Long-Range Forecast

Posted on February 1, 2006 by Chief Marketer Staff

At first, Darell Hammond worried that the most pressing need in Bay St. Louis wasn’t a playground. The Mississippi town had been devastated by Hurricane Katrina, its houses washed away, many of its residents scattered. A playground seemed, well, frivolous.

But Hammond and his non-profit, KaBOOM, went to Bay St. Louis anyway, and built a playground there last month. Residents pitched in, happy to work on something more cheerful than clearing debris.

“People outside Bay St. Louis questioned whether building a playground was appropriate, but the people there didn’t doubt it,” says Hammond, CEO of Washington-based KaBOOM. “This is not a FEMA trailer—it’s a permanent playground that’s done. They’re thrilled.”

Now families drive an hour and a half to play there. During the build, residents told KaBOOM’s crew, “We don’t want to be the anniversary place that gets attention one year after Katrina, but ignored the rest of the time.”

Corporations and consumers responded swiftly and generously after a string of natural disasters: the 2004 Asian tsunami, Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma, and Pakistan’s earthquake. After Katrina, Wal-Mart Stores and The Home Depot used their logistics prowess to deliver supplies across the storm-ravaged Gulf; retailers and a myriad of brands set up donation boxes and online links to funnel consumer donations directly to the American Red Cross and other relief agencies.

But that was six months ago; for most consumers, the urgency is gone. Still, the need is there, and some marketers are tapping their cause-marketing programs to help. At the same time, a handful of marketing agencies are readying a pro bono fundraising campaign to launch this spring. The effort, “Making Change for Katrina,” will ask consumers to donate spare change via Coinstar coin-counting machines in 12,000 stores. The group, led by Cone Communications, is looking for more partners, especially media and retailers, to spread the word and collect donations.

Home Depot—a charter sponsor of KaBOOM—and Motorola are funding playground builds this month and next. Home Depot revised the map it set with KaBOOM last year for a $25 million campaign to rebuild 1,000 playgrounds in 1,000 days, reallocating some money and materials to the Gulf region, and KaBOOM will launch a multi-tiered sponsorship program online next month.

Meanwhile, Jones Apparel Group tapped its fledgling Jones in the Classroom program to make over a Houston school that’s hosting several students displaced by Katrina.

Consumers expect corporations to respond quickly—more quickly, in fact, than the government. Fully 87% of Americans expect corporations to play “an important role” in rebuilding a disaster-stricken region, and a surprising 62% said corporations can respond more effectively than the government can, according to Cone’s September survey of 1,044 U.S. adults.

Consumers also expect corporations to stay involved until a disaster-stricken area is restored. More than half (53%) of Cone’s respondents said companies should support relief efforts until the area and its residents are thriving. (Thirteen percent said companies should pitch in for two years; 11% said six months; 9% said two years, and 7% said more than two years.)

But marketers want to keep consumers engaged, too. Some are using their long-term cause-marketing platforms to stretch interest beyond that initial response, kicking existing programs up a notch to meet the additional need.

“Companies are being a lot more careful about using their limited funds to do what they’ve committed to, and do it well. They have to take that initial commitment very seriously,” says Dana DiPrima, executive VP of The Leverage Group, which handles Jones Apparel Group’s Jones in the Classroom program.

Beyond triage

Jones’ makeover of Shearn Elementary School was already on the calendar before Katrina struck. Jones was just starting a summer-long contest with non-profit Fund for Teachers, awarding classroom makeovers in five cities (but not Houston) when DiPrima happened to meet Home Depot’s community relations chief at a conference. Home Depot was looking for a project in Houston for its national “month of service” campaign in September; Jones, through its sponsorship of Funds for Teachers, had its eye on Shearn. “We fast-tracked it,” DiPrima says.

Then Katrina hit, and Houston took in evacuees. The stakes changed. “We didn’t want to look opportunistic, or leave them in a lurch, either,” DiPrima says. “We wanted to keep our commitment to the school.”

So Jones, Home Depot and a handful of partners went ahead with the Sept. 14 makeover, using 300 volunteers and $50,000 in donations to refurbish all classrooms, athletic fields and the gym, adding $5,000 worth of books to the nearly bare library and giving each teacher a gift bag with a Jones shirt, pearls (ties for men), socks and accessories. French Toast donated uniforms for the 38 evacuee students; Jones designer Joi Denenberg picked Shearn’s paint palette, and Ryan McGinnis, who designed Jones in the Classroom’s apple logo, turned the logo into a decal for the classroom doors.

“The stars aligned for us to all come together to work on this school,” says Amy Rapaway, VP-marketing for Jones New York.

Jones also helped a second non-profit, Adopt a Classroom, upgrade its online registry of teachers seeking grants for classroom supplies so the registry could match teachers affected by Katrina and Rita with donors eager to help schools in the region.

“We stuck with what we were doing, but expanded to accommodate fact that something big had happened and teachers needed help,” DiPrima says.

Now entering its second year, Jones in the Classroom will stick with its core mission, working through four non-profits to support teachers nationally (August 2005 PROMO). But it’s connecting teachers in the Gulf to all four non-profits.

Home Depot and KaBOOM revised their 2006 plans immediately after Katrina struck. Last summer, Home Depot committed $25 million over three years to build 1,000 playgrounds in 1,000 days; it has reallocated materials and money to put more of those playgrounds in the Gulf region, including communities now housing evacuees. Home Depot will build a playground in Pass Christian, MS on April 22, with at least two others to follow this spring.

When Katrina hit, “we immediately reviewed our budgets and timelines” for playgrounds planned nationally to put more sites around the Gulf, says Kevin Martinez, Home Depot director of community affairs. “We were very apprehensive to say ‘Let’s build some playgrounds’ because people needed houses. But people also needed to see something was being done, and the houses weren’t ready to be built yet.”

Home Depot shifted money for rebuilding from other regions, but also from other cause tie-ins. The retailer used funds earmarked for volunteer work, giving $1.2 million to non-profit Hands On Network to set up three volunteer action centers and to create tool banks that lend tools, vehicles and equipment to building teams.

Home Depot also solicited donations from customers for the first time. An in-store campaign, “Rebuilding Hope and Homes,” ran for two months in the fall, via P-O-P and in-store radio. Home Depot matched shopper donations three to one; all money went to Home Depot Foundation, which works with United Way and others to fund rebuilding resources.

“We have an obligation to our customers and associates to be strong in the building arena when we talk about how we give back to communities,” Martinez says.

KaBOOM’s Hammond also hopes to raise additional funds, not just redistribute existing donations. Next month, KaBOOM will launch an online list of about 100 projects seeking sponsors, from the swing or slide that a scout troop or classroom can sponsor, to adopt-a-park offers tailored to church or community groups, to national tie-ins for marketers. KaBOOM is also talking with potential sponsors about a blitz build on Katrina’s anniversary.

“The good news is, corporations want to help,” Hammond says. “But they’re still waiting. They want to know how they can pass it on to consumers, to keep them involved. Part of the goal is to not let this become back-page news.”

Meanwhile, KaBOOM has delayed the planned spring launch of its Playful Cities program slated for April-October. The effort, which asks consumers to nominate their town for recognition of great park spaces, long recess times and other measures of “play,” is now slated for 2007. KaBOOM had a media partner and packaged goods sponsor, but there’s no guarantee they’ll be back. The CPG had an on-pack promotion planned; KaBOOM’s delay was a major monkey wrench.

“They had a very tight strategy baked. I understand their disappointment and frustration,” Hammond says. “But we knew we couldn’t do both at the same time. If we succeed in the Gulf by showing that citizens have a voice in local efforts, then Playful Cities will be even easier to roll out.”

(Neither the CPG or the media partner offered to work with KaBOOM in the Gulf.)

Agencies step up, too

Cone Communications has adopted Gulf rebuilding as the pro bono centerpiece of its 25th anniversary. The agency is recruiting media, retail and brand partners for Making Change for Katrina, a national fundraiser set for April-November (see “How You Can Help,” p. 35). Spokescharacters Nick and Penny will ask consumers to donate their spare change in PSAs and signs on 12,000 Coinstar machines. Cone hopes to raise $100 million—a mere 1% of the estimated $10 billion in coins lurking behind couch cushions—for Habitat for Humanity. A running tally on www.makingchangeforkatrina.com uses Coinstar’s daily stats; a ZIP code directory lets consumers find the closest donation point.

Cone also is developing a curriculum (on hurricanes, and charitable giving) for schools; high school and college outreach will run via Habitat’s 1,800 local chapters.

Five of Cone’s Omnicom Group siblings have already stepped up. BBDO is creating PSAs, and Ph.D will distribute them; brand ID shop Siegel & Gale created the characters; AWE handles celebrity engagement; and Live Technology handles the Web site. Clear Channel will make materials available to its radio stations; BzzAgent will mobilize its 100,000 word-of-mouth agents for 10 to 12 weeks.

“We want others to put their creativity against it and get engaged beyond writing a check. We want chatter,” Cone says.

Habitat has already gotten $85 million for Gulf recovery since Katrina, but “you can go through $85 million in a hurry” at $75,000 per house, with 500,000 houses damaged in the region, says Chris Clarke, senior VP-communications at Habitat for Humanity. “Sustained fundraising beyond the immediacy of the news reports is so vital to us making a significant difference over the next several years.”

Fully 63% of Americans want to help with post-Katrina rebuilding, but don’t know how, according to Cone research.

Consumers embraced housing as a cause after Katrina, with 68% eager to support it (up from 56% before Katrina), per Cone. Also up: support for youth (cited by 73% of respondents, up from 59%) and poverty (75%, up from 65%).

Future planning

Non-profits know rebuilding will be a long, slow process.

“With the tsunami, we realized that the first three or four months are slow: clearing debris, planning how to build on a large scale,” Clarke says. “We’re proud that within one year, we’ve put 6,000 families back in homes.”

Habitat has 60 homes under construction in the Gulf region, and plans to spend 2006 ramping up to build hundreds of houses.

Home Depot has budgeted for Katrina-related programs this year, and is looking towards the horizon. “It’s not over for us,” Martinez says. “Rebuilding will go on for decades.”

Home Depot’s three-tiered response plan tackles immediate relief, then recovery, then rebuilding with input from relief agencies like Red Cross and from local leaders.

“We’re creating relationships in local markets…to be sure in-kind donations go to right places for the biggest impact,” Martinez says.

KaBOOM, too, has set intermediate and long-term goals. First, to work with politicians and citizen groups to insure that play spaces are part of master plans, and are well-funded: “If they don’t put recreation on the docket now, it may go away,” Hammond says. Then KaBOOM will continue policy work and building at least 100 playgrounds over two years. (KaBOOM and Home Depot will receive Halo Awards from the Cause Marketing Forum in June, for their work together and with other partners.)

Marketers should factor long-term recovery into their disaster-response plans, argues David Hessekiel, founder of the Cause Marketing Forum.

“Sept. 11 opened a terrible new era in dealing with disasters; relief funds and in-kind contributions set a new standard. The 2004 tsunami repeated that, as did Katrina,” he says. “You’d have to be a cockeyed optimist not to feel like we’ll have a disaster every year.”

Philanthropy programs likely will stay at arm’s length from marketing. “With the transparency afforded by the Internet and blogs, companies have to be very careful that they’re not seen as profiting from disaster,” Cone says.

It just takes genuine commitment, Hammond argues. “Authenticity drives the cynicism away. People in the area, their worst fear is to be forgotten. Anyone who goes down there sees their appreciation.”