Liz Strauss at Successful Blog

Thinking, writing, business ideas … You’re only a stranger once.

May 30, 2010

A Dozen $100,000 Brand Ideas for Celebrating Our Heroes Through Social Media

ME Liz Strauss wrote this at 9:25 am

poppy

I’ve been reading about the history of Memorial Day, before it became about blow-out sales and backyard bar-b-ques.

And the words I’ve found take me back to when my mom still called it “Decoration Day.” She’d buy a paper poppy from the man at the VFW to put in the button hole of my coat. Then she’d take me with her to put flowers on the graves of those we love who lay sleeping while we could still stand, reflect, kneel to say, “thank you.”

Memorial Day is about gratitude, reconciliation, and honoring heroes who paid the ultimate price. They gave and we got.

Rebranding Memorial Day

In his series for Fast Company, Steve McCallion says:

So far we’ve explored how Memorial Day lost its meaning, but how can we get it back? How can we remember Memorial Day in a way that is authentic and relevant today? In this era of instant gratification, can we come together as a nation to recognize the sacrifices that have been made for our freedoms?

memorial-day-branding-fast_company

Click through on the image for his marvelous ideas on how to rebrand to remind us what Memorial Day means.

A Dozen $100,000 Brand Ideas for Celebrating Our Heroes Through Social Media

Social media is about honoring our heroes and connecting people, isn’t it? If anyone knows how to do that we do … big companies, little companies, individuals don’t need to do much to put the celebrating and gratitude back into remembering those who sacrificed for our freedom.

Here are a few ideas …

  1. Apple might sell a limited yellow version of the iPhone — or simply choose any yellow iPod product — to donate a portion of sales to hire a social media team to help the White House Commission on Remembrance or The Memorial Day Foundation get their message out next year.
  2. 3M might build a Post-it Note Quote Community by inviting friends and families to publish quotes of their fallen heroes.
    My son would always smile and say, “There’s lots of apple pies, but I’ve only got one mother.”

  3. Berskshire Hathaway might find a volunteer team of social media mavens among their thousands of employees. If that team put out a penny-match challenge, I bet they could pitch a penny campaign that would travel across Twitter and fire through Facebook. Perhaps the collected money go toward health insurance or college scholarships for children of fallen soldiers.
  4. Johnson & Johnson already has communities of nurses and caregivers. They could send out a call via their site, Twitter, and Facebook. They could connect with nurses and caregivers who have shared the final hours with fallen soldiers. Imagine the wealth of history in those stories. If they partnered with the VFW or the Military Channel, that content could make an incredible interview series.
  5. Kodak or Polaroid could build a YouTube channel or a flickr collection for customers and employees to retell the stories of fallen soldiers. With the help of Scholastic, they package them as primary source materials with lesson plans for teachers to share with kids studying history. Teachers could upload comments, videos, and new ideas to add to the community.
  6. Kraft Foods or ConAgra could build the recipe book of heroes. How hard would be to use social media to ask the families of fallen soldiers to share the favorite recipes of loved ones who served our country? Imagine if the Food Channel cooked each recipe and shared the videos on YouTube?
  7. Hallmark Cards or American Greetings could invite the families of fallen soldiers to share cards they received from our heroes and tell the stories behind the cards. Suppose they tweeted a new free Hero ECard for a year?
  8. Starbucks or Panera Bread might print the pictures and a simple memorial statement on the cups that hold their coffee and tea. Folks could Tweet and Facebook their nominations.
  9. Lands End or L.L.Bean could offer a yellow ribbon discount to honor fallen soldiers. Instead of a promo code they might ask for 140 characters in tribute to our heroes. The promo codes could forward to Twitter, FriendFeed, and Facebook.
  10. Sony Music or Universal might put together a collection of songs for heroes by celebrity artists and donate the proceeds to HireHeroes. The songs could be on blip.fm and tweeted. We could DJ a Friday night hero Twitter party.
  11. Netflix could partner with the major studios to sponsor a $1 day of movies and documentaries about our heroes. Ambassadors from families could help chose the appropriate titles and be featured as recommending them. MailOurMilitary.com and milblogging.com might help promote a cause like this one. Netflix might challenge corporations and foundations to add matching funds to support grants to families of fallen heroes.
  12. Southwest Airlines, Marriott, and CNN might partner to offer veterans incredible deals to gather together in D.C. on Memorial Day 2011 to share the stories of fallen heroes.

What would the companies and brands get? They’d get the respect and loyalty of employees and customers who honor our heroes. People remember generosity that connects them to authentic, relevant meaning.

Any nation that does not honor its heroes will not long endure. - Abraham Lincoln

Isn’t that also true of our businesses?

I know you probably see a thousand ways to expand on each of these ideas — ways that each could be tweaked or twisted to fit another business. Take ‘em and use ‘em. I’d love to hear how you might re-invent an idea or what new ideas came to mind while you were reading.

How will you remember our heroes?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
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8 Comments to “A Dozen $100,000 Brand Ideas for Celebrating Our Heroes Through Social Media”

  1. May 30th, 2010 at 10:27 am
    Robin ~ PENSIEVE said

    Liz,

    Inspiring, convicting, but ultimately my hope/wish is that this might be MOTIVATING! All are grand ideas, any one of them executed would be noble and meaningful and worthy.

    I know all too often for me and my family, it’s just a reason to celebrate life with family and friends; without giving due regard to those who “gave” so I could “have”.

    Thanks for reminding me what I already know but all too easily forget.

    Oh, and for reminding me how much I **like** the way you think, you SOB ;).

    Have we met?

    :)

  2. May 30th, 2010 at 10:45 am
    Sara at Saving For Someday said

    Ms. Strauss,

    Genius, pure genius! I grew up living and breathing the essence of the military. I am extremely respectful of all things and people military related because my grandparents taught me to be so, not just because it was good manners but because each person in the military was doing their job so I could grow up to be a woman who could do anything I wanted.

    I’ve been wondering for years how companies/brands could really ‘do something’ to support our military. We never went to the sales because we’d spend our days prepping the local military cemetery, participating in the parade, selling poppies, etc.

    I’m not a ’social media maven’ but I’m learning from some of the best out there, and I think you’re on to something! I have a friend who runs a US Army hospital unit in the middle of the desert in Afghanistan.

    I scour the internet for deals for the military and their family and share them with her so she can spread them to her 2,000+ soldiers and all the others she’s friends with. Every day I am thankful for what our US Military has done b/c if not for them I may not have the freedom to be a woman freely sending another woman a public message.

    Many brand don’t get involved with overt military support because they fear it could create PR problems with their customers b/c not everyone supports the military. I think that’s a cop out! Every day they do things that may alienate a few of their customers and never stop to think about it.

    Brands often think supporting the military and their families means saying they support everything about the military and the mission. No! Supporting the military means that they recognize that these men and women AND their families make the choice to have a job that means standing up daily to defend our freedom and help instill freedom and order across the globe.

    We’d have a lot of educating to do, but I’d gladly stand with you on this mission! If anyone can mobilize, I know you can.

    Thank you for sharing this insight AND Thank you to all the men and women in the military, past and present, who provided us — Women — the opportunity to connect.

  3. May 30th, 2010 at 11:55 am
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Hi Robin!
    Nice to meet you, every time I do. heh heh

    I put a challenge out to myself … What would I champion if I were to take this holiday and its meaning full on? How would I use social media and a big brand’s power to achieve some connection that would be valuable for everyone?

    I’m lucky that I never lost anyone to war. I try not to forget that. So many have and I received from their sacrifice. :)

  4. May 30th, 2010 at 12:00 pm
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Sara!
    Thank you for all you and your family has done for me and my own family.

    Maybe by showing them that there are ways to reach out that will make them heroes (not advocates), we can get the big companies to understand that as big companies are made of people so is the military. :)
    Your comment is tribute to military families. I think you should post it on your blog. :)

  5. May 30th, 2010 at 7:24 pm
    Connie Reece said

    Liz, thanks for the reminder of those red paper poppies–I had to reach way back in the memory banks for that one. And thanks for this timely post. My sister and I were just talking about how this day used to really mean something to the nation as a whole and how that meaning had been lost. Bound for you to present big ideas that big brands should give serious consideration to. Luv ya, Miz Liz!

  6. May 30th, 2010 at 8:34 pm
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Hi Connie!
    I enjoyed the opportunity to remind myself. Memorial used to be about living a part of history all over again. I sort of miss that connection to our past and our heroes.

    It’s a little late for any brand to pick up an idea from the list, but maybe they’ll find a way to do something for Veteran’s day in this. heh heh

  7. June 1st, 2010 at 8:47 pm
    Cate Colgan said

    As it says right above this Submit Comment Section - C’mon Let’s Talk ….

    I’m always about capturing folks stories via video…..

    “Arm us with video cameras - not guns - We’ll be your “Story Soldiers”

    Meet 13 yr. old Singer/Songwriter/Social Media Influencer Lexxi Saal - singing Thank Youhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_tD9J983z0

    Suicide hotline: be a hero, save a hero http://www.twitvid.com/F2VJF http://bit.ly/aY7sN3<<..talk about PTSD

    Our soldiers are “branded” whether physically/mentally every second of every day….

    I double dare the Big Brands to “walk to the front line” with us!

    God bless our troops….

  8. June 1st, 2010 at 9:56 pm
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Cate,
    What a beautiful, passionate comment! Thank you for taking me up on the invitation to “C’mon let’s talk!”
    We’re learning how to talk our talk in the best way, yeah we are! :)

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