Green Marketing in action

I've been fortunate enough in my professional career to have had a variety of marketing, PR and communications experiences for some great companies such as Microsoft, Cisco Systems and Comcast. It was during my sting at Cisco that I got to work in the interesting world of sponsorship marketing.

Sponsorship marketing was new for Cisco at the time - so being part of the first team assembled to review and manage major sponsorships was very much like being part of a start-up within a large corporation. As a very visible company during the hey-day of the dot com era, Cisco was approached by literally hundreds of organizations annually, all hoping to get the company to cough up some money to support an event or cause. As you can imagine, we nearly always said no when approached - because most "opportunities" simply didn't tie in appropriately with Cisco's marketing goals and objectives.

The sponsorship team worked with IMG, one of the premier sponsorship agencies in the world. Together we collaborated to create a sponsorship strategy that focused on 3 key areas of opportunity: technology, brand building and partnership exposure. What this meant was unless the event provided an opportunity for Cisco to use/showcase its Internet networking technology, allowed it to be the lead sponsor (for brand recognition) and created opportunities for its many business partners to participate (as either additional tech providers or hospitality co-hosts), we simply weren't interested. Investing in any event that didn't fall into this category was a waste of time and money.

What does this have to do with being Green or the Green Lifestyle? Well, one trend that has been on the upswing the past few years is something those within the industry call "cause-related marketing" or sponsorships. Cause-related marketing is simply investing company dollars and resources into specific causes such as cancer, AIDS or the environment. Many companies have come to realize that investing in causes (rather than stadium naming rights for example) provides multiple levels of return beyond the simple financial support: employees and customers alike feel better about a companies who put their money where their mouth is by financially and visibly supporting these types of causes.

This past week I saw one of the best examples of cause-related marketing I've ever seen from the folks at Clif Bar and the Amgen Tour of California (a new West Coast version of the famous Tour de France). As seen on Tour's website, "In addition to sponsoring the sprinter's Green Jersey, Clif Bar & Co. is taking "green" one step further by offsetting the event's impact to the environment with clean wind energy and onsite recycling and composting at the Healthy Lifestyle Festivals."

The sponsorship has some brilliant elements tied in:

* The fastest sprinter in each stage will receive the green jersey - presented and sponsored by Clif Bar.

* By working with NativeEnergy's Windbuilders program, Clif Bar & Co. will fund the purchase of enough renewable energy credits to offset the estimated 518 tons of carbon dioxide (CO2 is the main contributor to global warming) produced in association with the event. These energy credits will help finance the construction of new, clean-energy wind farms on Native American land. That's providing an environmental equivalent to taking more than 1,000 cars off the roads of California for a month!

* The Clif Bar & Co. on-site recycling and composting stations will reduce the amount of waste being sent to our landfills. At the Clif Bar & Co. booth, spectators can purchase "Cool TagsTM" through a partnership with NativeEnergy to offset the amount of carbon dioxide they generate by driving to and from the event-each $2.00 Cool Tag offsets approximately 300 miles of car travel. To encourage alternate forms of transportation, there will be a bike valet on-site to encourage everyone to leave their cars at home. The Clif Bar & Co. biodiesel-powered van will be along for the entire race to raise awareness about cleaner burning alternative fuels that reduce the impact on global climate change.

And there is more - check out the full release on the site to get the full impact.

Those familiar with Clif Bar likely aren't surprised at this trail-blazing approach. The company is renowned for being one of the first (if not only) energy bar companies to go all-organic with its products and is absolutely committed to sustainability in its daily corporate practices. Developing and managing this sponsorship is an accurate reflection of the company's values and helps project a very favorable image to everyone who will see or experience it.

We are very proud to offer Clif Bar products to our customers.

While Green for Good is too small at this stage to invest in large sponsorships such as this, we try to do our part to "walk the walk" by being a member of 1% for the planet as well as committing 10% of our profits to community and environmental organizations. As we grow, you can bet you'll see us begin investing in small (to begin with) cause-related sponsorship opportunities - probably on the local level first and then growing from there.

Are there any cause-related marketing campaigns/programs that you feel have stood out as well?

- David Kaufer (Green for Good President and Chief Green Officer)