Earlier this month, Live Nation Entertainment, Bravado International and City of Hope joined forces to launch a long-term initiative to sell a collection of collectible “Hope, Love and Rock & Roll” t-shirts from big names in music from Lady Gaga to Jimmy Buffett, Justin Bieber to KISS.
Not less than 50% of the retail prices of these specially-designed shirts will go to City of Hope, a comprehensive cancer center located east of Los Angeles.
For those not familiar with the interior workings of the music industry (present company included) this cause marketing campaign may not have caught your attention but here are 3 lessons you can learn from this initiative.
Lesson 1: Form Unlikely Alliances
Live Nation owns merchandising rights for a broad collection of popular artists (think Madonna, U2 and Jay-Z), selling everything from t-shirts to buttons, posters and prints, no small revenue stream. Long-time supporters of City of Hope, Live Nation’s main competitor is none other than Bravado International, who owns merchandising rights for another collection of popular artists (think Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber). As you might imagine, this is an incredibly competitive industry.
But, for City of Hope, the two competitors agreed to collaborate on “Hope, Love and Rock & Roll”, each tapping their artists to sign on to the program with a specially-designed t-shirt.
No Exclusivity
Apparently this isn’t a new model for City of Hope, who organizes their development efforts around industry groups. “We have categories such as office products, hardware/home improvement and, of course, entertainment,” explains Steve Martin, associate vice president of marketing for City of Hope. “We ask competitors to work together on our campaigns and with very few exceptions, they agree. We don’t offer exclusivity.”
Each industry has a committee that helps to broker agreements between competitors. The City of Hope Music and Entertainment industry group has one of the highest profiles and has raised more than $96 million for City of Hope over the years.
Most nonprofit organizations won’t have ready access to high profile industry executives with connections into the celebrity realm, but this model could certainly be scaled to leverage existing board involvement around target industries.
Lesson 2: Tap Existing Resources
“The beauty of this initiative is that we can raise millions of dollars through the sale of these t-shirts and it’s something artists can do to support a cause without committing extra time,” offers Dell Furano, CEO of Live Nation Merchandising. “This is something many artists are already doing on major tours – taking the proceeds from one shirt and donating it to their charity of choice. When we made the initial ask to 25 top artists, every single one of them said ‘yes’ immediately.”
Furano will be working with his artists to help them weave the “Hope, Love and Rock & Roll” t-shirts into existing promotional opportunities and channels.
By joining the industry’s top talent, the “Hope, Love and Rock & Roll” initiative takes a core business function of both Live Nation and Bravado and utilizes existing resources to make a splash for City of Hope.
Lesson 3: Long Term Orientation
Although the “Hope, Love and Rock & Roll” t-shirts have just been brought to consumers and promotion has just started, Dell Furano is hard at work recruiting additional artists. Participating partners see the initiative as a long-term partnership, the first year contract solidly in place.
Like a savvy cause marketer, City of Hope’s Steve Martin has his eye on the business benefits for Live Nation and Bravado. “This is a cause marketing test case – perhaps these shirts sell better than other shirts. Maybe this collection becomes a secondary piece of business for these merchandisers.”
As for Live Nation’s Dell Furano? “I want these t-shirts to make millions of dollars for City of Hope. That’s my goal.”
**Special thanks to Weber Shandwick for facilitating my conversation with Dell Furano and Steve Martin.**
What do you think about this cause marketing initiative? Could your organization team up with competitors or facilitate such an arrangement among competing partners? Weigh in by commenting below!
*********************************************************************************************************
Welcome to the CMF Blog, Companies and Causes.
Get new posts by subscribing to the RSS Feed or sign up for our free monthly newsletter.
Connect with us on Twitter
Visit the Cause Marketing Forum Website
Leave a Reply