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Weekend Read: Bono’s (RED) Shopping Campaign Makes Money Instead of Taking Money

Authored by Jay Baage on October 20, 2006 - 11:34am.
Bono’s (RED) campaign is simply genius. It is really not about charity or corporate social responsibility, as much as it is about the joy of shopping and increased profits. And that is a good thing. The (RED) campaign manages a way to incorporate charity in everyday life that it as simple as it is effective. The campaign is marketing 2.0.

A friend of mine that works in marketing for American Express first told me about The (RED) card a few months ago. It was one of those total no-brainers that makes you wonder “why hasn’t anyone thought of this before?”.

For those of you who are not familiar with the American Express (RED) Card, it’s a new credit card that is first being launched in the UK, with the potential to launch in the rest of the world. The unique purpose of the card is that up to 1.25% on all eligible expenditures go directly to Bono’s charity organization, The Global Fund, on the cardholder’s behalf. In other words, the more you spend, the more you give.

Think about that for a moment. If you spend $200 for a dinner date or even $5000 on an exclusive watch, you would feel better about using The (RED) Card, since a big donation can be made on your behalf at no additional cost or inconvenience. Moreover, your date or business associate will likely be impressed by your social consciousness when you using The (RED) Card as opposed to some other credit card.

So what happens to your donation? Product (RED) directs the money raised to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, a non-profit foundation based in Switzerland. In April, The Wall Street Journal reported that the fund had raised $4.8 billion from governments, but less than $2 million from corporations worldwide. And, yes, the total amount of zero dollars from American companies. That is about to change, thanks to Bono and Oprah.

Bono was promoting the campaign on Oprah Winfrey's influential TV show last Friday, October 13, after taking a shopping trip to participating (RED) stores in Chicago on Thursday.

The (RED) Card is just one of the products featured in the Product (RED) campaign. On Friday, Gap launched its own (RED) line, featuring T-shirts and tank tops and jean jackets emblazoned with such messages as Inspi(RED). For the benefit of the campaign, Steven Spielberg has been photographed in a Gap Product (RED) jacket... and Penélope Cruz has poured her form into the T-shirt...and model Christy Turlington has donned the tank top. Chris Rock and Mary J. Blige are also on board, as well. Gap will channel up to 50 percent of profits of the (RED) products to the program.

Moreover, Converse will release a series of limited edition shoes, Apple will sell a (RED) iPod nano that will carry the (RED) trademark. The (RED) iPod Nano sells for $199, which is the same price as the other models, but $10 for each (RED) iPod sold will go to the Global Fund.

And there are a lot of companies that are getting in on this socially conscious marketing bandwagen. Motorola is selling a (RED) Razr cellphone - “where desire meets virtue”. Next month, Armani will launch more (RED) stuff. Yes, the companies are getting good publicity and all that, but what is different about this campaign is that it actually makes sense from a business perspective, as well.

The campaign has already raised about $10 million in Britain to The Global Fund, in turn, increasing sales and profit for participating companies. Bono, co-founder of (RED), said, “AIDS in Africa is an emergency, that’s why we chose the color Red. When you buy a (RED) product, the company gives money to buy pills that will keep someone in Africa alive. The idea is simple, the products are sexy and people live instead of die. It’s consumer power at work for those who have no power at all.”

The (RED) campaign is already starting to have an effect on business in the US. The online research firm Hitwise released a report on Thursday that shows that two thirds of all visits to the (RED) campaign website continued to one of the product (RED) merchandise partner websites for the week of October 14, 2006. That is a conversion rate that even expert users of Google AdWords dream of having.

Bono’s manifesto is to embrace western society’s commercialism and celebrity fixation and make it work for a good cause. His vision conveys that businesses speak the language of profits, so let’s speak that language and they will understand. After all, maxing profits is built into the legal definition of corporations. The (RED) way allows corporations to be true to their goals, while doing good and benefiting the bottom line benefits.

Apparently, the campaign's parentheses are meant to signify an embrace. Thus, each company that becomes (RED) places its logo in this embrace, becoming "elevated to the power of (RED)” in the process.

Ironically, Bono is even managing to change the meaning of the expression “being in the red” - a market saying used when a business is losing money - into something positive and profit-making.

Now that is pretty cool.

Joakim Baage
Senior Writer

Related Links:
Marketing A Conscience, Selling A Product (Toronto Star)
American Express RED
www.theglobalfund.org
www.joinred.com
joinred.blogspot.com (BLOG) RED
tags: Marketing | Payments | Charity | Commerce | Retail | AIDS | Health | Bono | Africa | (RED) |



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