Image via VisionMobile.com

Having just moved from one city to another—and then another—and landing in Fort Wayne, Ind., I have spent a great deal of time thinking and explaining what is important about where you hang your hat. There are several things that can draw people from place to place. George Straight makes a very strategic decision for New Orleans in this song. But after much consideration I wanted to share with you my top 5 when choosing where to settle—at least for now.

1. People. You know how LA-folks are sort of known for being rude? Well, I have found that around the Midwest, people are for the most part very down-to-earth, honest and genuine to the core. Oh, and also this is number one on my list because wherever you are, if you’re with people you love and can have/make fun with then…you’re home.
2. Community Involvement/Investment. Is your community investing in itself? Working towards improvement? Are there ample opportunities to get involved, lend a hand & give back? The answer should be a resounding yes. In Fort Wayne, it certainly is.
3. Accessibility. Wherever you are, you want to be able to travel and see other places. Nothing fun about being in one place all the time. What’s around you? Can you get there for a weekend get-a-way?
4. Weather. For some this may mean the unchanging 60-degree weather, and for a while that’s what it meant to me. But I eventually got homesick for the winter white experience, and bug-infested scorcher of a summer. (Yes, you heard me right. Bug bites and all.) Go where you can appreciate and love the climate—or else you’ll spend the majority of the year complaining about temperature. For me, for the time being, that’s right where I am.
5. Affordability. This goes along with number 3. In Fort Wayne, cost of living is low enough that travel is a bit more affordable for me than if I lived in San Diego still. Wherever you live, whatever home or area it may be, don’t strap yourself. Give yourself the room (and cash flow) to get out and about.
6. Water. This is the one I had to give on a little—or a lot. It was extremely tough for me to move away from a coast. Growing up on the cliffs, and having a 5 second walk to the beach most of my life, this is what I get homesick for. However, Fort Wayne has over 100 lakes just north of us and during the warmer months it can be an every weekend destination.

   So… where do you hang your hat? And, why?

• Electronic devices are much more complex and expensive to recycle then print, recover and reuse due to the toxic nature of many of their components, and current systems are still in the early stages.

• The average data center serving our electronic devices consumes the same amount of energy as 25,000 households

• Server farms that power the web have become the fastest growing users of fossil fuel in the world, and the amount of energy they use is doubling every year.

• 70 percent of toxic waste in U.S. landfills comes from e-waste.

• Spam emails sent annually, have the footprint of driving a car around the globe 1.6 million times. (Can you believe that??)

• Swedish researchers found recently that in Europe, reading the news for 30 minutes online produces more CO 2 per year, per reader, than reading a printed newspaper.

So I guess putting that little “please don’t print unless absolutely necessary!” at the bottom of our e-mail signatures isn’t really that noble of us is it?

Let me just start by saying, this is the style and type of marketing that I love.

Jiffy Lube International recently launched into their second year of their first nationwide cause-marketing campaign ever.  As  “Maintenance Partners for Life” they first teamed up in 2008 with the American Heart Association to help educate people on smart preventative medicine and maintenance.

Preventative medicine keeps hearts a healthy, preventative maintenance keeps a car healthy – and safe!

They set financial goals, time lines, picked out dates for events…and to execute the campaign in it’s first year Jiffy Lube teamed up with a communications firm (Cone, Inc. based out of B oston and known for their strategic branding) and did what you should do an any successful marketing campaign. They set some objectives.

1. Bolster Jiffy Lube’s reach to female customers, and attract new customer.

2. Enhance Jiffy Lube’s reputation as a good corporate citizen.

3. Build pride in the Jiffy Lube brand among franchisees.

4. Make a significant impact in the fight against heart disease in the local communities where Jiffy Lube operates.

What I like about this campaign is the immediately recognized their competition.

A. The amount of competition for the awareness of the media.

B. the American Heart Assoc. does a big national “Wear Red” day in February and they couldn’t compete with this event (especially since they had a similar time frame).

The solution was the steer away from national attention to the marketing campaign and be successful on a local level in each market that the plan was implemented.  This means extra special attention must be paid to the specific trends, styles, media atmosphere etc of each individual local Jiffy Lube market. (Jiffy Lube has 2,200 server centers where local media was targeted.) Not a small task. To achieve this the professionals at Cone Inc and Jiffy Lube had the following three tasks, which I’ve broken down for you.

1.  ACTIVATE – Arm franchisees in local markets with easy-to-use tools to activate to  campaign in their communities.

2. ENGAGE - Leverage the Web to spread the word and engage consumers; and.

3. CREDIBILITY – Use AHA’s platform and content to build credibility.

They used these tactics to jump start local awareness and catered each media/activation kit (handed out to each local service center) to help build excitement in each individual community. The team then successfully integrated the program’s key elements into literally all of Jiffy Lube’s marketing communications channels. This means the program was seen on their website in special webpages, an additional call to action on the Jiffy Lube website that encouraged customers to come and give there cars a “health check” at local service centers, an audio news release featuring a spokesperson for the AHA and Go Red Campaign,and special events including awareness days and luncheons.  Guess what?? They also used social media. Facebook, and hosted a personal blog through ning.com

The take away:based on their success here are some best practices for effective cause marketing campaigns that PR News gathered from Jiffy Lube’s great example.

-Create a traffic-driving component as part of your campaign.

-Make it easy to active the campaign locally.

-Support the campaign with media outreach.

-Employees are your most important ambassadors so get them excited (and prepare them!)

-Measure the campaign against the objectives you set out to achieve.

All in all I’d say this is a great of a nationwide cause-marketing campaign that a lot can be learned and taken away from. Good job Jiffy Lube.

“If you’re going to invest in a campaign like this, you have to know if it’s working!” – Marc Berlinger (account director at Cone Inc.)