Company: Xerox
Nonprofit: Give2TheTroops
Timeframe: 2006
By early 2006, approximately 150,000 U. S. men and women had been deployed to the Middle East, and Xerox Corporation wanted to find a way to show its - and Americans' - appreciation for their
service. Following the success of its "Let's Say Thanks" community card drives in Atlanta and Phoenix, which resulted in the delivery of thousands of postcards overseas, company executives sought to
build the program into a more sweeping, national initiative.
The Xerox team set the foundation for a program with the supportive base used in any good communications effort: research. They set out to identify an appropriate partner - a military support
organization with access to all branches of the military, the ability to deliver messages of support to deployed troops and the ability to do so on a consistent basis - and they found one in
Give2TheTroops.
With a strategic partnership in place, the PR team got to work, choosing the ultimate communications vehicle for reaching a distant, largely dispersed audience: the Internet. Executives built a
Web site, http://www.LetsSayThanks.com, through which visitors could send a cyber postcard to the troops overseas. To bolster the personal appeal of
each card, they worked with local community organizations, including local 4-H clubs, Boys and Girls Clubs of America chapters and military Family Readiness Groups, to get children to submit
patriotic drawings. Next, a university design professor judged the entries, and the winning designs were incorporated into the Web site.
The community involvement alone generated its fair share of media buzz, but the PR team wasn't about to stop there; they extended their efforts to include non-traditional viral marketing
techniques that would reach all corners of cyberspace and, in turn, increase traffic to the site. Pass-along e-mails, a "Send to a Friend" link on the site, and military and artwork contest-winning
spokespeople generated the outreach needed to drive traffic to LetsSayThanks.com. In addition, the communications executives timed the site's launch to coincide with the 4th of July, leveraging the
power of the patriotic day and increasing media interest accordingly.
In the end, through a combination of creative marketing tactics, a strategic partnership and a genuine, heartfelt mission, the Xerox/Give2TheTroops effort far surpassed the original goals -
driving traffic to the site, building brand awareness and increasing customer satisfaction and employee morale - with peripheral positive outcome. For example, the program helped focus Xerox's brand
awareness around a socially responsible mission, and it engaged employees nationwide by using the company's intranet and a communications vehicle. In addition, it won a 2006 PR News nonprofit PR
award in the corporate partnerships category.
The site not only received traffic from all 50 states, but it also saw an average of 125,000 daily visitors. Most important, the initiative resulted in 2 million messages being submitted to the
site and delivered to the inboxes of servicemen and women. In short, it was the collective "thank you" that was heard 'round the world.
Contact:
This article is excerpted from the upcoming PR News 100 Top Case Studies Guidebook. To order, visit http://www.prnewsonline.com.
What A Corporate/Nonprofit Partnership Must Have
A nonprofit-corporation partnership walks a fine line between a successful cause-promotion and a collaborative effort made in purgatory. Xerox and Give2TheTroops avoided significant roadblocks by
keeping the following checklist in mind:
-
Unite over a shared mission: Logic predicates that a corporation and a nonprofit probably don't align when it comes to goals, especially when money is part of the equation, but that
doesn't have to be the case. A partnership forged over the right mission can lead to an entirely symbiotic relationship; the key is identifying a mission that complements both organization's business
goals and strategies. In the case of Xerox and Give2TheTroops, the undertaking of thanking the 150,000 servicemen and women overseas had a trio of beneficiaries: Xerox built brand awareness around a
socially responsible mission, Give2TheTroops benefited from a huge corporation's notoriety and pool of resources, and soldiers in the Middle East got a warm message from their home base.
-
Set the tone together: A partnership should be just that: A relationship between two equals. Just because one organization dwarfs the other in terms of size and scope does not mean that it
should call the shots; on the contrary, nonprofits can bring a personal tone and feel to the often-monotone personality of a behemoth corporation. Communications professionals on both sides of the
fence must contribute to the overall tone of the campaign.
-
Identify a champion in each organization: Pairing up with a corporation can leave a nonprofit at risk of getting lost in the mix. To avoid this common pitfall, make sure there is a champion of
the initiative on both sides. This duo (or team, depending on the size of the project) must communicate regularly; having identified such points of contact early on will simplify the process.
-
Have a plan and follow it, but be ready to adapt: The Xerox/Give2TheTroops team outlined a plan of attack early on, identifying communications vehicles and developing them to meet the needs of
the campaign. In cases like this, where the scope is international, planning is the most important part. If that's done well, everything else will fall into place.