Gibson’s Music Rising Campaign Recognized with Cause Marketing HALO Award

Press release
Source: Rogers & Cowan

Music Rising, a campaign launched to replace the lost or destroyed instruments of the musicians affected by the Gulf Region hurricanes, received the Gold Cause Marketing Halo Award for Best Transactional Campaign at the fourth annual Cause Marketing Forum conference on Tuesday, June 13th in New York.

The campaign, launched by U2’s The Edge, producer Bob Ezrin, Gibson Guitar Chairman and CEO Henry Juszkiewicz, The Guitar Center Music Foundation and MusiCares has since aided over 1,600 Gulf Region musicians. Gibson Guitar produced 300 exclusively designed Music Rising Gibson guitars which were sold by Guitar Center. The $1 million raised went directly to Music Rising which was facilitated by MusiCares and the Gibson Foundation.

The Cause Marketing Halo Awards demonstrate the good that can be done when businesses and nonprofits team up,” said David Hessekiel, president of Cause Marketing Forum, Inc., the program’s organizer. “It’s a competition in which we all win.” Cause marketing is the strategy of building mutually beneficial alliances between companies and causes.

“In 1990 cause marketing spending was a bit more than $100 million – this year it is forecast to top $1.3 billion,” said Hessekiel. CMFI produces an annual conference, workshops, teleclasses and causemarketingforum.com, a website offering free resources to businesses and nonprofits interested in developing such programs.

“Music Rising was an initiative formed by passionate inaugural partners in the music industry and the desire to help people in need,” said Henry Juszkiewicz, Chairman and CEO of Gibson Guitar. “To date we have helped many people regain their livelihood and our goal is to continue to help many more. The music of the Gulf Region can once again be heard throughout the world and capture the essence of one of the countries richest traditions.”

The Cause Marketing Forum also announced that The Home Depot and KaBOOM! each received Cause Marketing Golden Halo Awards for their leadership in this fast-growing field.

Sixteen category-specific awards were given to 2005 campaigns. The winners were:

Best Environmental/Wildlife Campaign:
Gold: “Iams Home For the Holidays”, Iams Pet Food & Helen Woodward Animal Center
Silver: “AT&T’s My SBC eBill Paperless Program”, AT&T & National Arbor Day Foundation

Best Health Campaign:
Gold: “Cook for the Cure”, KitchenAid & Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation
Silver: “Luna/Breast Cancer Fund Partnership”, Clif Bar and the Breast Cancer Fund

Best Social Service/Education Campaign:
Gold: “Jones New York In The Classroom”, Jones Apparel Group & 4 education groups
Silver: “Save Our History”, The History Channel & American Assoc. for State & Local History

Best Joint Message Promotion:
Gold: “Change Your Clock, Change Your Battery”, Energizer & Intl. Assoc. of Fire Chiefs
Silver: “Save Our History”, The History Channel & American Assoc. for State & Local History

Best Print Creative:
Gold: “Hear No Evil, See No Evil, Speak No Evil”, ALDO Group & YouthAIDS
Silver: “Jones New York In The Classroom”, Jones Apparel Group & 4 education groups

Best Transactional Campaign:
Gold: “Music Rising”, Gibson Guitar, Guitar Center and MusiCares
Silver: “Cones for Kids”, Easter Seals & Friendly Ice Cream Corporation

Best Cause Marketing Event:
Gold: “Hyundai Hope on Wheels”, Hyundai Motor America and CureSearch
Silver: “The World’s Largest Ice Cream Social”, Cold Stone Creamery & Make-A-Wish Foundation of America

Best National/Local Integration
Gold: “Jones New York In The Classroom”, Jones Apparel Group & 4 education groups
Silver: “Ford Get Tied to the Cure”, Ford Motor Co. & Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation