Thursday, February 23, 2012

THON 2012: An Amazing Success!

Having a freshmen daughter at Penn State, I was enlightened of THON, a 46-hour dance marathon to raise funds for the fight against pediatric cancer. With a 40 year history, THON 2012 occurred this past weekend, raising a record-breaking amount of $10,686,924.83.

My daughter, who is part of the Zeta Tau Alpha sorority, asked me if I would host a “canning weekend." In total I hosted two weekends where eighteen wonderful Zeta and Alpha Tau Omega members camped out at my home with one specific goal: to raise as much money as possible from our community.

There were challenges; the Penn State scandal, the economy, and a cancelled canning weekend. But the 177 students focused on surpassing last year’s funds raised. One dollar or quarter at a time over 8 weekends, Alpha Tau Omega and Zeta Tau Alpha beat out all Greek organizations, raising a total of $329,863.76!

As I watched some of the streaming video over the weekend, I was amazed at the success achieved.

Planning has already begun for Thon 2013; Thon chairs are being chosen, parents are being asked to host canning weekends and the goal to surpass $330,000 is a given. I am confident that the focused students of Zeta Tau will achieve their goals.

(Posted by: Tally Maffucci, President)

Labels: fundraising, THON

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

IKEA “Bring Your Own Friends” Campaign a Marketing Success

IKEA has done it again, this time in America. Recently we told you about the ingenious hiring campaign IKEA deployed in Australia; again the company has used its fans to get the marketing job done. So what was the Bring Your Own Friends campaign? IKEA USA gave back to its customers while at the same time raised money for the charity, Save the Children.

“The way it worked was simple: IKEA told its more than 430,000 Facebook fans to invite buddies to bring along and enjoy a full day of free in-store meals, massages, gift card giveaways, discounts and other perks for one blowout shopping day in mid-January at IKEA stores nationwide.”

By liking their Facebook page, fans could RSVP at their local IKEA, download coupons for the store and invite their friends to join them for a day. With every invite, IKEA promised to donate $1 to Save the Children. IKEA reached their goal of $50,000 for the cause.

To learn more about the campaign, check out Direct Marketing News.

(Posted by: Diana Fitzgerald, Marketing Assistant)

Labels: Facebook, IKEA, marketing

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Pinterest: A New Way to Market

If you haven’t gotten that elusive invitation in your inbox, you’ve been missing out on the latest (and greatest) social networking site, Pinterest. What is Pinterest? “It’s an online community that allows users to create online image collages, then quickly and easily share those collages — called 'pinboards' — with other Pinterest users. "

Gone are the days of trimming out magazines and creating inspiration boards, now you can gather images and videos from all over the internet, or your own personal collection, and pin them to your boards based on categories. The image-based site it not only beautiful to look at, but extremely useful, especially for brides-to-be like myself. My pinboards are full of wedding cakes, DIY reception ideas, and when my mind isn’t taken over by wedding stuff, the occasional yummy recipe or home décor idea.

So how does this affect marketing? “Well, Pinterest has nearly five million users, and is rapidly growing. Nearly 1.5 million unique users visit Pinterest daily, spending an average of 15 minutes a day on the site.” Since the images link back to the website they came from, the opportunity to drive traffic to your content is astounding. “In January 2012, Pinterest drove greater traffic to websites than LinkedIn, Google Plus, Reddit, and Youtube — combined.”

How can you use Pinterest to your benefit? Check out Copyblogger’s post on 56 Ways to Market Your Business on Pinterest.

Here’s a little preview of the tips:

1. Make sure you feature your business name on your profile for maximum exposure. Use your business name as your username, or change your profile name to your business name after your profile is set up.

2. Add a paragraph about who you are and what you’re interested in to the “About” section on your Pinterest profile. It will show up right under your photo, and will be one way that users can find out more about you.

3. Connect your account with your Facebook and Twitter accounts. Not only will it help you gain followers, but making this connection adds social media icons under your profile picture that link to your Facebook and Twitter profiles.

…Read all 56 tips on Copyblogger’s website.

Have fun pinning!

(Posted by: Diana Fitzgerald, Marketing Assistant)

Thursday, February 9, 2012

CARE invites you to "Follow the Wings"

CARE has partnered with Sunovion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Lunesta) in an online game to fight against global poverty! Every time the game is played or shared, Sunovion donates $1, up to $100,000 to help support CARE's work to empower women to lift themselves, whole families and entire communities out of poverty – for good.

Visit www.FollowTheWings.com to play!

(Posted by: Diana Fitzgerald, Marketing Assistant)

Labels: CARE, client, donation, game

Friday, February 3, 2012

Direct Mail Smackdown

In case you haven't seen it yet, Target Marketing does a piece each week called "Direct Mail Smackdown" where they pit two packages from similar mailers against one another and contrast and compare them. This week, BOTH packages were from the SAME mailer, Consumer Reports! As one of Consumer Reports' list brokers, you can imagine this segment caught my attention.

Even though the formats are very different (one is a magalog and one is a large envelope), both packages use attention grabbing teasers, large type, lots of color and pictures and are chock full of information. Both reply devices give a great list of benefits. And they're not the same old boring voucher packages everybody else is using! The advocate for the large envelope gave the package bonus points for flattering the recipient with "Lucky You" and the use of the "Free" sticker involvement device.

Which one wins in the mail? Believe it or not, its virtually a tie!

(Posted by: Debbie McLain, Sr. Vice President, Nonprofit Division)

Labels: client, direct mail, magalog

AICR celebrates 30 years

Congratulations to the American Institute for Cancer Research as they celebrate 30 years of helping people make choices that reduce their chances of developing cancer.

According to AICR, the organization was founded in 1982 “to advance the simple but then-radical idea that cancer could be prevented. AICR focused on the link between diet and cancer, and immediately began supporting cutting-edge research in this area and educating the public about the results.”

In honor of February being National Cancer Prevention Month, and World Cancer Day fast approaching on February 4, take a moment and check out AICR’s website for great information on some simple but proven steps you can add to your daily routine to prevent cancer.

AICR’s Three Guidelines for Cancer Prevention:

1. Choose mostly plant foods, limit red meat and avoid processed meat.

2. Be physically active every day in any way for 30 minutes or more.

3. Aim to be a healthy weight throughout life.

(Posted by: Diana Fitzgerald, Marketing Assistant)

Labels: AICR, anniversaries, client

Thursday, February 23, 2012

THON 2012: An Amazing Success!

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

IKEA “Bring Your Own Friends” Campaign a Marketing Success

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Pinterest: A New Way to Market

Thursday, February 9, 2012

CARE invites you to "Follow the Wings"

Friday, February 3, 2012

Direct Mail Smackdown

AICR celebrates 30 years

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