I got an email announcement today from United about their ongoing support of the American Cancer Society (ACS).  It appears United is doing a series of bears to sell to raise money for ACS.  This year’s bear is called Maye I Hugyou.  As a nonparent, I once again admit I don’t get the teddy bear attraction but clearly it is a promotion that is working for both United and ACS.  I do like that it was not a one time partnership but is something longer term.

The email says, “United Airlines and the American Cancer Society are again teaming up and inviting you to bring smiles to children undergoing cancer treatment. For a contribution of $50 or 7,500 Mileage Plus miles to the American Cancer Society, you can help comfort kids undergoing treatment. United will arrange for a huggable, limited-edition 18-inch Gund teddy bear, Maye I. HugyouSM (the adorable blue-eyed sister of last year’s teddy bear Kenny Hugyou), to be sent to a child undergoing cancer treatment.

Funds and Mileage Plus miles raised will support the American Cancer Society’s efforts to save lives from cancer by investing in research to discover cancer’s causes and cures, educating and empowering people to avoid the disease or find it early, helping people facing cancer overcome obstacles in their personal cancer fight, and fighting for laws to keep our communities healthy and cancer free.”

So if you are in need of a cute teddy bear, check this out.  It is for a great cause.

When I went to the American Cancer Society website, I did a search for “United Airlines” but did not come up with any mention of the 2008 teddy bear promotion.  What I did find was an article written about the success of last year’s Kenny Hugyou.  “Thanks for your support of the Kenny Hugyou campaign…Working with you and our campaign partner, United Airlines, we achieved exciting results:

• More than 10,000 kids with cancer received a huggable teddy bear over the Valentine’s Day weekend.

• More than 40 million frequent flyer miles and $250,000 in cash donations went to the American Cancer Society’s Angel Flight program, which provides free air travel for patients who receive cancer treatments far from home.”

Great results!  Hopefully they will get the same or better response this year!

Here are some food for thought items as you consider your company’s support of your favorite causes. 

1. Consider the size of the nonprofit you are interested in supporting and how that relates to the size of your company.  In this case, both United and ACS are BIG players but ACS gets a lot of other big company support, as well.  So, on the ACS website, even United’s efforts with the teddy bears are not featured while the promotion is going on to get more participation and recognition.  If you are a small company, getting visibility for your good works with a huge nonprofit organization like ACS from that nonprofit will be even more difficult.  It’ll be up to whatever you do to get the word out and let your own supporters/customers know about it.
2. You can make it part of the agreement that the nonprofit needs to offer a link to your company’s website for whatever the promotion is, or have them issue a press release about it which gets posted on both your websites.  Be sure to negotiate such things on the front end to avoid any gaps in expectations.
3. Think about how you can develop a longer term relationship with a cause or nonprofit to show your true to commitment to it.  And…see if there are ways that each year you can deepen your involvement to whatever the next step is, to get even more benefit for the cause and for your company.
4. United used the same language on their website page as in their email blast.  This does not have to be tough or seriously time consuming to get the word out.

Good luck!  And, call me if you need help with designing an effective cause marketing promotion.

I got a “personalized” email today from United Airlines asking me (a customer!) to join their efforts to leverage support for China earthquake relief through their partership with the American Red Cross.  I liked they were proactive in sending out the request to their huge network of frequent flyers and offered me an easy way to get involved to do my little part to help out.  I also liked that they said “no contribution is too small.”  They are offering 500 miles as an incentive for a minimum $50 donation which helps spur me to action – how about you?

Dear Ms. Susan Hyatt,

On May 12, a powerful earthquake struck Sichuan province in southwestern China with a devastating impact on the lives and livelihood of millions of people. Our customers can assist the response effort by contributing through the American Red Cross to the China Earthquake Relief Fund.

Mileage Plus customers who donate $50USD or more will receive 500 miles as a one-time bonus. The United Airlines Foundation will support customers’ donations with up to 5 million miles for this bonus mile offer. In order to receive the miles, email your electronic American Red Cross receipt to ChinaRelief-Miles@united.com. 

No contribution is too small.

We thank you in advance for your support and generosity, and for partnering with United to make the world a better place to live, work, travel and do business.”

Nicely done, United! Are there causes YOUR company cares about for which you could leverage your networks to provide greater assistance/support than you could using only your own philanthropy budget? The name of the game is to think partnership…not just with nonprofits, but also with customers and other stakeholders.

On my United flight to DC this week, I found a one page Landing Page article published in the January 2008 issues of Hemispheres, the United Airlines inflight magazine on the Kenny Hugyou teddy bear promotion mentioned in my January 8 blog entry.  While I understand there is a different writing style for a magazine versus an online article, I was surprised to find the full details of this effort are only available by reading both versions – something most customers probably won’t do.  The magazine piece tells readers “United customers and employees show their compassion with a cleverly named bear.”  The promotion appears to be sponsored by the United Foundation as there is a quote from Sonya Jackson, the Foundation president, in the article about cancer being an important issue for their customers and employees.  So, the magazine article answers a couple questions I raised previously about why the American Cancer Society, who was responsible for implementing the promotion and the role of employees.  While employees are mentioned, their real role is not - are employees (like customers) donors of miles and dollars, project coordinators, teddy bear delivery people, or…?    The Hemispheres article mentions joining forces with their many customers who support of the American Cancer Society which tells me there WAS a strategic decision made by the Foundation to support this cause as a way to appeal to customer and employee values and concerns.  Glad to see they mentioned that explicitly.  The magazine article also provides a sentence educating readers about ACS’s programming. 

So I feel better about this initiative now.  However, I do wonder why the Hemisphere’s article did not mention that the special opportunity to donate miles or dollars for teddy bears for child cancer patients would end January 31st or give an email link inviting participation as it is only mid-January and there are a couple weeks left before it ends.  Unfortunately, interested customers won’t be able to participate unless they do some digging.  The online version does mention the window of opportunity and provides buttons making it easy for customers to donate.  There is one button for miles and another for dollars.  Am I to assume the desired outcome of both written pieces was different?  Action online and awareness in the print version?

When I went to the United Airlines home page (http://www.united.com) tonight to sign in and print out my boarding pass for tomorrow, I noticed a link saying “give a teddy bear to a child” under the United News and Details section in the center of the page. The link took me to a landing page that describes United’s promotion with the American Cancer Society.

“Give a teddy bear to a child who needs it the most.  Funds and Mileage Plus miles raised during the Kenny Hugyou campaign will support the American Cancer Society’s efforts to eliminate cancer as a life-threatening disease, educate individuals about cancer prevention, support those with the disease, and fund research to find new and better treatments.”  (http://www.united.com/page/article/0,6722,52401,00.html)  The promotion invites customers to “give a great, big bear hug and join United Airlines and the American Cancer Society® in bringing a smile to a child with cancer.” For a contribution of $50 or 7,500 Mileage Plus® miles to the American Cancer Society, United will arrange for a huggable, limited-edition 17 inch Gund® teddy bear, Kenny Hugyou (can-he-hug-you) to be delivered to children in hospitals across the country that have been pre-selected by the American Cancer Society. Contribute $250 or more and a second teddy bear will be sent to your home.  The bears will be delivered in February 2008.  Tax-deductible contributions need to be made online by January 31, 2008. All miles will be donated through United and that all cash donations must be made directly to the American Cancer Society.

Nice thing for United to do — I’ll be interested to see if they post any update about how the special promotion went when it is over.  The American Cancer Society is of course one of the well-known giant nonprofit organizations.  Cancer is tough at any age and especially when it involves children.  However, I am left with some questions.  Why the ACS?  Is this being run through United’s foundation or..?  Was this a strategic choice linked to business or specific stakeholder goals or…a nice thing to do?  Is there an employee component to this, or is it just for customers and people that happen onto the site?  It is almost sacrilegious, so I hate to say… I am a little underwhelmed about the link between an airline and teddy bears in hospitals.  Are they being flown in?