Every year there is an escalation in romantic interest as February, the Month of Hearts, approaches, and the scent of Valentine's Day begins to waft in the air. Here at Bloom we look at how the everyday things you love, like coffee, smoothies and macaroni cheese are making a special appeal for Valentine's day.
1. Say it with a smoothie
Innocent has launched an alternative Valentine gift idea this year...
This is no ordinary Innocent Smoothie, but a cheeky blend of strawberries, bananas and... love! A charming concept for Valentine's Day where you can 'Make your own Valentine's Smoothie' via Innocent's website, giving your Valentine an extra special personalised delicious treat.
2. Coffee loving through augmented reality
Starbucks in America has launched a ‘Starbucks Cup Magic - Here's to all the relationships in your life worth celebrating.’
They have rolled out some heart-adorned cups to celebrate Valentine’s Day. If you have the Starbucks Cup Magic app and put the cup within your phone’s field of vision, your phone will display images of heart-shaped flower petals flying off the cup. You can also send a video of the scene to your beloved via email or Facebook.
3. Philanthropic love
Kraft Macaroni & Cheese is taking love sharing to the next level by offering to send positive emotion tweets and Macaroni & Cheese to the needy as part of the charitable ‘Golden Voice of Love’ effort.
The new campaign features the brand’s ‘Golden Voice’, Ted Williams, calling KRAFT Macaroni & Cheese’s loyal fans to help hungry people in the USA. The brand is encouraging the public to tag their V-Day tweets with #VoiceOfLove from February 12-14. These posts will immediately appear in Mr. Williams’ virtual mailbox—then he will select a number of tweets and record them in a video in his great soulful voice, which will be then posted to the brand’s YouTube Channel. Each tweet with this Valentine tag will result in a donation of 100 boxes of KRAFT Macaroni & Cheese to Feeding America organisation.
Get tweeting now...
4. Branded love
The makers of Marmite are ‘spreading the love’ with the release of three limited edition signed e-cards on facebook designed by artist and Marmite fan, Pete Fowler, with messages such as "You're the crumpet to my Marmite" - only real lovers would appreciate.
Very Marmite..very nice....
5. Sweet gifts for your sweetheart
After last year's Glamour Glaze Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, we've been eagerly anticipating this years Valentine related donught delight from Krispy Kreme. And this Valentine they’re offering 3 holiday themed doughnuts to choose from–Heart with Sprinkles, Chocolate Iced with Sprinkles, and the Drizzled Heart.
Our mouths are watering and our hearts are fluttering.
2011 has been a strange year. There's been continuing economic turmoil, an Arab spring and a Euro autumn, interspersed with a fairy tale Royal Wedding and an eagerly anticipated feast of celebration with the Olympics and the Diamond Jubilee. We take a look back through the year and pick out 10 events, products and campaigns that have made us sit up and go wow or simply put a smile on our faces.
1. A beautiful CSR campaign
You can put your name to a star, a number plate or a stone in Wembley Way, but now, thanks to Dulux and UNICEF’s partnership, you can also own a colour. For a donation of at least £1 you get to choose a colour from a range of 16.7 million available on the average screen monitor. All proceeds go to UNICEF's campaign to bring clean water, education, medical assistance and other aid to children across the world.
UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Sir Roger Moore is a proud new owner of Swedish Blue, the colour of the flag of his wife’s homeland Sweden, and not far off the cyan blue that represents UNICEF. “Both Kristina and UNICEF are extremely close to my heart”.
In May, this year, UK charities reported an increase in regular donations for the third successive year (source: Rapidata). This despite the country teetering on the brink of a double dip recession.
Reassuring figures that not only highlight the generosity of the British people but also the resilience of the charity sector.
There are currently around 170,000 charities in England and Wales. It’s a crowded sector where charities continually have to work harder and smarter to get their, often complex, messages across. Brand and communication strategies are key.
We look at 5 interesting cause-related strategies that have recently been used to great effect:
1. Create a memorable event
Movember has become a hugely popular movement since it started in 2004, supporting prostate and cancer charities. Over 480,000 people worldwide got involved last year raising $48.5M. An overtly visible, ownable, relevant and self-mocking occasion-based campaign, it is a great example of marketing at its best.
Due to its populatrity and worthy appeal many brands are clamouring to be a part of the movement. HP Sauce, A suit that fits, and Byron Burgers are just a few of the brands that are rewarding charitable stewards this November.
2. Partner with a large consumer brand
Get it right and this relationship will be equally rewarding for both parties. The charity gets instant exposure and awareness amongst a broad and relevant audience. The brand benefits from the warm halo of social responsibility. UNICEF, thanks to it’s “one pack = on vaccine” partnership with P&G's Pampers, is now aiming to eliminate neonatal tetanus in the developing world.
It's a win win but, as a brand owner, be sure to be 100% committed to the cause. Consumers will quickly sniff out a temporary or half-hearted association driven by the interests of a PR wash or commercial gain. You only have to look at the backlash caused by KFC's alliance with a breast cancer charity in the US last year.
3. Use disruptive communication
Where budgets are tight, it's often the disruptive campaigns that work to best effect.
Action for Children launched a guerrilla marketing campaign around the streets of Glasgow earlier this year that couldn't fail to catch our attention.
Through a clever combination of message-driven street art and hidden speakers playing recordings of children around the city, the campaign got national coverage and everyone talking about the cause. It's a complex message delivered in in an engaging and relevant way. The beauty of this campaign is the use of technology to drive its audience to action. QR codes were also used to direct a technology savvy audience to an online petition to lobby the goverment to increase the amount of money they spend of indentifying children at risk of neglect.
4. The power of many: join a collaborative commercial initiative
Everyclick.com is a free internet search engine just like Google or Yahoo, but for every search made the site contributes half of its revenue to affiliated charities. This is a great example creating an alternative channel for people to raise money simply through their existing behaviours. Smaller charities that don't have the marketing budgets can utilise this platform to drive funding to them. The beauty of this platform is in its transparency, clearly articulating the monetary amounts raised and for whom as and when it happens.
5. Be in the right place at the right time
No British festival would be complete without the Festival Samaritans. Their tents have been a familiar feature at events for over 35 years now. This year they were present at 17 festivals offering a place of calm and warmth amidst the madness, where any festival goer can stop by for a cup of tea and a chat.
Not only does the charity access those in need within a relevant environment but it is also a strong platform for generating credibility and awareness amongst a younger audience. If they don't come to you then reach out to them.
These are just 5 innovative strategies that charities have used to raise awareness and funding to best effect. Please feel free to contribute any other great examples. We'd love to hear them.
On Tuesday evening a couple of our team joined a local charity run around Clapham and Battersea to raise money for the shopkeepers affected by the riots a couple of weeks ago. Around 300 runners, braved the rain to take part in the event organised by the Clapham Pioneers running club. The 5.2 km course took the runners round Clapham Common down Northcote Road and through Clapham Junction, the scene of the riots. Ally Watson and Max Spiegelberg both completed the course in respectable times and were rewarded with millionaire shortbread handed out by a local caterer at the finish. Thank you to the organisers and well done. We are pleased to say that the event raised a whopping £1,500.
The power of social media is already mobilising forces for good, down the road from the Bloom office. Here are the scenes taken a short while ago outside Clapham Junction.
We all know about the environmental threats to our planet. We read about melting ice caps, rising sea levels and most recently severe droughts. This is a familiar story. But what is actually being done about it?
Fortunately, the 10:10 campaign is leading the way. They’ve been telling us exactly how our business can reduce our carbon footprint by 10% year on year and it's working.
Specifically, 10:10 aims to cut operational emissions in four key areas; electricity, on-site fuel use, road transport and air travel.
10:10 originated as a simple solution to a big problem. Franny Armstrong founded the campaign in response to the vague targets set by the Climate Safety report, which called for an 80% cut in developed world emissions by 2050. Instead, Franny recognised the value of the more realistic target of a 10% cut by the end of 2010. And so, in September 2009, 10:10 was born with this explicit aim.
The 10:10 proposal has resonated with such a wide range of people on a global scale because it is simple and appealing, and yet offers tangible means to achieving lower carbon emissions.
Signing up is easy and once you’re on board, 10:10 pledge to:
- Provide you with the means to measure your own progress by entering your figures into an emissions reporting tool
- Explore alternative methods to help reduce your harder-to-measure emissions
- Encourage you to ensure that your staff, customers and suppliers are all involved
- Save your business money by using less energy and thus increasing your profits
At its core, 10:10 is a movement. It aims to expand support for the campaign in every direction possible from businesses and hospitals to schools and families. Consequently, 10:10 boasts over 115,000 participants in 186 countries, which is an incredible achievement for a movement that began under 2 years ago.
10:10’s 'How to cut carbon emissions' campaign is a shocking but incredibly effective way of demonstrating the urgency for action. The use of the words ‘no pressure’ is a sardonic way of emphasising that we must all act on climate change now.
Bloom signed up to the 10:10 initiative at the beginning of 2009. It is due to the tireless pursuit of our own Jemma Golby that we’ve already made some great progress. These are some of the small steps we’ve made along the way:
All our foam board is now made from recycled materials and is biodegradable
All our stationery is now supplied by the environmental stationary company Wiles Greenworld
We use FSC approved paper throughout the office.
We operate and support the ride to work scheme.
We’ve installed centralised bins in each office to discourage needless waste (inconvenient but very effective).
We have a strict policy to turn off lights, computers and office machinery each night.
Bloom still has some way to go but we are committed to reducing our carbon emisions by 10% each year. It's not about saving the planet overnight more the incremental steps that we can all sign up to that will ultimately make a difference.
The weekend before last our very own Jemma Golby ran the Blenheim Triathalon. After a 750m swim, 20k bike ride and a 5km run, crossing that finish line really was an incredible feat - so much so that some of the Bloom spectators cried tears of joy (naming no names...Catriona). She did Bloom proud.
Here are some shots from the day:
Jeff Potter: Cooking for Geeks: Real Science, Great Hacks, and Good Food
Allen P. Adamson: BrandDigital: Simple Ways Top Brands Succeed in the Digital World
Davis Dyer: Rising Tide : Lessons from 165 Years of Brand Building at Procter & Gamble
Douglas Holt: Cultural Strategy: Using Innovative Ideologies to Build Breakthrough Brands
D. B. Holt: How Brands Become Icons: The Principles of Cultural Branding
