Corporate Sponsorship is the Key
We all like it when someone does us a good turn and likewise we revel in the warm glow when we do a good deed for someone in need of our help. Good deeds are not only within the gift of individuals though since very many large companies feel it’s important to do charitable work or to raise funds to support good causes.
For example, major manufacturers in the retail world have done their part for the greater good by supporting the Sport Relief charity in 2010. The money raised by Sport Relief helps fund the charitable work done by Comic Relief to help disadvantaged people, both at home in the UK and also in the world’s poorest countries, wherever the need is greatest.
Whilst high profile celebrities like David Walliams cycling the length and breadth of the country or Eddie Izzard running 43 marathons in 51 days will raise a considerable amount of money in well publicised, one-off events, there is always a need for a constant and consistent flow of funds to help those less fortunate than ourselves.
This is where corporate sponsorship is key. And more importantly, this is where a major UK retailer and one of its global supplier partners become central to the fund raising effort. The retailer in question has been supporting Comic Relief since 1999, and has raised a staggering £43M to date and are the headline sponsor for the Sport Relief Mile.
In this particular case, the retailer is raising money by selling Sport Relief branded merchandise, scratch cards and also encouraging donations from suppliers for selected products sold in their stores. They are joined in this fund raising effort by a number of their manufacturer, supplier partners, but it happened on this occasion that Fifth Dimension also became involved.
The manufacturer in question planned to raise £936,000 for this worthy cause by donating 5p per item from the sale of a number of brands in their product portfolio, and, in addition to that, donating 10p from their high profile, market leading brands.
Virtual Store developed to Visualise In-Store Campaign Materials
Pledging and planning to raise money is, of course, just the beginning of the program. To maximise donations both parties needed to work together to maximise the sales of the nominated products. They needed to drive purchase decisions in store by drawing shoppers’ attention to the campaign and encouraging them to support the initiative. With this in mind, the manufacturer created a comprehensive store implementation package of floor stickers, barker cards, shelf fins and channel stripping to help promote Sport Relief and make shoppers aware of how much money was donated to the charity whenever they purchased a nominated product.
The next step was to make sure the in-store implementation of these materials was second to none. The manufacturer wanted to use their field agency to ensure the highest standard of compliance in-store but they also wanted the individual store managers excited about the amount of support that they were giving. It was at this point that the manufacturer turned to Fifth Dimension.
The image above shows a frame from the Virtual Store animation, created by Fifth Dimension, which was used to communicate the in-store implementation of the promotional materials.
Fifth Dimension has a long history working closely with the manufacturer and was therefore well placed to help bring the campaign to life. It was decided that an explanatory movie was required showing what the manufacturer was planning and how it was to be implemented in store to achieve the best possible success. The movie would also show how much money was raised and where the money was going.
Perfect In-Store Execution Assures Success
The movie was given to the McCurrach team on Sport Relief and the manufacturer also provided branded memory sticks carrying the movie so that it could be reviewed by each of the retailer’s 400 plus store managers. This helped the store managers understand how important good in-store implementation was to the success of the campaign and also exactly what ‘good implementation’ should look like at the point of purchase.
The image above shows the final in-store implementation of the promotional point of sale materials in a typical store aisle layout. In-store promotions were not the only thing the manufacturer contributed to raise money and awareness for the campaign. They also increased on-line Grocery site signage and added campaign specific branding on 1 million Scratch Cards. They also sponsored the Colleague Pack and branding 160,000 colleague fund-raising leaflets and kits.
An Example to Us All
All in all, that’s a huge amount of support for a very worthy cause. Everything came together on the 21st March in a successful and worthy campaign result. The retailer and manufacturer concerned should be very proud of what they’ve achieved and by the huge number of people whose lives will have been immeasurably improved by their altruistic efforts. An example to us all.
Of course, this kind of collaboration is not unique to the project described here. Other retailers and manufacturers collaborate on a wide variety of campaigns. Here is another example, ‘Walmart Goes Pink with Mills, Purina‘, just published, which illustrates the success of such teamwork and the benefits it can bring to the needy or suffering.
