RED Redux: AdAge Weighs In
I’m in Miami today for Marketing Sherpa’s Email Conference where I’m presenting with Mark Rovner. I’m going to share some of the useful information from today’s sessions later today. In the meantime, pursuant to my post on Seeing Red and Pink and the cause-related marketing backlash, here is the headline in today’s AdAge:
Costly Red Campaign Reaps Meager $18 Million
Bono & Co. Spend up to $100 Million on Marketing, Incur Watchdogs’ Wrath
You can read more with registration here.
To state the obvious, the honeymoon is over for cause-related marketing - just as it is for charities in general. By that I mean, there isn’t sufficient infatuation with our sector that we can think all we do will be seen in a good light, even when we have the purest of intentions. People are skeptical, ESPECIALLY when it comes to where the dollars are going. And ESPECIALLY when it comes to marketing. Even if a lot of marketing dollars got directed to a good cause, people not only want to ask how much got to charity, they are also digging into ROI!
PS If you haven’t checked it out, the discussion is really rich at Marketing Profs.