Treat it Forward

Campaign: Treat it Forward
Company: Wendy’s
Nonprofit Partner: The Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption
Launch Date: June 12, 2012

Campaign Description:  

Continuing its Father’s Day Frosty Weekend cause marketing tradition for the sixth year in a row, participating Wendy’s restaurants invite customers to help raise $1.6 million by purchasing a Frosty product on June 16 or 17 (triggering a 50-cent donation); using a mobile website to check in at Wendy’s on June 16 or 17 (triggering a 50-cent donation) or retweeting special twitter posts now through Father’s Day (also unlocking a 50-cent donation for each designated re-Tweet). The digital aspect of this effort are capped at $50,000.

Our Take:  

This campaign from Wendy’s offers cause marketers a successful example of a non-traditional cause/brand alignment.  Adoption has certainly not risen to the top of the list of sexy causes, yet last year a promoted Tweet supporting this effort was the most retweeted of 2011. The campaign has raised more than $8 million for the cause since 2007 and recently released data shows that children referred to the Wendy’s Adoption program are up to three times more likely to get adopted. We’re interested to see how responsive consumers are to checking into a stand-alone website (versus a well-known platform such as FourSquare) but kudos to Wendy’s for successfully championing this non-traditional cause on a lesser-marketed holiday.