make a donation or start your own fundraising campaign, click on the highlighted links.  

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Water is Everything

charity: water is truly the master of online word of mouth. Check out their latest campaign, Water Changes Everything, that educates audiences about the connections between an everyday matter such as water and macro issues such as education, food security, sanitation, women's issues, healthcare and economic development.

The campaign first caught my attention on Facebook with clever depictions of what lack of water would mean for us in the developed nations.

Then I found the trail to the web area where they have six key messages you can Tweet and/or like, each one of them opening the viewers' eyes to the impact clean water can make in a country's economic development and public health. 

Between these messages and the photos on Facebook I generated four tweets and three likes, which turned into four additional re-tweets. In other words, one enthusiast created more than 10 messages through direct involvement and pass-alongs. Randomly peppering like buttons on a web site does not guarantee online buzz. Yet giving a community of advocates strategically packaged, byte-size messages can turbo-charge word of mouth. 

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Wrapping Up WOMMA 2010

I wanted to thank everyone who came to my session at WOMMA Marketing Summit this year, where I presented about social media KPIs. It turned out to be a pretty big crowd. I got many thoughtful questions from the audience. I wanted to share some of them with you here:

Q: You mentioned the role of social vs. paid and earned media. What about owned media? 

A: Yes, owned media is gaining more traction as companies embed social and engagement features into their brand sites. 

 

Q: You showed a connection between large ticket-item purchases and word of mouth. What about CPG products? 

A: I wanted to make the point that what someone else thinks or advises influences even those purchases that are in the thousands. For CPG products, the trend is even stronger. Word of mouth does influence shopping decisions. 

 

Q: You showed some strong results for charity: water's September campaign, that was created with donated services. How much would it cost to run a similar campaign? 

A: Yes, those services cost a bit. But the point I want to leave you with is that the campaign was optimized for measurement from start to finish. The most important success metric was the amount of money charity: water could raise to bring clean water to people in need in Central African Republic. Yet, they also knew how many fans they had, how much traffic they were getting to their web site from Facebook and media, and how many campaigns were starting at any given point. [[posterous-content:pid___0]][[posterous-content:pid___1]]

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