Pay attention!

1. Toys “R” Us Speaks Up for Autism

Since 2007 this point-of-sale campaign has raised a whopping $8.4 million for Autism Speaks. Shoppers that donate $10 or more receive a free reusable shopping bag designed by artist James Hogarth (who has autism).

What you can learn:

With over 800 stores in the United State, Toys “R” Us highlights the key ingredients of point-of-sale success: lots of locations and lots of foot traffic. The program also uses a small incentive to encourage and reward gifts.

2. Be a Hero at 31 Cent Scoop Night

On April 27th Baskin-Robbins stores across the country held a 31 Cent Scoop Night to honor America’s firefighters. The ice cream chain reduced prices of small ice cream scoops to 31 cents creating an opportunity for customers to donate to local fire charities.

What you can learn:

Cause marketing just doesn’t raise money, it provides causes with a platform to succeed. The Baskin-Robbins promotion drives traffic to stores where local firefighters can collect donations and visit with the community. Corporate partners have more to offer than just money. Look for the larger opportunity the partnership offers and plan your program accordingly.

3. Barnum’s Animal Crackers Teams Up with Lily Pulitzer for Urban Arts

This year 1.5 million boxes of animal crackers are being distributed in Pulitzer-branded outlets. Barnum’s will make a donation to the Urban Arts Partnership, reflecting the Pulitzer brand’s 2011 “Lily Loves the Arts” theme. The Urban Arts Partnership sponsors interdisciplinary arts programs through school, professional development and summer programs, as well as other venues.

What you can learn:

This is fun, whimsical cause marketing promotion. The fact that you can get the animal cracker boxes in Pulitzer’s stores is offbeat and will be win-win-win for company, cause and consumer.

Have you heard of the Urban Arts Partnership? Neither have I. It demonstrates that you don’t need to be a household name to do cause marketing. But you do need what every cause marketing program requires: a corporate partner that wants to help you.

Any nonprofit do cause marketing, if you have a partner. If you do, what are you waiting for?

4. Popeyes’ “Appetite for the Cure” for MDA

Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen’s “Appetite for a Cure’’ coupon book program in 143 restaurant locations raised a record $421,917 for the Muscular Dystrophy Association during the first quarter of 2011.

What you can learn:

“Appetite for the Cure” could just as well taken the place of Toys “R” Us’ campaign for Autism Speaks as it too illustrates the power of partnering with busy stores with lots of locations and adding a little incentive for shoppers (in Popeyes’ case coupons). But there’s a more important lesson here: there’s nothing wrong with working with quick serve businesses like Popeyes.

You may point to Buckets for the Cure to caution causes in their choice of partners. Please, there were many good, productive ways Kentucky Fried Chicken and Komen could have worked together. But selling pink buckets of fried chicken and launching the promotion the same week as the dreadful Double Down wasn’t one of them. What Komen did in partnering with KFC was no different than what dozens of other causes have done. The issue was how the program was executed.

5. Like Woodchuck Cider on Facebook and They’ll Plant Two Trees with American Forest

During Earth Week, Woodchuck Cider scored 6,809 new likes and will plant 13,618 trees through American Forests.

What you can learn:

Facebook cause marketing can be very successful for cause and company, but it won’t happen unless you already have an engaged online community. Prior to the promotion, Woodchuck Cider had 27,000 “likes” while American Forest had fewer than 1,700. This gave Woodchuck a running start. Cause marketing can’t make a new Facebook page successful, but it can take a good one to new heights.

6. Cut-a-thon at G20 and Emerge Spa & Salon to Raise Funds for Children’s Hospital Boston

For a minimum donation of $40 on Sunday, May 15, Hair stylists from the spa and salon will be hosting a HAIRraising and donating their cutting and styling services to raise funds for Children’s Hospital Boston.

What you can learn:

This reminds me of the PUMA promotion I profiled on marathon day here in Boston. My point here is the same: any business can do cause marketing, although it works best with business-to-consumer companies that have storefronts and foot traffic.

Conclusion:

There’s always way for a cause to work with a business and engage consumers, employees, even vendors. It just takes a little knowledge, imagination and a few good examples from which to learn.

While young men used to be the most active demo for location-based marketing (e.g. coupons, offers) via smartphones, that’s quickly changing, according to a study by Harris Interactive.

Of people with kids younger than 6 in their household, 35% are at least somewhat interested in getting opt-in text alerts from favorite businesses, compared to 32% of households with older kids and 25% of homes with no children. (The study, conducted in May with 2,000 adults, does not distinguish between childless adults and empty-nesters.)

The growing shift of women to mobile offers and coupons is important for cause marketers like me who rely on in-store programs and the women that support them.

The future is certainly not coupon clipping and Sunday papers as more retailers try to make it easier for consumers to find deals, boost customer loyalty and drive traffic to their web sites. Kroger has just rolled out the Digital Coupon Center.

So what’s this all mean for you? Start learning more about location-based marketing and the mobile web.

• Immerse yourself in the subject at the LBM Summit in NYC in September.
• Some great people to follow on LBM include @charityestrella, @schneidermike, @waynesutton, @lbmarketing, @nolandhoshino, and a must follow is @ericleist.
• Since Facebook launched its own location-based service last week, you’ll want to follow the FB Monster @johnhaydon as he will have all the news and tools to report.
• There are a couple great Twitter chats on LBM. The first #LBSchat happens on August 26th at 9pmEST. Also, check out #4SqChat.

What other resources or tools would you recommend to get people up-to-speed about LBM in general and LB[cause]M in particular?

Here’s how my nonprofit and other causes are checking-in for success…

1. Nonprofit branding. The geo-location element of these services is a great way to put your nonprofit on the map. My team and I check-in at my Boston hospital every day as a form of organizational branding. But don’t just check-in. The tips and shout-out features on Foursquare let you include interesting details about your cause. For example, I could check-in at the hospital and post: “Heading over to our Prescriptive Food Pantry, the only one of its kind in the country.”

2. Volunteer management. Our annual Halloween event has 1,200 volunteers, many of whom are smartphone-toting college kids eager to give back. This year, volunteers who are also Foursquare users will check-in to their respective areas (e. g. Pumpkin Patch, Spooky Speedway, etc.). Not only will we know who is where but after they friend the volunteer coordinator on Foursquare we’ll be connected to them by phone and text so we can easily contact them.

3. Cause marketing. The Paypal, Microsoft partnership with Foursquare and Save the Children earlier this year at the SXSW Interactive Conference earlier this year was a great example of geo-location cause marketing. Here’s another. Recruit a corporate partner to make a donation to your cause every time a user checks-in to their store or restaurant. Another option is to tie-in a badge that users can earn after checking-in several times.

4. Event promotion and recruitment. I got an e-mail the other day asking about how walks, runs, rides and other types of athons might use Foursquare. The cause marketer in me is drawn to how corporate partners can promote athons to consumers that check-in at businesses. “Join iParty employees and customers at the Walk for Cancer this Saturday.”

5. Shopping fund raiser. If your nonprofit group is located in or near a shopping district, you can recruit a group of stores and restaurants to offer a weekend discount to Foursquare users. The lucky shopper saves 10% when they check-in and the store makes a donation to your cause.

These are just a few of the ideas I have for using Foursquare and Gowalla.

How do you plan on using them?