Inside The #DefendBearsEars Cause Marketing Campaign

Cause marketing isn’t a new phenomenon to many large companies, however more and more brands have been rolling out cause marketing campaigns in recent years. Several brands have found that aligning themselves with a social cause that speaks to their customers’ ideals can reap big rewards. WHAT IS CAUSE MARKETING?

In broad terms, it refers to any type of marketing effort for a social cause or charitable organization. Here are some cause marketing examples:

• Walgreens and Red Nose Day: Red Nose Day is an annual campaign to raise money for programs that help children living in poverty. Walgreens is the exclusive U.S. retailer of Red Noses. All profits from red nose sales benefits Red Nose Day

• TOMS’ One for One program: for every pair of shoes purchased, TOMS gives a pair to someone who needs it

• Warby Parker’s Buy a Pair, Give a Pair program: for every pair of glasses purchased, Warby Parker donates a pair to someone in need.

One recent, super successful cause marketing example was REI’s #OptOutside campaign. In the early fall of 2016, REI decided against opening their doors on Black Friday. Instead, REI gave their 12,000 employees the day to spend outdoors and urged their customers to do the same.

Closing their stores on what has become the biggest shopping day of the year was a huge risk for the company’s bottom line.

Luckily for REI and outdoor enthusiasts everywhere, the campaign was a hit in the outdoor industry and beyond. As a cause marketing campaign, #OptOutside won major advertising awards, reinforced REI’s brand identity in the short term, and won over customers in the long term. This campaign was successful because REI had a “truly empathetic understanding of its customers and use(d) that understanding to create experiences that customers value(d).”

“Over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home." — John Muir, naturalist. REI used his quote their #OptOutside print ad in the New York Times

Ok, enough with the cause marketing explanations. Let’s take a look at a current cause marketing campaign: #DefendBearsEars. WAIT, WHAT IS BEARS EARS NATIONAL MONUMENT? Established in December 2016, Bears Ears National Monument protects 1.3 million acres of public land in southeastern Utah. Land that is designated a national monument protects it from timber harvesting, mining and pipelines, and commercial development.

Soon after Bears Ears National Monument was established, legislative leaders in Utah passed a resolution challenging the new national monument designation and called on President Trump to rescind the national monument. In February, Utah Governor Gary Herbert signed the resolution. THE OUTDOOR INDUSTRY WEIGHS IN AND DEFENDS BEARS EARS NATIONAL MONUMENT On February 7, Patagonia announced that it would no longer participate in Outdoor Retailer shows in Salt Lake City. In their announcement, Patagonia urged other retailers to join it in moving to a state that "values our industry and promotes public land conservation.” In mid-February, Outdoor Retailer announced that it would no longer host its annual trade show in Utah due to the state’s opposition to the Bears Ears National Monument. The shows, which Salt Lake City has hosted for the last 20 years, bring about 40,000 visitors and $45 million to the city each year.

In April 2017, President Trump signed an executive order asking the Department of the Interior to reevaluate all the national monuments designated since 1996. The next month, the Department of the Interior issued a press release identifying the 26 national monuments up for review and establishing a 15 day window for comments from the public. By the time the window for public comments closed at the end of May, 55,000 people had written comments about Bears Ears National Monument. CAUSE MARKETING CASE STUDY: #DEFENDBEARSEARS Patagonia wasn’t the only outdoor brand actively supporting Bears Ears. Several outdoor industry brands created content, social media posts and emails urging their followers to speak out in support of the newest national monument.

The most outspoken outdoor industry brand in support of Bears Ears National Monument has been Patagonia. In addition to pulling out of Outdoor Retailer’s shows and urging other outdoor brands to do the same, they created calls to action on their website, social media posts, and emails.

Patagonia #DefendBearsEars Social Media Ad An example of Patagonia's cause marketing campaign to #DefendBearsEars

PATAGONIA DEFENDS BEARS EARS Patagonia’s involvement with Bears Ears goes back to 2013, when they began supporting local groups involved in lobbying for the protection of the area: Bears Ears Inte-Tribal Coalition, Friends of Cedar Mesa and Utah Diné Bikéyah.

PATAGONIA IS NO STRANGER TO CAUSE MARKETING

Since 1985, Patagonia has pledged 1% of sales to the preservation and restoration of the natural environment. In 2011, Patagonia launched their very successful “Don’t Buy this Jacket” ads, in which they urged their customers to consider the materials that go into each new Patagonia and the environmental impact.

When Bears Ears National Monument was established in December 2016, Patagonia began working on a series of ten 360-degree videos to raise awareness about the cultural and recreational significance of Bears Ears, as told by Native American tribal leaders and outdoor athletes.

Once Utah’s governor asked Trump to reevaluate the monument, Patagonia took the existing video--meant to celebrate the creation of Bears Ears National Monument--and turned them into calls-to-action in support of Bears Ears National Monument and the others being re-evaluated.

In addition to email and social media campaigns, Patagonia also bought digital ads with The New York Times and commercial spots during the PBS NewsHour.

“This is a flashpoint for us…. The clock is ticking, the urgency is there. We’re still doing all our usual things, but we need to get as many people aware of this as we can. We don’t want to look back a few months down the road and ask what more could we have done?" — Cory Bayers, Vice President of Marketing for Patagonia

THE FIGHT CONTINUES TO #DEFENDBEARSEARS On June 12, 2017, Interior Secretary Zinke recommended that the boundaries of Bears Ears National Monument be revised.

Rose Marcario, President and CEO of Patagonia, blasted the decision and reasserted that Patagonia would continue to defend the monument via a Facebook post: "Despite months of rhetoric claiming his respect for Teddy Roosevelt's legacy of public lands protection, Secretary Zinke revealed he is just another politician looking to exploit and develop America’s public lands at the expense of our children and grandchildren…. If the president decides to usurp Congress’s authority and shrink the boundaries on his own, Patagonia will take legal action to defend our public lands.” IS CAUSE MARKETING RIGHT FOR YOUR BRAND? There isn’t a magical formula for a successful cause marketing campaign, but if you’re trying to figure out if cause marketing is right for you and your company, there are several common traits to successful cause marketing campaigns. Do you have these three things:

“We have a community around our stores and brand–the people who participate in sports on these public lands–that we have a responsibility to. We have a responsibility to shout about it and be involved." — Cory Bayers, Vice President of Marketing, Patagonia

1. Deep understanding of your audience and their values. Public lands and the fight for Bears Ears National Monument is a cause Patagonia’s customers care about. Patagonia is one of several brands that outfits climbers, skiers, runners, surfers, and fishers. Their customer base regularly looks to Patagonia to keep them comfortable while sending, crushing, killing it--oftentimes doing so on public lands.
   

2. Simple, but powerful messaging. Does it get much easier to understand than #OptOutside or #DefendBearsEars? What’s the message for you cause marketing campaign? If it’s too long or convoluted, you may want to rethink your messaging.
   

3. Compelling images and videos. First some stats on the importance of videos and images in social media:

   • When people hear information, they're likely to remember only 10% of that information three days later. However, if a relevant image is paired with that same information, people retained 65% of the information three days later.

   • 4 times as many consumers would prefer to watch a video about a product than to read about it.

   • Tweets with images receive 150% more retweets than tweets without images and Facebook posts with images see 2.3 times more engagement than those without images.

So yeah, compelling images and videos will ensure that your initiative cuts through the social media/content clutter out there and resonate with your audience.