Marketers wield incredible power. With strategy, data, and technology, we create programs that influence people, shape opinions, change behaviors, and drive business outcomes. At Kepler, we leverage these skills to support some of the world’s leading brands. Increasingly, we’re also applying our expertise to impact non-profit initiatives on a pro-bono basis.
McKinsey describes data activation and personalization as “the heartbeat of modern marketing,” but using data to better understand, find, and persuade your target audience is complicated. Many non-profits don’t have the time, budget, industry partnerships, or expertise to create sophisticated, data-driven marketing plans on their own.
Every business should give back, and we believe marketing firms have an outsized opportunity to advance altruistic causes. Our recent partnership with IDEO.org shows how this is possible.
Certainly, nonprofits can use digital marketing to raise awareness for their mission and drum up donations but, with global penetration of connected devices and social media networks, they can also use data-driven marketing to reach at-risk populations and drive tangible, on the ground impact.
This is where Kepler is now focusing its efforts, and it’s profoundly fulfilling to apply our team’s talent, tools and experience to help organizations that do not typically get the benefits of digital marketing — and that have profound impact on the world around us.
For example, we recently partnered with IDEO.org, a nonprofit design studio, to activate a social movement around HIV self-testing for high-risk Kenyan men and their partners. IDEO.org began the project by conducting in-depth cultural research, speaking directly to young men in Kenya to understand their feelings and fears about HIV and seeking care. They discovered that although men were concerned with privacy and confidentiality, they were willing to talk openly about testing with their closest friends, explained Jocelyn Wyatt, IDEO.org’s CEO.
Based on these findings, IDEO.org built a peer-to-peer network model that included training local young men to be peer ambassadors so they could physically hand out coupons for free testing kits available at local pharmacies. But, with Kepler, the design team saw an opportunity to amplify the peer-to-peer delivery model with digital marketing and reach a wider audience.
“…an incredibly positive way for our team to apply their skills for a greater good.”
Using the same tactics we deploy to support our for-profit clients, Kepler’s Altruism Team developed a data-driven marketing campaign for the HIV self-testing program. It A/B tested creative to find the most effective messaging, and analyzed digital channels to determine the best targeting strategies. As a result, the Kepler-managed Facebook campaign allowed IDEO.org to reach people they may not have reached in-person, and to drive them to contact a hotline to receive their code for a free test.
As Michael Kania, our Altruism chair put it: “If our efforts saved, or even positively influenced, just one life, the collaboration was well worth it. It’s an incredibly positive way for our team to apply their skills for a greater good.”
And as Jocelyn put it: “IDEO.org’s work is really about leveraging other disciplines, like marketing, to shift behavior in a way that is beneficial for communities. Now, partnered with Kepler, we can apply this approach for countless causes around the world.”
We couldn’t be more excited.