Results for articles with tag 'causes' (3 total)
02/15/2008 05:58:30 AM 
As we all know, money talks.
In a single day, RED raised an incredible $42.6 million to add to the $50 million raised to date through its efforts with brands.
It did it with an auction of contemporary art.
Here's are 7 reasons why its brilliant.
1. Contemporary art is simply the hottest and most valuable product out there- prices have been going through the roof in recent years
2. Big name artists are the hottest brands there are- especially guys like Damien Hirst who had work in the auction
3. Rare and limited editions have a premium value- so art created especially for RED- fitted that criteria
4. RED leveraged its celebrity founders to give the art and the auction cache.
5. Playing to the guilt factor- like the RED brand in general- purchasers can feel good about buying and artists feel like valued contributors
6. Partnering with Sotheby’s added status and value to the event
7. Holding the auction on Valentine's Day, gave the event a theme and an anchor
This piece, a collaboration between Banksy and Damien Hirst was supposed to fetch $200k, but ended up going for $1.8 million!
Economists frequently tell us that we are a time of incredible wealth with a new class of super-rich, RED's strategy of pushing its brand upstream, creating an event to capture this wealth and line its own pockets, is pure genius.
Posted by Ed Cotton
08/12/2024 05:56:39 PM
We've had a great responses from planners in the US and UK.
We need more people to join us, but we also need help in the following areas:
1. Suggestions for good people to add to the advisory board- ideally people working for non-profits.
2. We need problems to solve- non-profits who could use 45 brains on a problem.
Any suggestions and ideas please add to the group page.
Thanks to all of you who have already stepped forward, amazing stuff.
Posted by Ed Cotton
07/25/2007 07:21:38 AM
There are now just a couple of weeks left to vote for the winner from the selection of five finalists. However, the list is fairly predictable; in the lead there’s an educational initiative, followed by a plan to restore funding to the US National Park Service, an idea to provide wind and solar power for residential homes, safe drinking water for the developing world and an initiative to plant a million trees.
The corporation probably gives away millions of dollars a year in charitable donations and the $5 million or so it’s putting into this initiative is a fraction of the overall total. However, any cause and the initiative to reach out to gain input from the community is a good one, but couldn’t it have been a little different?
Two of the five initiatives are motions to give money to giant institutions; the US National Parks (theoretically a donation by American Express means the government has less to contribute) and the United Nations with the water aid program. Shouldn’t the program have been focused on initiatives at a local and grassroots level? Should the ideas come from more local and grassroots organizations that could have had impact in their communities?
American Express can make donations at corporate level to the giant institutions; the Members Project had the potential to work at a completely different level.
The problem lies with the “Wisdom of Crowds”, when you operate a popularity contest, it’s impossible for anything, but the giant ideas to make it through the voting process. The global ends up winning out over the local.
The Members Project has the potential to a fantastic initiative for Amex, but next year they should select a jury of luminaries and give them the task to pick a dozen or so local initiatives that the crowd gets the chance to vote on.
This change would allow the giant corporation to play an important grassroots role with the obvious positive benefit for the brand.
Posted by Ed Cotton
Articles for tag causes (3 total).