Walkathon Maven

What happens when your walkathon becomes so popular that it requires that the streets along your route to be closed for several MORE hours – limiting access to the residents that live there?   What happens if a neighborhood association along your route gets together and denies your event access?

This article in the Boston Business Journal shares that many popular road races in New England have been cancelled. Not because of logistical or monetary issues – but because the neighbors along the event route do not want the added disruption.    Many half, and full marathons can shut down street access anywhere from 3 to 12 hours.

I live near the Boston Marathon route, and know that there is NO WAY that I will be getting across Rt. 135 during the hours of 10am to 4pm on the third Monday every April. The po-po has it shut down and there are barricades in many places.  Depending on the side of the street they are located, many businesses along the marathon route know that they will either have a lucrative Monday or some simply do not bother and stay closed for the day.

Most walkathons are either 5K or 5 miles, and only require a 90 minute to 4 hour shutdown of some streets – if necessary.  Ideally, your event is making all right turns, which will minimize the traffic and residential disruption. If your walk route needs to be in a residential area, then you are hopefully placing flyers in the mailboxes of those affected to let them know the date/time and invite them to participate.

Perhaps your walk is on private property, or a state/city park and you only need to make nice-nice with the pavement or wildlife!

If you have more than 7,500 walkers, you will probably have a rolling start. Rolling starts allow participants to begin their walk anytime within a designated window. Rolling starts will reduce the large walking blob that spills into streets and require a shutdown.

I have not even touched upon the participant parking!  When you have more walkers, you will need more places for the participants and volunteers to park their cars during the event.  Will you bus them in?  That’s an expense.  Additional vehicles on residential streets will add to the irritation to the neighbors that live there.

How about this option?

Bottom line – if your route is in a residential area, think about the implications and inconvenience to the neighbors and try to keep your disruption to a minimum.  If you become too much of a nuisance, they may organize to shut you down.

‘Tis the season for many things inside and outside.  When we take the family to outside holiday events, one the of the first questions that my Princess daughter asks is “will there be bathrooms outside?”  I smile to myself that she is starting to think like me, and I also wonder that myself.

I came upon an article posted on the United Services website about potty-planning for outside events this winter.  United is a large potty company and they have a blog!  I wish they had a fun name like many other potty companies – but since they offer other services maybe they should keep it simple and boring.  Pfftttht.

From their site:

One of the most often overlooked aspects of event planning is assessing your portable sanitation needs well in advance of your event.   Can I get an AMEN?!

Here are some fun “who knew?!!” items from the article:

They use a special anti-freeze blend to keep the ‘solution’ from freezing in the potty.

They have a potty calculator to help you determine how many you need for your event. (I like that they ask if alcohol will be served as part of the calculation!)

Alcohol-based hand sanitizers are preferred over sinks so the water will not freeze.

See more at:  http://unitedsiteservices.com/blog/winter-event-planning-portable-toilet-rentals

We had some logistical excitement in my ‘hood this past week! Vince Vaughn is filming The Business Trip at a local house, and you know I had to be the nosy neighbor to check it out!

Be a logistics luva, I was intrigued by the amount of signage that was posted to direct the cast, crew, catering, etc… to the appropriate site.  Take a lookie at the signage that they had posted at most street signs around the area:

I like that the signs can be turned in the appropriate direction to direct the peeps, and I especially like the use of electrical ties (or as I like to call them – concert cuffs) to attach them to poles.

It appears that they used coroplast for the signs, and paid a lot extra to have the grommets put in the middle to accommodate the cable ties. Since I never had a Hollywood budget to work with, I always cut my own holes to feed the cable ties through.

See the sign that said Base Camp?  I wondered where it was so I followed the signs to a conference facility close by.  That is where they had all the cars, trailers, equipment vans and catering tents situated.  I think the production company is lucky to have this acreage so close to the residential shoot location.

Since I’m a WalkathonMaven, I want to make sure you have a similar Base Camp on your event radar.  Think about if your equipment vehicles will fit on-site or close-by.  Also, you need to think about where your staff is going to park their own cars.

There are still 5 tractor trailers parked on the residential street outside the home, and another 6 parked at the Base Camp. I’m guessing that the fancy trailers are for the stars.  I tried to get close enough for a photo but was asked to turn around. Hmph. This is some logistical production!  It amazes me that so many trucks and other vehicles are needed for a location shoot.

I look forward to finding out how much of the movie is actually going to take place at this location. They were also shooting at a local elementary school cafeteria.  Kids needed to eat lunch in their homerooms that day.

My kids want to stalk the location because they think the producers will ‘discover’ them and be magically recruited to be in the movie.  My son wanted to check out the food service trailer on-site to make sure they are fed well enough that he may consider acting as a career.

I’ll post more photos if I can, but I think they have a police detail assigned to keep me, my car and kids at a distance ; )

Pinktober is coming to an end, but the pink marketing machines are still rolling.

In my Sunday paper, I noticed that Proctor and Gamble included their multi-page pink coupon insert. It appears that P&G partnered with the National Breast Cancer Foundation.

I visited the P&G and NBCF websites, and found no information about any monetary donations.  This smells like a pink promotion opportunity. One of the items is a pink Swiffer sweeper.  Walmart is probably the largest customer of P&G products, and they have store displays of the pink Swiffer accompanied with a Walmart employee that is a breast cancer survivor.  On these displays is the website Cleaning for a Reason.    According to their website “Breast Cancer Awareness Month creates a natural opportunity for Cleaning for a Reason to raise awareness of their mission to ease the burden of household chores for women.”

Allotta money was spent on the production of these coupon inserts and store displays.  I’m sad to see that there is no monetary donation included in this. Especially since this pink promotion involves Walmart and P&G – two gigantic companies.

Yoplait yogurt is once again running their lid promotion to benefit Komen.   Apparently, you can save your lids to save lives. Who knew? Peel-off your spoogy-yogurt-covered lid and place it into an envelope for mailing.  Some poor intern has to open these envelopes and count these lids.  While I doubt this actually happens, I hope that this poor intern is wearing rubber gloves.

According to their website: General Mills will donate 10 cents to Susan G. Komen^® for each lid received (and also for each code entered from select Yoplait products) by 6/30/14. Maximum total donation of up to $1,500,000

The NPQ had a good article titled The Economics of Pinkwashing at the NFL: Straw on the Camel’s Back?    This was an enlightening read about how much money is actually given to the American Cancer Society from all of the pink NFL merchandise.  “for every $100 spent on the pink stuff sold through the NFL’s breast cancer initiative, the American Cancer Society only receives $11.25″   Boooooo. Shame.

I visited the Charity Navigator website.  There are 27 organizations that are registered with Breast Cancer in their name or mission.  Of these 27, Eleven are ranked highest at 4 star and four are ranked as a zero star.  Too many organization are using pink to raise money.  It is my pleasure to call them out.

Here is what a breast cancer survivor thinks about pinkwashing.

BTW – November is Diabetes Awareness month.  I wonder what color is associated with that?

How do you measure the success of your walkathon?

This article in CIT magazine made me start to thinking about how we measure the success of our events.

Traditionally, most walks measure their success on the numbers:

– Number of walkers

– Number of teams

– Number of donated dollars

As an event manager, I see success measured by different elements:

– Setup and breakdown without incident

– The number of complaint emails I receive after the event

– The amount of eye-contact I receive from senior management the day-after

– The number walker incidents I need to follow-up on

– Rental vehicles making it back without an insurance claim

– The speed at which I can evict the guerilla-marketers from the event site

– Expenses under 20%

You may have some staff colleagues that measure success differently.

Communications staff may measure success with the number of mentions on Twitter, or likes on the event Facebook page, or news outlets that show up at the event.

Mission staff may measure success with the number of volunteers they have recruited.  Measuring awareness of a mission is a hard one, but I would think that any new walker or donor to the walk would be counted.

Advocacy staff may measure the number of signatures they receive for a petition.

Finance may measure the size of the deposit or the time it takes to close-out the event.

HR may measure the number of complaints they get from staff for having to work on a weekend.

Here is how Bill and Melinda Gates measure success.

This article at CNN Money, mentions to measure success by relationships, not money.  I like this because you need to bring these relationships into your organization and move them up your development pyramid.

The more I read on this – the more I see that everyone has their opinion on what a successful event really is, and how they like to measure it.

It is barely October, and the Pink Promotions are in full swing.  Many of you already know that my major pet-peeve is when companies use the pink ribbon to market their items, and give a small amount to a breast cancer cause.  I am convinced that they spend more on the marketing and pink packaging than they do on the donation.   I’m waiting to be proven wrong.  (yawn)

Here is a few that I have come upon this week:

Delta Airlines is having a competition for their “pics for a cure” campaign to encourage Facebook folks to upload their fave pink-spirited photos.  Winners are decided by the number of votes and they will get a $20K donation to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation in their name. If the winner gets more that 20,000 votes, then Delta will donate $40K to the BCRF.

Lane Bryant is selling pink ribbon apparel, with 10% of the sales going to the American Cancer Society.  According to their website, they hope to raise $700K for ACS.  I like how they rolled-in the texting option for an instant donation.

Here is an Energizer promotion I found in my Sunday paper.  Who knew that buying batteries could help fight breast cancer?  That little Energizer bunny is very busy. That pink bunny has a website to let consumers know that they have given $3 million to Susan G Komen since 2005, including $150,000 in 2013.

And here is the BIG BOOB award for their shameless self promotion using breast cancer to raise money:

Work Out World ad

Work Out World is running commercials indicating that they will donate $1 per new member to breast cancer awareness.  I visited their website and no recipient is noted.    Pfttttttthhhht.

Finally, here is a great article in The Chronicle of Philanthropy about how consumers that buy charity-related product want results.  Interesting that they noted that 54% of consumers bought a charity-related product last year. 

Good luck to my pals this weekend in Boston for the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk!

sugar with a purpose

Breast Cancer Awareness Month officially starts tomorrow, October 1.   This means that World Alzheimer’s month (September) is coming to an end.  Goodbye to the purple sprinkle donuts I would see at my local Dunkin Donuts.

According to the Alzheimer’s  website: “At least 32% of the purchase price from a single or  dozen Purple With A Purpose donuts will be donated to The DDBRCF to benefit the  Alzheimer’s Association.”  I saw that DDBRCF stands for Dunkin Donut Baskin-Robbins Community Foundation. I had no idea that the donut and ice cream folks were married!  Who knew? I hope they have a good dental plan there!

Here are some Pink Promotions I found in my local Bed, Bath and Beyond:

This bottom photo is of the back of a Pink Piggy calendar. Nothing says Breast Cancer Awareness to me more than a pink piggy calendar.  Oy.  Sales of this pink schlock will go toward the $30,000 donation the printer makes to Susan G Komen for the Cure.

I found an additional pink display of quilts, with proceeds going to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.

Morgan Home, the manufacturer of these quilts, is giving $1.00 per quilt – with a maximum of $10,000 to the BCRF.

I commend both of these manufacturers for indicating exactly how much they will be donating to their chosen breast cancer charity.  I would still love to know if the cost of the pink packaging was more than the actual donation.

Things that make you go Hmmm.

Hello September!

Breast Cancer Awareness Month is next month, October, and the shameless-self-promoters of pink have been at it since August. I think they drink the same marketing punch as the Halloween (August rollout) and Christmas (October rollout) folks.

Here’s the latest Pu-Pu platter of pink marketing items that I have come upon during my shopping travels:

Staples display

This is interesting, since Staples has their HQ in Framingham, Massachusetts – yet they are raising $75,000 with these pink pen sales for a hospital in Southern California.   I understand the Staples Center is in LA, maybe there is a tie-in there.

Here is a pink mailer I got from BJs:

BJs is supporting the National Breast Cancer Foundation, and has even created a website describing their Power of Pink promotion. According to their website: “Since its inception in 2005, the BJ’s Charitable Foundation has provided over $17 million in grants to more than 2,000 non profit organizations that provide basic needs to individuals in our communities. This includes over $2.3 million dollars in support of breast cancer research.”

BJs is headquartered in Westborough, Massachusetts and the NBCF has their HQ in Frisco, Texas.   I wonder how they got together.

pick it up!

Great article today in the Wall Street Journal about how we need to get off the computer and pick up the phone if we want to communicate with someone.

So true!  I tell my clients that relationships with constituents – whether they are a walker, team leader or a corporate sponsorship decision-maker, need to be started with a conversation. Ideally a face-to-face is best, but a phone call is a sometimes necessary second.

I’ll continue to preach this until someone tells me that they were able to close a five-figure event sponsorship or a major gift with an email.

If you were a fan of the movie “Flashdance” (I saw this 7 times!) then you may recall how Pittsburgh welder/exotic dancer Alex Owens (played by a terrific Jennifer Beals) was distraught over her relationship status with her boss Nick Hurley (played by foxy Michael Nouri).

Alex was being annoyingly needy while talking to her co-workers about the situation and a patient woman that happen to be sharing the space with them became irate and yelled “just pick up the phone and call the dude!”

Again. So True!  One needs to remember that this movie was released in 1983 and cell phones/texting was not yet invented. However, the old-school-rule still applies when it comes to relationships – personal or business.  You gotta talk to make “The Ask”.

what a feeling!

It is August, and I’ve already come upon some pink marketing for breast cancer awareness month.  This was in a BJs store in my hometown.

I like how they have mentioned the actual amount to be given to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.  I checked out the West Coast Novelty group website and it appears that they license many apparel products.  In 2012, they gave $100,000 to BCRF with their Support the Cure promotion.

Let’s hope that other shameless self promoters of pink will disclose how much they will actually give to the cause they make money off of!