A Cause with Power

Who said that having a cause wouldn’t be powerful in life and business?

As in math, positive plus positive gives you a positive number. Businesses like math, especially when the result is positive, and increases over time. This analogy resonated more during my trip with the NMGZ community in Milwaukee and Chicago in early November. We visited some companies from different industries, including logistics, advertising, insurance, finance, and food. I felt I had enrolled in a new course in my MBA program about how different corporations operate. I want to highlight that I was impressed by how each company wanted to know more about how the young generation of professionals thought and felt motivated at work.

Moving back to the math analogy, one of the companies we visited was BVK, an advertising agency in Milwaukee. I was surprised by their professionalism, nitid work, and customer base, but what surprised me the most was their cause marketing department. A short parenthesis here is that I found my passion in Marketing 6 years ago during my first job, but I can tell that cause marketing does not only apply to marketing professionals but to every person who wants to make a positive impact at a personal and business level. According to Indeed, “Cause marketing is a type of campaign in which a for-profit business seeks to advocate for a social cause while increasing profits.”

When I listened to BVK’s cause marketing manager and his team, I could see a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction not only at a business but also at a personal stage. He shared many stories about their advertising campaigns with nonprofits. All the surprises, the ups and downs, what worked well and what didn’t.

Here’s where the math comes in. BVK’s cause marketing manager shared the results of some advertising campaigns. The Teen Life Won’t Change campaign was intended to help a local nonprofit increase awareness about high teen pregnancy rates in Milwaukee. The ads were placed around the city’s bus stops and showed how teens’ lives were going to change if they had a baby. The campaign results were impressive. The ads spread over the media and were used in Chicago, where they reached more than a billion media impressions. As part of a seven-year effort, the campaign also helped reduce teen pregnancy in Milwaukee by more than 56%. Both profit and nonprofit gained in the equation and positively impacted their community. Both gained goal attainment, community awareness, media enrichment, and resource efficiency.

Source: BVK website

Nevertheless, in the equation, some negative values can be added along the process and result in a negative number. As we heard from BVK stories, not all campaigns register great results. We can see the negative values as challenges that arise when collaborating with other companies. They may have different cultures, resources, and working processes that are not carefully aligned before the collaboration starts. Consequently, some negative perceptions and controversies from outsiders can affect the brand's reputation. Therefore, transparent communication, commitment, and adaptability are key to overcoming these challenges. Staying authentic to the brand values, measuring the impact, conducting risk mitigation, and complying with legal considerations also shape successful cause marketing.

Either with cause marketing or a cause that resonates with your values, you can be the change agent that brings great positive results to your organization, community, and the world in general.