Marketing Red Nose Day USA

Today is Red Nose Day in America, a day of fundraising to support children's charities and combat poverty.

NBC is broadcasting a telethon tonight in support of Red Nose Day, along with special programming featuring celebrities who are involved with the charity efforts. This high-profile media attention is a big part of the fundraising effort.

If you don't already have your Red Nose merchandise, hop on over to the local Walgreens and buy a nose or another item where the purchase supports the charities. Walgreens is the official retail partner and its stores are doing their part with signage, enthusiastic employees, etc.

Charity partners are also marketing Red Nose Day. Save the Children, for instance, has its website and social media sites promoting the event and urging donations.

And Red Nose Day USA is extremely active all over social media. Its Twitter account has 60,000 followers and is posting videos, images, and other content to engage and energize people. Go ahead, put on your red nose and get funny for money (to support serious causes).

Marketing May 26 as Red Nose Day

For the second consecutive year, Red Nose Day jumps the pond and transplants itself in America to raise money for children's charities. The telethon will air on May 26th.

Walgreens is the official retail partner, selling plastic red noses for $1 and other red merchandise to add a smile and raise money (all profits to charity). NBC is the official network sponsor of the two-hour telethon. M&Ms returns as a sponsor, as well. In 2015, it won a Shorty Award for its Red Nose Day promotions.

In 2015, Red Nose Day USA collected $23 million for children's charities. Can it break that record and raise more?

The US Red Nose Day Facebook page has 73k likes and the Twitter account has 49k followers. The Instagram account has 13k followers and fun photos of celebrities wearing red noses.

New social media content is being posted almost every day leading up to the telethon. Posting with the hashtag #RedNoseDay on social media helps spread the word and build momentum. I just tweeted with the hashtag, noting that I've purchased red noses for friends and family. Looking forward to serious fun for a serious cause.

Toms, Mission-Driven Marketing, and the Retail Experience

Stores are where brands sell. Retail experiences are how people buy. And that's why the footwear/eyeware firm Toms pays special attention to the nuances of atmospherics and community when opening its Toms Outpost retail spaces.

Toms is known for its "one for one" charitable program, an integral part of its mission-driven marketing strategy: every time shoppers buy one pair of shoes/eyewear, Toms donates one to someone in need, somewhere in the world.

When thinking about "stores," founder Blake Mycoskie focused on the firm's value-added strategy: "I didn't want to start with a store. I didn't feel like that added any value." His vision was that of a "community outpost" where people can meet, get information, enjoy activities, and--of course--view and purchase products.

The Toms Outpost in lower Manhattan, for example, encourages customers to hang up their coats or hats, sit and sip a latte, and browse branded eyewear and casual clothing or look at what community groups have posted on the bulletin board. It's low-key and allows browsers to explore the brand's values as presented in the retail experience.

The Toms store in Venice, California invites visitors to put on virtual reality glasses and see how purchases of Toms products make a real difference through the "one for one" program. In other words, the mission-driven marketing is on display as part of the retail experience.

By the way, Toms recently launched a line of shoes through a licensing deal with National Geographic Society. The Society's head of licensing stated: “Mission-driven products are more important than ever and this partnership celebrates a new way of thinking for brands and the good they can do through collaboration.”

Red Nose Day: A Good Laugh for a Good Cause

Red Nose Day (from Comic Relief) has been raising money in the U.K. for nearly 30 years. Now this "get funny for money" fundraiser, beloved by U.K. consumers and a major source of charitable donations for fighting poverty and social injustice, is coming to the U.S. for the first time.

It will be nationally broadcast on May 21st as a telethon by NBC, featuring videos from Funny or Die and appearances by a bevy of celebrities. Proceeds will benefit these charities, among others: Boys & Girls Clubs, Feeding America, the Global Fund, Save the Children, and United Way.

Red Nose Day is a perfect fit with social media marketing. The U.S. version is just getting going, with fewer than 3,000 Facebook likes as of today, compared with nearly 700,000 for the UK Red Nose Day Facebook page. The Red Nose Day US Twitter site has nearly 1,000 followers as of today.

Walgreens is the exclusive U.S. retailer of red noses for Red Nose Day, on sale for only $1 each. When I bought my red noses today, I noticed that all Walgreens sales personnel were wearing the official Red Nose t-shirt and asking every customer to donate or participate.

Watch Facebook and Twitter for #RedNose hashtags in the coming weeks!

**UPDATE: The first U.S. Red Nose telethon raised $10 million by the half-way point in the evening. When the telethon ended, more than $21 million had been pledged or received. Well done!

Stand Up to Cancer on September 7

This is the third year of the star-studded Stand Up to Cancer telethon to raise money for anti-cancer research. On Friday, September 7th, the telethon will air without commercials at 8 pm on ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC, and a number of cable channels, including HBO, HBO Latino, Bio, Lifetime Movie Network, Logo, MLB Network, mun2, Palladia, and VH1. It's an effective "roadblock" media technique that helps SU2C reach as many viewers as possible in a very short time.

The money raised will be donated to specialized "dream teams" of cancer researchers who focus on treatments for pancreatic cancer, breast cancer, prostate cancer, and other types of cancer.

With 875,000 Facebook "likes," 104,000 Twitter followers, and videos posted on wurl, SU2C is leveraging its social media presence to get the word out. I'm following @SU2C and hope it raises LOTS of money for this good cause.