Here are two recent articles from Marketing Daily describing the current state of play of cause marketing in the U.S.
In the first, sponsorship giant IEG projects that $1.55 billion will be spent on cause marketing in 2009. IEG cites survey data saying that 41% believe companies should increase their spending on cause marketing, as compared to 13% who would increase spending on sports sponsorships and 20% who would increase spending on sponsorship of cultural events.
And here, cause marketing firm Cone suggests that in difficult economic times, "cause lite" — use of a bit of humor — might be the best approach to recession-weary consumers.
Authenticity is critical to successful cause marketing, as consumers can easily use the internet to learn the truth about company practices … and use that knowledge and social media to wreak havoc on "pretenders."
Tom
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The findings from IEG come as no surprise to us at Groupable (http://groupable.com), as we have also found that cause marketing can be more effective than traditional advertising platforms. We work with many groups who self-organize around specific causes, and they are always excited to work with companies that show a real interest in what they are doing. In turn, these groups become and usually remain loyal to those companies and whatever product/brand they offer.