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Exclusive Premiere: Homeless Youth TV – See Something Real

Note: Richard Brandson was named was named Citizen of the Year by the United Nations for his eco-advocacy despite criticism.

Eighty-four percent of those polled wanted to select their own cause, 83% said it must be personally relevant and 80% said the nonprofit associated with the brand matters. (Brandweek)

Case Study 2) Roskilde Festival

Denmark’s Roskilde festival is a big deal, growing in popularity every year, having attracted both Bob Marley and Radiohead in the past. Not only does the festival donate significantly to good causes, it also encourages micro-level environmental concern. Festival-goers can recoup a worthy slug of their entrance fee by recycling their garbage. See also PSFK, Piaras Kelly PR and Springwise posts.

Under the slogan “Less Trash—More Music”, the festival organizers provide the recycling infrastructure that other festivals should follow.Roskilde provided stands to collect cans, cardboard, drink containers and more. In exchange, participants were reportedly rewarded with cash refunds of roughly EUR 0.10 per bottle, allowing the most zealous of the festival’s 67,000 paying attendees to come close to recouping the cost of their tickets. (Springwise)

About 97 percent of the cups used at Roskilde’s concession stands were brought back for recycling as a result, according to PSFK. Meanwhile, more than 1,600 sleeping bags left behind were donated to the homeless.

No coincidence then that we find Diesel involved at this micro level with Roskilde (source).

Case Study 3) Orange RockCorps

We’re big fans of Orange RockCorps here on mobileYouth, mainly because it is the gold standard of how youth brands should be connecting with their consumers. Orange Rockcorps is leveraging the best of word of mouth and customer experience as a spearhead for their sales growth. See also this post on the details.

The video below provides the best introduction – “you can’t buy a ticket, you have to earn it”. Fantastic word-of-mouth opportunity for Orange.

So what is Orange RockCorps?

Case Study 4) Nike Ashoka Changemakers

Conscious of its ethical and green image, Nike is a long term player in the innovative “grass-routes” marketing landscape whether through initiatives such as Nike RunLondon, the spinoff from Nike+ or NikeID.

This time teaming up with  Changemakers to bring  “GameChangers: Change the Game for Women in Sport”. Nike is keen to open up the female sports market and has actively committed resources from its foundation to support grass roots causes.

Nike realizes it’s not just a sport shoe manufacturer – it’s the platform on which youth connect. The current strategy is an online competition that challenges young social entrepreneurs to come up with ways to “leverage sport for positive social change in the lives of girls and women.”

Check out the Changemakers video:

Be a Changemaker too

See also DIDI (tipped by Amy at Shaping Youth)- DIDI: “Dream it do it” An Ashoka Youth Venture effort with Global Kids and funding by RWJF all teaming up to offer seed money to visionary young people anxious to bring positive change to the health of their community.This time it’s on Second Life!

See also here and here on Nike’s effort to clean up its green image.

Case Study 5) Boost Mobile RockCorps

Obama’s team chose Boost Mobile to press home their “conversation” because Boost was the original young urban MVNO.

We’re pleased to see Nextel’s Boost Mobile in the US also active in the RockCorps movement. Boost has long been about providing for the community and now is actively cranking out its “value message“.

Here’s a great clip on how Boost is getting involved at the micro level of the community – regenerating parts of the “hood” and (importantly) engaging the stars of the peer group (in this case Busta Rhymes). Once again, the video says it all:

Boost Mobile: Rock Corps Busta Rhymes, Terry Kennedy

Case Study 6) Lee Jeans: $5 Jeans

Here’s a great case study tipped by Paul Dunay originally profiled at the Media Convergence Forum by Liz Cahill, VP of Marketing and Communications of Lee Jeans.

Thirteen years ago Lee recognized women were the top consumers of their jeans. And at the same time cause marketing was starting to take hold. Lee studied the causes that women really identified with and breast cancer was a clear winner.

Lee wanted to do something because over 44,000 women a year die from breast cancer each year in the US. But they wanted to give the consumer the ability to make a difference.

So they started the “pay $5 to wear jeans to work” on the first Friday of every October (aka – breast cancer awareness day) and wanted to create Lee national denim day. Over the last 13 years they raised $75M for breast cancer research.

Paul’s post also provides some excellent insight into how the strategy utilized social media to grow awareness and communicate values.

Case Study 7) Toyota Driving Expectations

We’ve been following Toyota’s diversified youth line Scion for some time now and caught up with their latest campaign – Driving Expectations. According to their own blog “… designed to introduce and define defensive driving behaviors to teens and to help them identify the dangerous driving situations that they face daily. One important element of the program describes the relationship between distraction and the driver’s ability to react to emergency situations. We’ve posted previously about this, here and here.”

Case Study 8) MyFootballClub – Direct Rule by Fansumers

Buying a football team used to be a rich man’s game. Not any more.

“When MyFootballClub was launched, numerous sports “experts” thought it would be a massive failure because the “crowd” wouldn’t be knowledgeable enough to select the squad” writes Crowdsourcing’s Jeff Howe

“Welcome to MyFootballClub. You are invited to join over 30,000 members who own Ebbsfleet United (although more cited in the Crowdsourcing directory) and vote on all key decisions from team selection to financial budgets. Membership costs £35 annually.” (MyFootballClub.co.uk)

Myfootballclub www.myfootballclub.co.uk

Named by Springwise as one of their top 10 lifestyle ideas, dubbed Fansumers by one pundit (made me chuckle), “Football History” by the Telegraph and 30,000 fans later, does the model prove a democratic edge to capitalism? Well, philosophy aside it’s attracted the interest of Basketball. You can see the emotional attachment to this project runs high – this isn’t just crowdsourcing this is “Direct Rule“!

Plenty of opportunities and PR coverage abound here, particularly for using mobile as a core ingredient in the participation (thanks to Russell @ Mobhappy)

In a world where youth are increasingly priced out of soccer games costing upwards of £40 a ticket, here is a breath of fresh air – a social movement that may well work. So convinced was he of the concept that mobileYouth’s own Josh Dhaliwal is now a fully paid up member.

This is Football Manager in the real world – you pick the team! And guess who is their first sponsor? None other that EA Sports.

Case Study 9) ColaLife – a social message in a bottle

Proof that big unwieldy brands can sometimes do something remarkable, here’s Coke’s ColaLife – not just about sponsoring a good cause but using the company’s infrastructure to make a difference.

“Our idea is that Coca Cola use their distribution channels (which are amazing in developing countries) to distribute rehydration salts to the people that need them desperately. Maybe by dedicating one compartment in every 10 crates as ‘the life saving’ compartment?”