Sensis – social responsibility isn’t about patronising the needy about their socks
I wish I could put my finger on what it is that makes this social issues campaign for Sensis feel so icky:
I think the main thing is that I can hear the strategy meeting at DDB Melbourne in my head.
“So we need to make Sensis look like a good corporate citizen.”
“But a mandatory is that we tie it back to the brand.”
“But the brand is an irritating sock puppet.”
“I’ve got it! Let’s give socks to the homeless.”
“Brilliant. But hang on – we’ve got to get the phone number in somehow.”
“How about we give away 1234 socks?”
“Genius. Pub?”
The thing is though, despite the moody music, the subject of the video really isn’t as interested as the interviewer in talking about socks.
There’s something inherently creepy about listening to an ad wanker patronise the heck out of a man with schizophrenia about his socks.
“How long do your socks last?”
“How many pairs of socks do you think you go through every year?”
And most painfully patronising of all: “So a fresh pair of socks must be pretty great?”
Yes. The lack of socks is the big problem in my life. Thank you Sensis for solving that problem. My life will now be, as you suggest, pretty great and I’m sure the schizophrenia will clear up on its own.
What a neat solution, and all brought to us through the kindness of Sensis.
(Hat-tip: Adnews for campaign details)
All becomes a little clearer on the 1234 Project Facebook Group Page:
The 1234 Project is brought to you by the guys at 1234 and was founded on a simple premise – if there’s a need, there’s an answer.
Every month we’ll pull together a community to find those answers. One month we might help a charity, the next – free use of our 1234 SMS service. Followed by a review of the best eateries in town. Whatever it is, The 1234 Project will act as a channel to deliver this goodness to you.
We’ll donate a pair of socks for every person who ‘likes’ (and follows) The 1234 Project (up to 12,340 pairs). The first delivery of socks will be dispatched throughout Australia through Mission Australia when we reach 500 fans. After that, deliveries will be made to Mission Australia service centres throughout winter.
The 1234 Project promotes Telstra Corporation Limited’s 1234 service which is available to most Telstra customers (in Australia). Call fee: $1.40 (plus standard mobile charges). SMS fee: $1.40 per request. Attempted connection charge: $0.99. Standard charges for connected calls.
Good-hearted Facebook folk are then invited/ manipulated to market the group to their friends (it’s already hit 13,673 sign-ups). That second paragraph is the key. It is, of course, about building up a group of people who in the future can have Sensis products shoved down their throats.
If Sensis cares that much about the homeless, then why not just donate the socks? A two-minute search on the internet delivers a price of less than $8,000 for 12,340 pairs or 62c per pair – and that’s without negotiating a bulk discount. I’m willing to bet it costs them less than half that.
That 62c looks a bit feeble compared to a $1.40 call to 1234, doesn’t it?
So the chances are that Sensis is paying DDB significantly more to do the project than the sockless homeless folk are ever going to get.
Brands doing the right thing to be socially responsible is a good thing. Agencies inventing problems in service of the brand, not so much.
Tim Burrowes
Linkedin
“A two-minute search on the internet delivers a price of less than $8,000 for 12,340 pairs or 62c per pair – and that’s without negotiating a bulk discount. I’m willing to bet it costs them less than half that. So the chances are that Sensis is paying DDB significantly more to do the project than the sockless homeless folk are ever going to get.”
Perhaps DDB or Sensis can tell us the $ value of their amazing, life-saving socks?
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Well called out Tim,
Perhaps a campaign that converted the ‘unused’ book into balnkets for the homeless, just a grass roots no strings attached campaign would show their authentic commitment to our community.
I would also like to add that the whole 1234 campaign from sensis is a cynical money grabbing exercise trying to convince everyone to use this service and pay a premimum for it rather than the free to use ‘1223’ which telstra are compelled to provide by the government.
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good one Tim. as a comms practitioner, i’ve always told clients we create CSR programs with no strings attached. its about the goodwill and not getting people to use your product as a way of gaining goodwill for a cause. Unfortunately not everyone filters things in this manner so i feel a little sorry for all those people who liked that campaign because their agency will now go back and make more willy CSR campaigns like this. VOMIT.
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Oh for fuck’s sake people… How much food do you waste or eat unnecessarily every day? Do you really need to drink alcohol or smoke ciggies? Do you need expensive clothes? Of course you don’t. Get off your high horses or start chucking your leftovers in tupperware for the homeless. You whiny, hypocritical, bleeding heart wankers.
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relax with the venom. it’s a pretty simple equation.
if you want to get involved, hit the like button. if you don’t, don’t.
and if you don’t want to get sold to later, unlike it.
there’s lots of positive feedback on there (from regular people, not cycnical adpeople).
awareness = good.
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Hi “I Like It”,
Do you like it because you work for DDB? I can’t help but notice that your IP address seems to suggest that…
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
I’m not sure whether this campaign is embarrassingly offensive, or offensively embarrassing.
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i like it because i like it
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Leave them alone, when they thought of this idea I’m 100% positive they wanted to help the homeless.
It would’ve been the homeless people that suggested it was branded and selling points were placed all over the shop. It would’ve been their way of giving back, because when stuck on the street freezing starving the one thing that really warms you up and helps you see another day is a pair of socks organised through a social media campaign.
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Hi Tim and the team at Mumbrella, we definitely understand that this campaign is not social responsibility (or sustainability as we call it) – nor were we trying to claim it as such. The 1234 Project is a cause related marketing campaign, developed by our marketing team to engage the Facebook community all the while supporting a serious issue for the team at Mission Australia. The 1234 Team set up the 1234 Project to work with the online community across a number of community and fundraising campaigns – the warm up campaign was the first of a number of these. As with many cause related marketing campaigns, there is by-product of community benefit and in this case, 1234 will assist Mission Australia with the serious issue of homelessness. Whilst a great way to engage with an audience and assist Mission Australia, this campaign is not a sustainability/social responsibility program. I wanted to make the point that we absolutely understand the difference between cause related marketing and community investment activities. We take sustainability very seriously at Sensis and run a number of programs – investing in the community is a key pillar of this. Jill Riseley, Group Manager Sustainability, Sensis
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Hi guys. I work in the marketing team at Sensis and I want to set the record straight. 1234 is a business – every day we answer thousands of calls and help people out by answering questions or connecting them to a number. That’s our day job – and we’ve been pretty clear about that. For us, The 1234 Project was a cause related marketing campaign, a way for us to do something a bit different. We met with the team at Mission Australia and agreed on the concept of donating socks as our first activity. It’s a real need, and one that doesn’t get much attention so we were excited we could help. It’s been a massive success and we’re proud of what we all did together. We never had any intention of misleading anyone – we just wanted to see what we could achieve by aligning our marketing activities with a community benefit – and in this case 1234 will assist Mission Australia.
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Tim,
I found a way for you to be socially responsible:
Stop blogging.
A
(aron)
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This campaign is simply upsetting. I can’t decide if it’s the patronising tone in the voice of the interviewer or the fact that the campaign itself cost far more than the value that they will deliver to Mission Australia and the individuals who are meant to profit from this act….
“So it must be great to have socks” – are you kidding? Massive fail
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Hi Jill,
I can’t agree with you more: Sensis is really taking the bull by the horns by supporting and promoting the “serious issue” of endemic socklessness in Australia. You guy’s are pretty much the Rosa Parks of the sock world.
I think your next target should really be the clear lack of hats on australian heads. Have you noticed that people are far less hatty these days? Another noble cause for you and your team to tackle…perhaps you could set up some sort of Millenary Amnesty, whereby people could donate their spare hats to those of us who are low on hats, or, worse still, completely hatless?
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If I can make a contribution…
I work for Mission Australia and can tell you that keeping warm during winter is a real issue for the estimated 16,000 people who sleep rough on our streets every night. For someone living on the streets a fresh pair of warm socks is a small but important item that provides much-needed comfort.
Mission Australia regularly requests, and receives, a range of in-kind support from its partners including toiletries, school stationery, blankets and jumpers because we know they’re absolutely essential in the lives of the people we help.
If I can add that the campaign has also been a valuable opportunity to raise awareness – both of the issue of homelessness and of Mission Australia’s work in this area.
How can we hope to tackle the homeless problem more substantially if the wider public is uninformed of the issues?
It’s also given us the chance to engage potential supporters and encourage them to become involved either by volunteering or making a financial contribution.
Imagine if we were able to encourage just half of the participants in the 1234 Project to become regular supporters of our work? The impact would be tremendous.
And importantly for a charity we were able to take part in this initiative at no cost.
No one is claiming that 12,340 pairs of socks will change the world – it states as much on the 1234 Project’s Facebook page – but please don’t underestimate the importance of campaigns of this sort.
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So basically what you’re saying is you used homelessness to sell your product instead of wanting to help them?
Nice angle. Perhaps a little non PC but I’m not judge of what is right and wrong. More clients should be like this.
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As one of Australia’s leading providers of support to homeless people we can tell you that keeping warm during winter is a real issue for the estimated 16,000 people who sleep rough on our streets every night. For someone living on the streets a fresh pair of warm socks is a small but important item that provides much-needed comfort.
Mission Australia regularly requests, and receives, a range of in-kind support from its partners including toiletries, school stationery, blankets and jumpers because we know they’re absolutely essential in the lives of the people we help.
The 1234 Project has also been a valuable opportunity to raise awareness – both of the issue of homelessness and of Mission Australia’s work in this area.
How can we hope to tackle the homeless problem more substantially if the wider public is uninformed of the issues?
It’s also given us the chance to engage potential supporters and encourage them to become involved either by volunteering or making a financial contribution.
Imagine if we were able to encourage just half of the participants in the 1234 Project to become regular supporters of our work? The impact would be tremendous.
And importantly for a charity, we were able to take part in this initiative at no cost.
No one is claiming that 12,340 pairs of socks will change the world – it states as much on the 1234 Project’s Facebook page – but please don’t underestimate the importance of campaigns of this sort.
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“Hi guys. I work in the marketing team at Sensis and I want to set the record straight. 1234 is a business – every day we answer thousands of calls and help people out by answering questions or connecting them to a number. That’s our day job – and we’ve been pretty clear about that. For us, The 1234 Project was a cause related marketing campaign”
“I work for Mission Australia and can tell you that keeping warm during winter is a real issue for the estimated 16,000 people who sleep rough on our streets every night.”
A cause related marketing campaign is actually about making a REAL difference to the cause, not just a cheap plug for the business ….so this generous act won’t even buy enough socks for each person sleeping rough to have one pair….so here’s an idea
for one year…… using your 1 2 3 4 marketing message
1 call 2 us = 3c 4 addressing homelessness…. now lets see…5000 calls a day would = $150 a day or $54,750 to Mission Australia.
Now that would be a cause related marketing program that would make a real difference to Mission Australia and a real difference to their clients.
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Hi Jill from Sensis
Bullocks. If you think this is an example of helping homelessness i seriously think you need to go back to school and re-read your CSR text chapters. What a load of crock!
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Wow. Everyone wants to get in on this one. Clearly a raw nerve!
@Jill @Nick
Just curious, did the homeless guy who appeared in your commercial get paid to do so? And if so, was it at a rate comparable to what anyone else would get paid to appear in one of your commercials?
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how seriously patronising …..
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Just wanted to say @Mick Morris that your 1 call idea is beautiful. That would be something that I’d happily support. Pity that it seems they took a far more cynical route.
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I have a few points to make… this has hit a raw nerve with me today. The ad is terrible and I agree that it is a little patronising.
@Jill, whether you call it a CSR campaign or a cause related marketing campaign is irrelevant. The general public aren’t included on you internal comms to say that what it is and they will see it as many commenters have; as a CSR campaign.
If the people at Sensis genuinely cared about helping these people they would have promoted Mission Australia more than they have, rather than over promoting the 1234 number with all it’s excessive fees. They could have actually made people aware of other ways they can support Mission beyond getting Sensis to buy them some socks.
Alternately they could have gone to the trouble of setting up a micropayment system on facebook so people could give small donations to Mission Australia. Just my 2c.
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How much of the negative perception of this campaign is to do with Sensis being part of Telstra?
I’m hardly alone in the world when I say I’ve had some pretty appauling experiences with Telstra as one of their customers: I have such a dim view of the brand name that as soon as I see anything to do with Telstra my sensitivities are heightened as a result.
1234 is hardly a work of genius, but it ain’t that awful, and if it had come from a Rival Telco maybe people wouldn’t get so revved up.
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This is exactly the sort of campaign that makes me feel ashamed to say I work in this industry. Checking his rubbish bins in his new Sensis socks. Disgusting.
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I really do wonder how many people who have commented on this have actually volunteered on the street, in the dead of winter through one of the charity support networks.
If you had you would know how important a blanket, a pair of socks or even a plastic bag is to these people.
I challenge you all to do this before shooting off a ranting comment.
Or maybe stop & think what you could do to help, unfortunately commenting on a Mumbrella link doesn’t count!
Nor does blogging about how a company makes you feel ‘icky’ about it
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Tim doing IP checks on comments. How uncool!
(No Im not from DDB).
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I agree with Tim’s point that Sensis should just donate the socks to Mission Australia without requiring people to ‘Like’ the project on Facebook. Hate it when brands do shite like that. If they want to do something charitable then just do something charitable without the crass marketing strings attached.
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First free pizzas, then free socks.
Any other Sensis bribes coming up?
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Wtf?; I laughed out loud. And I have my own office. So that’s weird. But thanks! Rosa Parks … [teeheee].
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Totally popcorn-worthy thread.
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I agree with you Kate, I would question how many people who are bagging Sensis have actually done any volunteering or engaged with with community sector. If they did the one thing that they would say is that disadvantaged people often need the little things – the things that those of us who are luckier just take for granter.
I applaud Sensis for actually finding a need that fits in with their corporate brand.
Question for you Tim – would you have done the same kind of story if this campaign was by Bonds and not Sensis? I bet you would have actually done a more favourable story around linking your corporate product to a social need.
And I have to say, shame on you for saying that Sensis should just donate all the socks and not ask for people to support the Facebook page. Tim – why don’t you provide this website for free, out of the goodness of your heart and not put any advertising on it.
If you actually go and talk to some partnership managers at local charities, they will be the ones that will tell you that a good corporate partnership is a recognition that it needs to be beneficial to both parties. This campaign is filling a need for Mission Australia and promoting the Sensis brand at the same time. If Sensis were asking people to call their 1234 line (and pay money) for them to donate then I would see your point, but asking for a few seconds of their time to click ‘like’ is not unreasonable.
And feel free to check my IP. I’ll declare that I have one tie with Sensis, and that’s through regular volunteer work that I do with one of their staff members in melbourne.
Dave
PS. After your attack on Media Watch this week for barking up the wrong tree, this is sounding quite hippocratic.
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Whoo – you ad guys know how to eat your own! Should we pillory Sensis for building their brand AND giving some socks away (how offensive! socks! what were they thinking!) but feel OK about – ooooh, Apple selling iPods via Red or, I dunno, Mt Franklin donating 5c for each insanely expensive bottle of water to breast cancer? (aside: where’s the fecking link there between the product and the cause?!)
But guess what? In this campaign, no-one had to ‘buy’ 1234 – yet Sensis did something good on the basis of an acknowledgement. Brand awareness that cost a click. Shiiiiiit, guys. Aren’t you all just a little embarrassed you didn’t think of it? Here’s another clue: most of you took offense at the ad, not the idea. the ad is, admittedly, pretty crap. But the idea is actually fairly nice. We can criticise the execution, the editting and so on, but hey, if we’re gonna criticise them for just giving some stuff away – maybe we should also grab that super-size bottle of Windex and polish up our glass houses, huh?
PS: If we were wanting to talk campaign effectiveness – my understanding is that Sensis thought it might take them 3 months to get to the donation target. It took them 3 weeks. I guess that’s because the people on facebook that ‘liked’ it…really liked it. And told their friends. And they liked it. That’s a lot of CONSUMER acceptance. Versus some very limited industry negativeness. So get a grip and trust that the market knows what is offensive and exploitative versus that which is brand building for a cost.
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Well done Tash – agree with it all.
Btw, the link between Mt Franklin and breast cancer, is that bottled water actually causes breast cancer.
Sorry, that was an outright lie, but it will be quite a giggle when online media monitoring picks that one up for Mt Franklin.
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First, I have to say I love Mick Morris’ “1 call 2 us = 3c 4 addressing homelessness” strategy. It resonates with their camapign and provides cash where needed.
Second, I agree the link is tenuous, and the thing I don’t like is that it stops at 12,340 pairs of socks. I would like that to be stage one. Then move on to 1,234 blankets. 1,234 jumpers.
But for all those people slagging Sensis for actually doing something and saying that it won’t make any difference, I pose two questions. What would happen if EVERY advertiser followed this path? Do you think THAT would make a difference? Maybe the energy directed to slagging off this idea could be directed to bettering this campaign for your clients – stand up and make a difference.
The second question is how many of you at your place of business sponsor a third-world child, do the overnight sleep out, have the day a year of and work for the charity of your choice? I know, I know – at least it is not advertised in the media. But I bet this “goodwill stuff” makes it into the pitch documents to show what a wonderful staff and workplace it is. Sure it may be more subtle but just maybe there is an underlying motive. Don’t get me wrong I am 100% in favour of those CSR programmes – may they not only continue and flourish. But, I also hope that maybe Sensis could light a spark among other advertisers – it would make good pro-bono work. (An no, I have no links to Sensis).
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Look, I’m an account exec at DDB and I have to say I honestly like it.
I even got a pair of the socks myself.
If you don’t like it, I may suggest you try the socks?
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Is giving free socks to the homeless a good thing? Yes. Is there a real need, as Mission Australia states above? Yes. Is the campaign tacky? Hell yes.
Seriously Tim, it looks like this thread is being dominated by employees of DDB and Sensis. I’m glad you do IP checks – doesn’t identify the actual commenter, but it does disclose their interest.
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I challenge anyone to watch the video above and not cringe when it gets to the question: “So a fresh pair of socks must be pretty great?”
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There seems to be some sort of assumption that so long as you’re doing something “for charity” anything goes.
Anyone who challenges your motivation can then be beaten down by simply asking: so what are you doing then?
Some people thing that in the piety stakes, doing something for char-i-tee means that anything goes.
It reminds me of those people who decide to walk up a mountain and ask me help pay for them to go. No I will not sponsor you to go on holiday.
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I used to work on that account a few years ago and the Sensis people treated the agency team appallingly. I would have been pleased if they gave us a few cotton socks instead of socking it to us whenever they could. I don’t blame DDB, I blame the marketing team who had no idea then and have no idea now.
$8000 of socks….pathetic
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BTW,
I’ve invited Sensis to write a more detailed post explaning the context of this campaign and we may see that tomorrow.
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
I have volunteered. I don’t work at DDB. I have a problem with leveraging this and then PRing it. Socks for homeless sounds like a cool idea. Telling people = kinda uncool. Grass roots, genuine campaigns which help people and make a corporation’s staff and customers feel good.
I am a Telstra customer. I have never understood the value in calling their info number when I can happily google answers myself. I have been known to over pay for many things. But this service (don’t get me started on un-requested directories) just says to me that Sensis is out of touch. I have never used it.
Kudos for socks. Maybe if you’d just donated them and not paraded the grateful recipients in your promos.
Journos and trade media should smell out a stunt like this.
Ditto the one textophic (sic) Media Watch segment. (I’m with the ABC on that one btw).
As with Best Job in the World, W+K/Old Spice showed everyone this week how to make a genuine global news story from an internet marketing phenomenon without “tricking” punters or journos..
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This has been interesting.. and in the interests of clarity… no links to DDB or Sensis (I actually run another charity…) I look forward to a response from Sensis to explain the rationale behind the campaign (and maybe they’ll take up my 1234 suggestion, or come help at my charity?????
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And I thought CSR was a sugar company?!!
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Or does it stand for Corporates Sweettalking Reality
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I wonder how many people in corporate land, are reading articles like this, and this thread and thinking:
“you know what maybe lets just shelve this CSR idea and just put the money into straight advertising”
The losers out of this are not the corporates, because they will always make sure they get return for their dollar, but the charities.
Maybe mediums like this should be supporting CSR, and not bagging it – or is this a ploy to make sure that more money just goes to advertising??
Just being cynical now!
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Dave,
If it stops them making art films about their magic corporate socks that might not be such a bad thing.
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Basically as Laura Watson puts it one of our digital authores…
At the end of the day, Sensis saw an opportunity to position themselves as an organisation with a moral conscience. Working with Mission Australia to create this campaign it’s clear they’re trying to make a difference (albeit a sock sized one), so it’s clear there was intent to deliver a level of assistance. Comments from Mission Australia also highlight that this campaign was in fact helpful for homeless people. Be that as it may, I still can’t come to terms with it; and this was further amplified through digital media. They fell short with the response team, which to my knowledge included a message from the CEO giving the campaign a massive wrap and an anonymous Sensis employee who had set up an account that day to field automated responses.
BE PREPARED. That’s the key out take from all of this. We all know the power of digital. We all know that people are sharing their opinions on and offline. So, when going to market, be prepared for a conversation. Hopefully it will be a positive one, but if it isn’t, be prepared to mitigate damage.
Read the full article at http://www.transfergroup.com.au/digital/blog
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Hi, a post to follow up the request from Mick Morris to explain the rationale behind the socks cause related marketing campaign and also a response to his suggestions. Our communications manager will post a piece shortly about the campaign. To re-emphasise: there is a difference between cause related marketing campaigns and sustainability/CSR activities. Looking at the posts over the last few days, I think it has been really interesting to see the various opinions regarding this. Cause-related marketing is certainly not new, but I think it is important that people recognise there is a difference between marketing and sustainability/CSR (including a significant difference in the motivations and return expected from a company who conduct these activities). If you’d like to talk to Sensis about a cause-related marketing idea (this would be a decision for our marketing teams and I can forward this on) or a community partnership with your charity (which would be a sustainability initiative and sits in my area) then feel free to contact me at sustainability@sensis.com.au (I will contact you directly to discuss) or my direct line (03) 8653 7030. Cheers, Jill (GM, Sustainability, Sensis)
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@ Im from DDB and I like it.
I wouldn’t be on here bragging that you have been given a pair of these wonderful socks, when they are supposedly distributed to the homeless.
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“Look, I’m an account exec at DDB and I have to say I honestly like it.
I even got a pair of the socks myself.
If you don’t like it, I may suggest you try the socks?”
Am I missing something or are those socks supposed to be donated to Mission Aus? Not handed out to employees, who presumably can afford socks?
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Gee I wonder where they got this idea from? Wasn’t there a Gumpy movie about a guy running across the world’s Forrests or something some years ago? I notice the guy is wearing a ‘Champion’ top – seems to be the most popular brand with the homeless.
Maybe a decent cash donation to Black Dog or Beyond Blue could do a little more than another pair of Chinese socks for those amongst us who suffer mental disease which is a primary killer in today’s society. But then when it comes to ad campaigns ‘people benefit’ is not of primary concern unless the ‘people’ are on the payrole of the relevant companies.
Shame Telstra – shows how out of touch and cold you really are and how dumb you think we all are.
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DDB what were you thinking?? The sock puppet is great for branding, but I think you missed the point on the product (socks for the homeless??? wtf!!).
Would have been more charitable for you highly paid ad wankers (technical term) and Sensis brand/marketing execs to have donated all the money that has just been wasted on a bad and terribly executed concept.
Or set up clothing and food drives for charities like Red Cross and St Vinnies using 1234 and Sensis products to drive appeal and traffic – similar to the free pizza campaign that all the comfortable consumers with homes got from Yellow Pages. Just a thought but probably more than what came out of the DDB brainstorming session.
The answer’s homeless seek? Not socks.
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@ Im from DDB and I like it;
JUST LOVE HOW PROUD YOU ARE AT STEALING A HOMELESS PERSON’S SOCKS! There’s a cause we can all get behind! Socks for account execs at DDB! If they put one on each hand it would lower the amount of garbage being typed on this thread!
I say keep yer socks DDB,
maybe, as the saying goes, you could put one in it.
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JUST LOVE HOW PROUD YOU ARE AT STEALING A HOMELESS PERSON’S SOCKS! There’s a cause we can all get behind! Socks for account execs at DDB! If they put one on each hand it would lower the amount of garbage being typed on this thread!
I say keep yer socks DDB,
maybe, as the saying goes, you could put one in it.
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I think you all need to pull your collective socks up and if all the correspondents put in twenty dollars each for any one of the terrific charities that help the homeless every night and day you’d have done some REALgood.
I’ll put in twenty. Who’s in?
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Excellent idea. I’m in for $20 – how do we do this? I wonder if the agency can find some coins down the back of the lounge too.
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We could donate via Mumbrella if they’re happy to do it. What do you think Tim?
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I make ads and have worked in the city with the homeless. Didn’t like the smarmy ad-kid interviewer with his leading questions. Didn’t like the idea much and didn’t like the link to the Facebook page. But that’s all about taste. Socks wouldn’t be such a bad thing but seeing that Sensis and Telstra are in the phone biz, how about free or massively discounted mobile phone calls to all of Mission Australia’s clients. That would really help. A homeless person’s phone and its number is their only permanent link to the rest of us. They have to use it everyday more than I do. And try tracking down a homeless person if they’ve left soemthing behind when their bill isn’t paid. There was an art exhibition last year at the City Library with work by homeless dedicated to the importance of their phones. And when you do give them free phones, don’t tell anyone. Do it because it’s right.
Oh but please don’t bash on Mission Australia. They’re still the goodies in all of this.
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Please watch this… Does my amateur video move you more than DDB’s professional promotion?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRduoTlDgbE
I have no product or service to sell. Yet I also care about the issues of homelessness. So I ate with the homeless, walked the streets as a homeless man and slept ‘really’ rough.
So what if a different division of Telstra got behind the issue of homelessness with a CONSUMER generated buzzworthy campaign that involved customers and potential customers? This could be mobile and / or web based to really generate more awareness of and funds for Mission Australia.
I applaud Sensis and DDB for the idea. Yet once again the response in this thread shows that attempting to leverage Web 2.0 for ‘awareness advertising’ is fraught with danger.
Lastly, homeless people DO higher a higher reliance on mobile phones as they have no homes for landlines. So what if there was a mobile recycling program that gave the homeless free mobile phones (with a large free cap) or phone cards?
That might win some share of heartspace
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Jonathon… that was powerful!
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Tim Burrowes, and fellow burrowers, it’s so easy for you to criticise, yet so hard to encourage. Keep up the good work Sensis. If they did nothing for the homeless, I bet you they would of escaped your negativity. It’s not easy being green Mr Sock
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For those of you who are about to go do your tax – and you’ll be asked what charities you’ve donated to, take some of your tax return and reinvest it in a good cause – Mission Australia.
(Donate online below here) = http://www.missionaustralia.com.au/
I work at DDB (albeit overseas), and I did work on Sensis some years ago. I was also very lucky to work with Sacred Heart Mission in St Kilda – an eye-opening and moving experience.
To be frank, whether I “like” the campaign or not, is not important.
I’m more excited that this dialogue may have raised your awareness of the needy – please think about it – any donation helps.
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I think you guys are flinging too much shit over what is a pretty decently implemented issue-raising ad. I read the comments first, and I was expecting far worse than what I saw.
Granted, they could have talked about more important things than socks, or at least have been more subtle about it, but it gets the issue of homelessness another airing. It was tastefully done, there was no Sensis logo at all in the ad. If I saw this on it’s own I would never have thought that Sensis had any involvement at all. It made me think of Mission Australia, and that was it.
You give Sensis far too much credit if you think their ‘mascot’ is that memorable. Sensis have a very long way to go before they establish an association with the general category of ‘socks’.
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Sensis is doomed. DOOMED.
It’s a dinosaur that’s lumbered into a tar pit, it thrashes and groans and wiggles around spraying everything and everyone with sticky black tar in its futile struggle.
Poor dinosaur. All it was doing was running for its life, fleeing the huge Google impact crater, trying to find green fields to graze.
But there are no green fields. It’s all ash and barren and hostile. Small fluffy mammals with razor sharp teeth and no pity are now everywhere.
Carrion birds circle (I could be wrong about this, I think birds may not have evolved until later, but you know what I mean).
And the tar burns and stains everything it touches. And everyone is getting it sprayed all over them. It won’t wash off. It’s like Lady Macbeth’s bad dream.
It’s huge, but it’s dying and horrible to watch. People pretend it’s not happening. So they talk about the weather, or some video or social media strategy, or ethics. But the dinosaur is still sinking.
Sinking and bellowing.
If I was in charge of Sensis I’d be shit scared. Their core businesses are becoming irrelevant. You can’t save it. It’s screwed. No wonder they are trying this. I would. If I was that dinosaur I’d be trying everything.
No…. I am more vengeful than that. I’d try to take them all with me. But that’s just me.
I don’t work in advertising. But even I can see this. Why aren’t you talking about the real problem with Sensis? You know the part about it being DOOMED, like the Lusitania was doomed, like Fran Drescher’s career and the films of Woody Allen. What is it with you people? Don’t get me wrong, I love you people. I do. I even love Woody Allen (albeit for the wrong reasons) I love you very much. You are fun, you buy the drinks, you know understand the waiter, you flatter me and make nice small talk and drive me home and are still sweet when I don’t invite you up for coffee. It’s thoughtful. I love you.
Where was I… oh yeah….
Look, over there, THERE IS A DINOSAUR IN THE ROOM, haven’t you noticed? Look. I’m pointing to it right now; it’s over there.
X
Love Lavinia.
(‘Fortune, on his damned quarrel smiling, Showed like a rebel’s whore’ – it’s a quote, from Macbeth, cool huh, literary aren’t I?)
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really? your site is called “filthy tranny whore” ? I just read that entire comment and i’m STILL not sure of the point you are trying to make. trying a little too hard, methinks?
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Two points here of interest I think.
Firstly there is no other site in Australia that promotes this level of debate. And that’s a brilliant thing. Sure there are some pretty unsmart things said on here, but I wouldn’t knock Tim for it. I would say that nowhere, the broadsheets, the abc and certainly not badnews nor bands, is there this level of informed criticism and debate. So let’s lay off Tim a bit. We are a lot lot better with the quality of mumbrella than without it.
The second point is the conflict between corporate and social goals. I think we all walk especially those of us with shareholders. At what point can you really draw the line between leaving a positive, responsible corporate legacy and making money? Like the old adage about trees falling in the forest when there’s nobody watching, do csr programmes for major corporations really fulfil their objectives if there’s nobody watching?
For what it’s worth I think it’s a bit of a moot point, because if we don’t corporately contribute – genuinely selflessly without the hope for pr – I think the future well of goodwill and positive consumer sentiment will dry, and we’ll all be overaken by climate and social change.
I think it’s a pretty sobering lesson that only one company listed on the Dow when it started 120 years ago, still exist. If we don’t contribute to our world it chanes around us far quicker than we imagine.
That said I think the major issue with this campaign is the quantum. Lot of fuss about a 6000 buck donation. And it feels a bit small compared to the size of the task being tackled.
But this space is a bit ‘damned if you do, damned if you don’t.’ good on sensis for trying something I say. Even if people don’t like the execution it’s better than nothing.
And isn’t this a worthwhile debate to be having? Good on you Tim. I love mumbrella.
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Apologies for a couple of typos in there. Sent from my jobsphone.
Hope it still makes sensis.
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Hey tim, I’m intrigued why you haven’t targeted the Vicks campaign.
‘Buy Vicks and we will immunize 1 child’
Isn’t that like saying
‘Buy Vicks or a child dies’
Makes this whole debate about clicking like for a pair of socks seem pretty small in comparison.
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If they wanted to help the homeless, they could give them homes.
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This video was produced souly for Awards. All young creatives want to win awards, to progress in the vile industry, and just make it, before the next young thing comes along. It was produced purely for cudos, and has nothing to do with the homeless.
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Oh Tim, I think you might be right about the strategy meeting! LOL
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12,340 pairs of socks is a pathatic contirbution what ever they cost from a business the size of Sensis. In February “Sensis announced a solid first half year result for the 2009/2010 financial year, with EBITDA up 4.8% to $488m on a flat revenue of $974m”.
Where is even $12,340 (at a dollar a pair) versus $488 Million for half the year! Hey how about a real act of social conscience how about a real donation of $1.234m to schizophrenia research (see attached website, just in case you can’t find it!). Your use of someone suffering from schizophrenia to add to your already profit while making such a pitiful donation is pathetic.
At the moment I am sure you spent more on the the ad than the contribution to the homeless. Shame on both you and your advertising partner for such a cheap sham! Do the right thing and make a more appropriate donation (no strings attached). And forget about suggesting your customer make the donation on your behalf, none of them made anywhere near the profit you made in the last 6 months!
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