March 5, 2019 Heather James

Five Cause Marketing Campaigns that Made Waves in 2018

by TVG Staff

Every year, we see public relations campaigns that have a big impact on society. When campaigns combine philanthropic efforts with awareness– also called cause marketing they can make major waves in our lives. Many businesses had a great year in 2018 for not only ‘talking the talk’ but also ‘walking the walk.’  

Here are five of our favorite cause marketing campaigns from 2018: 

McDonald’s Flip Day for International Women’s Day   

McDonald’s is a major worldwide brand, with immense power to showcase its voice and make an impact. In a clever tactic to start a conversation, spark interest and celebrate International Women’s Day, McDonald’s turned some of their trademark Golden Arches upsidedown to reveal a ‘W’ for Women, and put out content about the impact women have had on their business.  

In addition to changing their signs, they also changed the direction of the golden arches at 100 of their restaurants. We’re excited to see what McDonald’s, and other businesses have in store this year for International Women’s Day March 8! 

Lacoste #SaveOurSpecies

Lacoste is well known for the crocodile logo embroidered on their shirts. It is a long-standing signature of the brand. In 2018, with the help of the International Union for Conservation and Nature, Lacoste switched out their iconic crocodile for 10 different endangered animals. They created limited-edition polo shirts with the logos of the various species. To really drive the point home, the rarer the species, the rarer the polo with the logo emblazoned on its chest.  

The money raised from the campaign went toward initiatives to preserve wildlife, and to fight against overhunting and poaching. In addition to a landing page where you could purchase the shirts, they had facts about each of the animals and the threats they currently face. All of the shirts sold out.  

Sometimes it isn’t clear what impact we are having on our world, but this campaign helped create a conversation on the effect we have on the environment around us.  

Anheuser-Busch InBev Water Campaign 

Anheuser-Busch InBev is one of the biggest worldwide brands. Native to St. Louis, the makers of Budweiser have been donating canned water to disaster relief efforts for the past 30 years, yet there were some extreme natural disasters in 2018 that warranted its place on this list.  

In 2018, the brewer donated 100,000 cans of water to aid the California wildfire relief, and 300,000 cans to the Hurricane Florence Relief.  The main ingredient in beer is water, and facilities that manufacture beer have the capability to filter water. Such donations show their commitment to the community, and remind us how much we depend on water.  

#ShareTheJoy Shared Parental Leave Campaign 

It isn’t as common to see a public relations campaign supported or sanctioned by a government. The Industrial Strategy and Good Work plan formed in the UK in 2015 was in response to the drastically low number of employees taking advantage of the leave granted them after the birth of a child. Only two percent of the 285,000 estimated eligible couples took the leave, because many of them did not know about it. The campaign brought attention to the leave available, which entailed that the parents could be home with the baby up to six months in the first year together.  

Overall, they found that when parents took a leave to spend time with their newborn, they were more productive when they returned to work, less anxious about the condition of their child, and more confident about the child and its health.  

World Wildlife Federation Elephant Hologram 

The World Wildlife Federation unveiled a hologram elephant that wandered London in the first week of October as a way to encourage public awareness of poaching and to put a stop to wildlife crime and trafficking.  

This particular campaign used technology to help bring awareness to the lasting effect of hunting, poaching and environmental damage to the global ecosystem. The effort was just before a world leader summit in London.  

 

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