More Movement, Not A Movement.
I showed up at the Rochester Causewave annual fundraising event in October and only a few minutes into the very inspiring opening to the night I felt like I was standing there with egg on my face. Here I was trying to start a conversation on how to unite the forces of marketing to create more impact against the most challenging social issues and I hadn’t yet sat down with the team of Causewave–an organization working tirelessly to do just that.
Some serious negative self-talk and chastising lit up my inner monologue. “What kind of dummy tries to create movement through marketing and doesn’t involve this team from the get-go?”
Rochester, New York, is incredibly lucky to have an organization like Causewave. They’ve moved on from their former name, The Advertising Council of Rochester, because they do much more than marketing. They’ve become a strategic resource and guide to organizations and efforts that need to get a message out for the greater good of people, communities and planet. They operate lean–but mighty.
Immersed in the stories of impact and success through Causewave that night, even I looked at what I was doing with my industry-wide discussion on More Movement With Marketing and got confused… “Don’t try to replicate great efforts that are already out there.” Something I’ve thought and heard many times as I’ve shared thinking around this effort.
But as the night went on, I was re-grounded in why More Movement with Marketing is needed…
Entities like Causewave, existing movements for the greater good, social impact marketing groups, they’re doing the work. But they all lack the resources to get their message out at even a fraction of the size and scale afforded to big brand advertising.
As one woman said to me in a conversation following the event, “We scrounged together $45,000 for the year to make that campaign happen…” promoting sustainability in fleet vehicle operations. “There’s so much money over there [in brand advertising] when we have *this [small amount].”
What got me all fired up when I started Meshin Movement was the belief that marketing can do more to be more purposeful. The industry talk track is there, and in some cases there is follow through. But the gap between the level of follow through on purpose and giving back to the greater good versus the magnitude of resources spent on pure capitalistic gains is sizable, to say the least.
This idea for More Movement With Marketing is not about creating a new movement to compete with all the other great efforts out there. It’s about spurring more movement for the messages they’re trying to spread. It’s about igniting the participation of brands and agencies to engage in deeper and more meaningful ways, with heart, talent and budgets. It’s about highlighting a clear opportunity and mechanism to follow through on the big talk of brands standing for purpose. And it’s about giving an opportunity for brands to support a purposeful message authentically.
It’s about more movement, not a movement.
