Opportunistic Marketing from Planned Parenthood
Friday, October 10th, 2008
Brand: Planned Parenthood
Execution: E-mail/Viral
Target: Pro-Choice Voters
Rating: ****
Reviewer: David Vinjamuri
Description:
An e-mail campaign urging people to support Planned Parenthood with a small donation, but with a twist. The e-mail reads as follows:
Hi allI don’t know how you feel about Planned Parenthood, but this is a great idea. I just did it myself, and feel fantastic about it. Simple, fast & cheap. And toward a great cause. Pass it along…Instead of (in addition to?) us all sending around emails about how horrible she is, let’s all make a donation to Planned Parenthood. In Sarah Palin’s name. And here’s the good part: when you make a donation to PP in her name, they’ll send her a card telling her that the donation has been made in her honor. Here’s the link to the Planned Parenthood website:https://secure.ga0.org/02/pp10000_inhonorYou’ll need to fill in the address to let PP know where to send the “in Sarah Palin’s honor” card. I suggest you use the address for the McCain campaign headquarters, which is:
McCain for President
1235 S. Clark Street
1st Floor
Arlington , VA 22202PS make sure you use that link above or choose the pulldown of Donate–Honorary or Memorial Donations, not the regular “Donate Online”
This advertising blog has been told that the concept for this campaign originated not from an agency but from a staffer within Planned Parenthood. The result of this campaign was two-fold: first, it generated $1 million in donations for Planned Parenthood. Secondly, it got good media coverage and generated positive publicity for Planned Parenthood. Half of the donors were not on Planned Parenthood’s active e-mail list, so there was a strong viral component to the campaign.We like three things about this campaign:
- Opportunistic – This campaign takes advantage of the popular media attention for Vice Presidential Candidate Governor Sarah Palin and her pro-life stance by giving pro-choice advocates a simple way to send a message – literally.
- Simple – No separate infrastructure was created to support this campaign. Donors were sent to Planned Parenthood’s existing donation site.
- Clever – Making the donation in honor of Gov. Palin and sending the messages to the McCain-Palin campaign headquarters created a media story and made the e-mail compelling.
What Doesn’t:
There is a fine art to informal e-mail campaigns like this. If the campaign feels inauthentic or forced, it will fail. If it feels fake or contrived, it may even get negative blog coverage. This campaign walks a line. It doesn’t represent itself as originating from Planned Parenthood (we have been told that it originated from a Planned Parenthood staffer), which carries some risk.
Branding Bottom Line:
Planned Parenthood finds some use for Sarah Palin after all.
ADDENDUM:
This from Planned Parenthood -
Hi David-
Just read your blog post about the viral email campaign concering Planned Parenthood and Sarah Palin.
I wanted to clarify something- the viral email did not originate with Planned Parenthood, and the origins of the email remain unknown. Also, 2/3 of the donors are first time donors to PP.
two and a half weeks ago, we had many media inquires about the viral email, so we issued a press release on it:
http://www.plannedparenthoodaction.org/about-us/newsroom/press-releases/302.htm
It is inaccurate to characterize the email as originating from Planned Parenthood. Â
Thanks.
***
Tait Sye
Planned Parenthood Federation of America
www.plannedparenthood.org
Planned Parenthood Action Fund
www.plannedparenthoodaction.org
This advertising blog apologizes if our unnamed informant was incorrect about the source of the e-mail. Our coverage is not a political endorsement.
