Peleg Top - Designing for the Greater Good: The Best in Cause-Related Marketing and Nonprofit Design

DAVID HESSEKIEL
President
Cause Marketing Forum After nearly a decade of studying cause marketing campaigns, I know that strong design is absolutely crucial to success. A gifted design team can breathe life and power into work that might otherwise be lost in the twister of advertising messages that swirls around us from morning to night. If the world were just and fair, the virtue of a message alone would make it stand out in the marketplace of ideas. Alas, that is not the case. Doing good is not good enough. Association with a worthwhile cause is not some sort of magical pixie dust that eliminates the need for excellent communication strategy, tactics and design.

Great design is especially crucial to cause-related work because the media budgets behind it are so often miniscule. A commercial campaign with a $100 million budget behind it can survive mediocre design. A cause-related effort relying primarily on donated media must jump off the page, handbill or screen to grab the attention of every consumer that sees it. And yet this truththat design is key to cause marketing successis not universally appreciated in the nonprofit world, an arena in which marketing itself was considered a necessary evil by many not long ago. Organizations driven by consensus decision making are especially challenged to produce programs incorporating great designanyone who has attempted art direction by committee knows how often that produces muddled work. Designing for the Greater Good is a valuable addition to the cause marketing literature for several reasons.

It is a unique showcase of campaigns that stand out from the crowd. This collection of work, often created in spite of low budgets and organizational impediments, should be an inspiration to creatives, nonprofit and corporate marketers alike. Do not make the mistake of keeping this book to yourself. Explore its pages and mark your favorite examples. Then share your discoveries with colleagues to help them envision how much more effective your efforts could be with an investment in great design.

LEIF STEINER
Moxie Sozo Design
Boulder, Colorado On a clear August day in 2005, Leif Steiner glimpsed a reality very different from his Boulder, Colorado-based existence.

I was in a bank, and on a TV monitor were these scenes of devastation, he says of his introduction to Hurricane Katrina. Were concerned about deadlines for things that will be forgotten in two weeks, and here people were dying, he says. Disasters happen in other places. Not here. Steiner resisted his initial urge to send cash to the relief effort, deciding to put his creativity to work. He discussed the idea of a fundraising campaign with a handful of colleagues at Moxie Sozo, and sent out a few e-mails.

Within twenty-four hours we were getting calls from all around the world, he says. People forwarded my e-mail to their friendsSingapore, South Africa, RussiaThere was no turning back. The ensuing enterprise, The Hurricane Poster Project, served a twofold purpose: to raise money for those affected by Katrina, as well as to provide a voice where artists and designers could comment. And comment they did. Sales of the nearly two hundred different, limited-edition posters earned fifty thousand dollars for the Red Cross. It was a very egalitarian system, Steiner says of the project, which accepted all comers from all corners of the globe.

There were students alongside these very famous artists. The posterspoignant, angry, bleak, optimistic and ever politicalrepresent, in Steiners words, an unedited reflection of the design world commenting on the disaster situation. Despite their fragile nature as works on paper, the Hurricane Poster Project is not gone with the wind. The Library of Congress requestedand receiveda complete set of images inspired by that terrible day. One hundred years from now, says Steiner, these posters will still be around. CREATED BY Lanny Sommese
Port Matilda, PA CREATED BY Jordan Butcher
Squad Studio Seattle, WA CREATED BY Michael Erazo-Kase
Mutt Ink
Philadelphia, PA CREATED BY Don Clark
Asterik Studio
Seattle, WA CREATED BY Jeff Boyes
Visual Technicians
Pitt Meadows, Canada CREATED BY Richard Boynton
Wink
Minneapolis, MN ORGANIZATION AmeriCares CREATED BY Dwayne Flinchum, Lori Ende
IridiumGroup
New York, NY ORGANIZATION AmeriCares CREATED BY Dwayne Flinchum, Lori Ende
IridiumGroup
New York, NY ORGANIZATION Homeless Emergency Project CREATED BY David Scott
Cosmic
St. CREATED BY Lanny Sommese
Port Matilda, PA CREATED BY Jordan Butcher
Squad Studio Seattle, WA CREATED BY Michael Erazo-Kase
Mutt Ink
Philadelphia, PA CREATED BY Don Clark
Asterik Studio
Seattle, WA CREATED BY Jeff Boyes
Visual Technicians
Pitt Meadows, Canada CREATED BY Richard Boynton
Wink
Minneapolis, MN