Wow, talk about green branding, transparency, cause-related marketing, and providing value. After exploring the Show the World What’s Inside campaign by Seventh Generation, I’m in real awe of their efforts. The website consists of the following elements…
Create A Tree
List the ingredients that define who you are, select a tree shape, and watch it come to life. The program pulls in pictures from iStockphoto based on the words you entered, then allows you to go back and edit it OR save it to the Forest. Upon deciding to save it, you’re given a few options. Creating an Account allows you to save your tree and them the ability to send you product coupons. Selecting “No Thank You” asks you to type in your name, then gives you a permalink to share your tree and its attributes with others. I had selected “freedom, water, and vitality” as my attributes, and you can see my tree here. The last option is to log in and save it to your library, or as I’ll call it: your personal forest.
The Forest
Here you can explore trees created by other members in a slideshow tree-by-tree manner and see the name of the person who created it. The site offers to click the tree for a closer look, but this functionality is a bit redundant as there’s no substantial change other than seeing the creator’s attributes. Navigating the forest one by one is a bit cumbersome, but the main idea is creating a user perception of community while perusing around for 15 seconds, at which point you’re ready to move on.
Label Reading Guide
The link first takes you to an overview of what it’s all about; and what’s that? A flash based info library on personal and household care ingredients/chemicals. Clicking to “Learn More” takes you out of the microsite and to a devoted page on Seventh Gen’s website; hosting it here is important because the guide needs a permanent url to be effectively accessed and shared with others. The guide itself has an index, is searchable, ingredients can be submitted, has a send to friend feature, and is downloadable as a widget (Windows Vista) or for use on your mobile phone.
Take Action
Here they give you two options. The first is to sign a petition from Environmental Working Group to tell the new president that you “support new laws to make chemicals in consumer products and the environment safe for all children.” – see NotKidSafe.org. The second option is to buy an ingredients T-Shirt or baby garment along with a colored marker for you to write with, for $19 plus shipping; the proceeds go to EWG.
What’s Inside Of Us
This is the promotional clip of the campaign which includes animation, narration, and music. It asks us to consider the beauty inside us. Click here to see the video.
Review
Seventh Generation has created a tiered cause-related marketing campaign that directly ties into its core brand identity (safe, non-toxic ingredients) by employing a microsite with user-generated trees and a label guide, petition, t-shirts, and video. I must say this is one of the best green marketing campaigns I’ve seen, and a great inspiration for similar interactive media.
What do YOU think? Have you seen a great online marketing campaign that ties into personal health and the environment in an engaging manner? Please share…
Mario,
Thanks for sharing. The program appears to be well thought through and creatively crafted. My first question always is: What is the objective? Do we know what Seventh Generation is attempting to achieve?
I suspect the campaign isn’t 100% altruistic, which is not smart business. Profits are necessary to do good. I think Dell has done some good things (ReGeneration, for example), but I haven’t seen another campaign so tightly constructed.
Mario, I agree this is a very well constructed and interactive campaign. How are they getting the word out to visit the “Show the World” site?
Lewis,
I see the Seventh Gen campaign as trying to promote personal well-being through education on the relative safety/toxicity of chemical ingredients. Since becoming acquainted with the brand 6 months ago, I’ve seen this as being a core element of their brand.
For that reason, I find this campaign HIGHLY relevant and focused. I liked the ReGeneration project, but for the sake of marketing it doesn’t tie into the Dell brand nor computing one bit. Now that’s not bad, as we should applaud any CSR efforts a company leads or sponsors.
The more directly correlated a campaign/effort is related to the business of a firm, the greater the opportunity for it to be perceived as non-altruistic. The campaign thus should be carefully designed so as not to have a blatant commercial ‘feel’ to it, and the public service efforts need to be substantive and valuable.
Paul,
As far as promotion goes, I remember reading about the campaign through a press release and some blogs online. However when I visited Facebook, there were a few groups and I couldn’t tell which was ‘official’, and none appeared to have info on the microsite, label reading guide, nor video. I’m not sure how they’re conducting additional awareness efforts.
Maybe Seventh Generation, and other companies that make green products could have something simpler like donating a portion of their proceeds to the Nature Conservancy (http://www.nature.org/) and other groups.
Seventh Generation has a foundation but I doubt many people, including most of their customers know about it.
I personally like the Nature Conservancy but I would imagine that cleaner makers would donate more to organizations having to do with toxic waste and so on.
If a natural cleaner company put right on the container that a portion of their proceeds went to an organization I support, I would be more inclined to buy that brand. Other than that, frankly, I do not want to think about my cleaning products until it is time to clean the bathroom or whatever. I am not going to build a tree but I would be happy to contribute to a good cause.