May 1, 2006

BBMG Launches $100,000 Cause Marketing Grant

BBMG of New York is joining forces with a prestigious team of communications partners to bring the BBMG It's How We LiveSM Grant campaign to life, including Global Strategy Group (research), Medialink (broadcast/broadband media services), Network for Good (online donations, email and database management), Peppercom (PR), Quality Letter Service (printing and direct marketing), Slam! Media Group (audio/video production) and U.S. Newswire (newswire distribution).

"We believe that actions speak louder than words and smart cause marketing can improve a company's bottom line while inspiring people to promote social change," says Raphael Bemporad, principal and co-founder of Bemporad Baranowski Marketing Group (BBMG), a New York-based branding agency dedicated to nonprofits and socially responsible businesses. "When we align our values with our actions, great things can happen."

The BBMG It's How We Live Grant comes at a time when cause marketing in the United States is reaching record levels. According to IEG, a Chicago-based market research firm, U.S. companies will spend $1.3 billion on cause marketing initiatives in 2006, up 20 percent from 2005. Consumers are also responding to cause-centered campaigns. Eight in 10 Americans say that corporate support of causes wins their trust, and 86 percent say they are likely to switch to brands associated with good causes, if products are the same price and quality, according to the Cone Corporate Citizenship Study (2004).