Covent Garden Food Co. Supports the British Heart Foundation

In February 2010 and 2011, Covent Garden Soups and the British Heart Foundation teamed up for the charity's 'National Heart Month'. They came together and created a soup which would be 'good for the heart'. This included making sure that the nutritional traffic lights; Fat, Sat Fat, Sugar and Salt were all green/low as such the creation has come to include Tomatoes, Vegetable and Lentils. This became Covent Gardens 'Soup of the Month' for February and because of its popularity this soup still continues to have a presence on supermarket shelves.

For both February 2010 and 2011, Covent Garden pledged £10,000 of the soups sales to the British Heart Foundation and with prices at only £1.99 I'm not surprised it flew off the shelves with 500,000 cartons being sold already.

This is a creative and innovative way to support the British Heart Foundation, Covent Garden is one of the, if not the soup retailer for Britain and by allowing the public to gain something when donating to charity, something just as simple as a bowl of soup, that I feel is when charitable marketing is at its best.

Charity Swear Jar for the Digital Age

A website called Charity Swear Box have teamed up with Twitter to start an unusual way of giving, by putting money into an on-line swear box! This donation based web site allows Twitter users to pay up for use of bad language. This app requires the user to sign on with their twitter details allowing the app to detect all the users recently tweeted swearwords and suggest a donation related to the number of outbursts recorded. In addition the user can also submit an amount they'd like to be charged per swearword.

The app allows the user to choose which charity they'd like to donate to (all donations are submitted via Pay Pal), the charities they support are:

• CAMBA
• Feed the Children
• Peta
• Family Care Foundation (FCF)
• World Wildlife Fund (WWF)
• Childline (NSPCC)
• Unicef

The app also allows the user to post an app right there and then using as many swearwords as they wish, all in the name of Charity!

'Own a Colour' in Aid of Unicef

 Dulux are attempting to raise £1million in 24 hours for Unicef with their 'Own a Colour and Help Save a Child's Life' campaign. This campaign is ingenious, on its home page features a large scale colour spectrum, when a colour is chosen it transports you to a more in depth colour spectrum as per the colour selected.

Once you choose your colour, bearing in mind that if a colour has already been selected by someone it won't be available, you are asked your name and why you chose it. Following on from this you are asked to donate towards the campaign. They give you options of certain amounts to donate and what they can provide for the children, in addition they offer an 'Other Amount' tab if one wishes to donate more:

• £1 - can buy enough polio vaccines to immunise 10 children
• £3 - can buy 400 water purification tablets, enough to filter 2,000 litres of drinking water
• £5 - can buy 100 satchels of oral rehydration salts to combat deadly dehydration and diarrho
• £10 - can buy three mosquito nets, vital protection against malaria, which kills an African child every 30 seconds
• £20 - can buy enough vaccinations to protect 50 children against measles, one of the biggest killers of children worldwide.

This is an extremely fun and interactive way to encourage people to donate, the idea of owning your own colour is ingenious and furthermore it doesn't incur any costs for Dulux or Unicef. Such an idea is likely to encourage and entice the younger generations to donate, with people being able to ask each other 'what's your colour?'. The partnership of these two companies is an unlikely one which makes it even more interesting. The creative and quite literal colourful nature of this advert is a great example of charities and companys thinking outside the box and hopefully as a result of this they'll be able to reach their goal within the next 24 hours.

To see this campaign/website please visit: http://www.ownacolour.com/

'Google Wallet' - Tap, Pay and Save

Google have just released a new revolutionary technology which will allow customers to pay with their phone or should I say 'Google Wallet'. The Tap, Pay and Save campaign has just been launched and is set to take the U.S. by storm.

For the time being this new technology is fairly limited to specific mobile phones and card carriers. For example Citibank MasterCard is currently the only card available to use with your Google Wallet, however this I'm sure will change as it becomes more widely used. For now, rest assured, those without Citibank MasterCards will be able to link up their own card with a Google Pre Pay credit card system which is also available with 'Google Wallet'. 

'Google Wallet' can be used anywhere a MasterCard paypass is available with hundreds and thousands of locations already in place in the continental U.S..

Google have pledged that this is only the beginning as they announce what the future of 'Google Wallets' might hold; Boarding Passes, Tickets and much more. What is for sure is that this is an exciting new venture and it's going to be interesting to see how it will ultimately develop.

Reaching out for Younger Volunteers Using Social Media

Punch Communications have recently released an article about how to utilise Facebook and Twitter more effectively in order to reach younger audiences.

Twitter:

They continually stress the need to build relationships with ones followers, whether by sending them direct messages or interacting by 'retweeting' relevant information that they had posted. In doing this your presence and visibility within Twitter will continue to grow.

Facebook:

For new users, having a fan page does not allow one to invite people as a result they recommend to start out with a personal page and then once one has sufficient fans change it to a fan page. Also by 'liking' or 'commenting' on other brands pages with a large fan base you automatically increase your visibility. However they point out that you shouldn't 'post ‘spammy’ messages, ensure your comments are relevant and not overtly promotional'.

In a more general message, Punch stresses that ones account should not be used solely to report on an organisations services and products. Instead they should also engage the user by posting interesting and relevant information, whether that's news stories, blog posts, videos and photos. However Charities should be aware of their audiences. For example if one is trying to engage in a younger audience posting news stores from the Financial Times in unlikely to draw their attention, one should be aware of their interests or hobbies, whether that be the new fashion trends or new restaurants. In doing so and by posting relevant information, the Charity is more likely to grab their attention and ensure a return user and are more likely to draw in people who otherwise might not have noticed or known about them.

Oxfam's Interactive Shopping Experience

Oxfam have just made shopping at their stores more interactive. In their Manchester shop they've recently tried and tested a system, in what their calling "a social network for objects", allowing customers to access information about items such as past geographical locations, stories from previous owners and video clips. Using QR code technology consumers will be able to scan barcodes with their phones, subsequently downloading all the relevant information about the item. 

An initial example includes this green dress donated by the singer Annie Lennox, in a video clip she explains about how she wore it to Nelson Mandela 90th birthday party or how another owner wore an item the first time she met her ex boyfriend. 

An Oxfam spokesman felt that 'items with an interesting history instantly have an added value for our customers' whilst 'promoting sustainability and encouraging consumers to look beyond disposable fashion'.

As a result of this new innovative technology the Manchester shop have seen their turnover increase by 41%, which have spurred Oxfam into installing this technology into a further 20 shops. Hopefully this new venture will continue to spread throughout the country.

Aviva Revives 'You are the Big Picture' Campaign, Benefiting Save The Children

In 2010 Aviva ran an ad campaign entitled 'You are the Big Picture', whereby consumers could upload a picture of themselves through Aviva's Facebook page, which would then be displayed in prominent cosmopolitan areas (see picture). Aviva have once again launched this campaign. Consumers are charged a sum to upload their photo which is then donated to Save the Children's Street to School program. However where as in 2010 consumers paid £1 to submit a photo, this year they will be charged £2, with all submission fees being paid into Save the Children's program.

The aim of this program is to provide education and counselling to 2.000 children a year in India by funding two mobile learning centres.

This partnership is a great way for this program to raise money. It allows the consumer to not only donate but appear on an Aviva ad campaign, a great incentive! In turn Aviva appears not only in touch with their consumers, treating them as individuals, but in touch with the need for charitable giving around the globe. 

It has promising prospects as last year Aviva's Facebook page received 2 million views, while in excess of £150,000 was donated to Save the Children. Hopefully they'll be able to surpass that this year.