Changing the model for converging brands and social responsibility

Traditionally, brands have looked at social responsibility through two lenses. First, brand association has been a focus. Aligning a brand with a cause or causes that are important to their constituents has been viewed as a way to build brand awareness and preference on  a plane where consumers see them differently. Many brands also now see social responsibility, like green initiatives, as a vital part of their strategies of being good corporate citizens.

The issues most marketers run into is the dreaded ROI questions. Who are you reaching? What does it cost to reach them, and how do we know it matters? While there are not easy answers to these questions, there are burgeoning new models aimed at bringing brands and people together as partners in social giving and not purely as predator and prey.

On the flip side, consumers are increasingly more conscious of how they can impact the causes they care about. Every year, scores of people participate in charity events like AIDS Walk, Race for a Cure and the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer. Even more participate in regional and niche events that never make the national scene. The one thing all the events have in common is that the individuals must commit to asking friends, relatives and colleagues for money. It has reached the same level for many of us as the Girl Scout Cookie drive – so many people are doing it, you have to budget and plan who you will support.

New models are looking at this approach differently. Brands are investing in these causes as sponsors, gaining little more than a bit of brand awareness. This awareness is largely unmeasurable. In the days of tight budgets, CEOs and boards are demanding measurable outcomes, so support for sponsoring events is dwindling.

Combine these dilemmas (brands looking for measurable connections and individuals search for opportunities to support causes without alienating friends) and just might have the perfect storm for change. There are certainly numerous approaches, (and we would love to hear about any you have come across) but two we have looked at have very promising strategies.

Plus3Networks: (okay full disclosure, they are a client)

Founded by avid endurance athletes who wanted a platform to connect brands, causes and people, Plus3Networks tracks your exercise on daily basis. They use either a trust model whereby members manually enter their activities such as biked 15 miles, walked 3 miles, etc. or a GPS model that uses either dedicated GPS devices or popular smartphones including iPhone and some blackberry models. The latter not only tracks total distance, but also tracks routes, performance and other data and builds a visual diary of your workout.

The site is also a social network connecting members with friends and others that share the same athletic interests. You can search for riding or running partners for example and chose people with similar performance.

The magic here is that as you log miles, you earn donations for causes. Plus3Networks does the hard work of soliciting brands on your behalf that will donate to specific causes. When you sign up, you select a brand and cause and viola, you are done asking people for money.

The brands win too. While the site protects specific users’ privacy, brands are able to understand interests and motivations of their products from users. The can understand demographic and psychographic data how the community influences each other. The site allows the the brands to gift samples and products to members as they reach certain milestones ensuring their samples strategy reaches very targeted audiences. Online coupons and other mechanisms offer another opportunity for measuring the program’s success.

Brushfire: (still in development mode, but one to watch)

Brushfire is building a new model for advertising over social networks. Stay tuned for a more in depth look after they launch this fall, but they promise to bring the power of social giving to social media advertising. Brushfire allows members or users of social networks to include ads in their updates. When their friends click on ads, the user’s charity receives a donation.

Brushfire needs two obvious issues to be adopted and understood by consumers. First, ads much match the interests of the visitors and their friends. Hyper-relativity will be extremely important. Otherwise, they are simply trading one solicitation for another one (albiet less obtrusive).

Second brands need to ensure ads complement the causes. Imagine the disaster KFC experienced hawking their deep fried “heart attack in a box” in a poorly thought-out attempt to leverage the breast cancer awareness month. With heart desease rising among women at an alarming rate, convincing them to buy fatty food to support breast health was a non-starter.

If Brushfire can address these challenges, they could be poised to create a new ad network that brands truly see as a valuable asset in their social media and social responsibility strategic plans.

One thing is certain, save for a few select brands like Avon’s support of breast cancer, consumers and brands are both in search of a new playing field for engagement. Those that capture this trend and score will be hot commodities.